TEXT:  
  Volume 1 
  (May 5006) 
   
   
   
  
  Table of Contents 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  2 
  Table of Contents 
  Introduction...............................................................................................................................3 
  By Cap’n Jack 
  Imperial Survey: Manitou.......................................................................................................4 
  By Jack Oldham 
  Lost World: Svarog...............................................................................................................25 
  By Jack Oldham 
  Lost World: Leng.................................................................................................................. 44 
  By Jack Oldham 
  Lost World: New Amhara ..................................................................................................68 
  By Chris Hogan 
  Variant Critical Failure and Success Rule.......................................................................104 
  By Casey Standridge 
  Victory Point /Defeat Point System .............................................................................105 
  By Lionel Rudling 
   
   
  Credits 
  Editors/Proofreaders:  
  Clint Cachia, Mareen Goebel, Darren Johnson, Jack Oldham, Lionel Rudling, Kathy 
  Schad, Dennis Watson 
  Banner Design: 
  Darren Johnson 
  Webmonkey: 
  Chris Hogan 
  PDF Mojo: 
  Johan Erikson 
  Layout: 
  Chris Hogan, Lionel Rudling 
   
   
  Contact: 
  The editors may be contacted via the fsuns_chronicles Yahoo! group 
   
  Legal Disclaimer 
  Fading Suns and all images are the copyright of Holistic Design Inc. unless otherwise stated. The Chronicles of 
  the Fading Suns logo is the copyrght of Darren Johnson. The articles are the copyright of the respective authors. 
  This publication makes no challenge to these respective copyrights. This material is made available for free 
  distribution and may not be charged for without the permission of the respective copyright holders. 
  
  Introduction 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  3 
  Introduction 
  By Cap’n Jack 
   
  Ahoy there mateys, 
  Tis a rare pleasure for a lowly Lost Worlder such as 
  I to address such a distinguished and well dressed 
  audience as this. To you noble lords and ladies, to 
  you worthies of the Church and the League, I offer 
  my humble greetings. 
  So, what business does a lowly gentleman of 
  fortune have troubling such a prestigious audience? 
  Glad you asked. Some six months ago, a band of mad 
  and desperate souls struck upon the idea of 
  cataloging their collective knowledge of the Phoenix 
  Empire and the myriad worlds beyond. From that 
  idea was born the text you hold today. After half a 
  year of debate, delays, writer’s block and kraken 
  attacks, the first volume in the Chronicles of the 
  Fading Suns is being churned out on illegal printing 
  presses from here to Cadavus to delight, inform and 
  amaze. 
  What lies within depends entirely on the whims of 
  the contributors. For this inaugural edition, we have 
  sought the opinions of the greatest explorers, tale-
  tellers and lunatics of our age to describe some of the 
  more unusual worlds to grace the Jumpweb. No less 
  than four planetary surveys are contained within. 
  From my own quill comes tales of misty, lawless 
  Manitou, of the aerial fanatics of frozen Svarog, and 
  of ancient, mysterious Leng. To this assembly has 
  been added Chris Hogan’s description of New 
  Amhara. The gannok swears it to be the gospel truth 
  but I urge caution. In addition to these cartographic 
  treatises, the honourable Lionel Rudling and Casey 
  Standridge provide philosophical musings on the 
  nature of chance and failure. Not sure what they’re 
  on about myself, but no matter. 
  We hope that all readers will find something of use 
  to them within these pages. You will no doubt be 
  delighted to know that this is but the first volume of 
  an ongoing journal. If Lady Luck smiles and we stay 
  ahead of His Imperial Majesty’s finest, expect to see 
  Volume 2 before too long. Of course, we are always 
  on the lookout for fresh talent, so if any among you 
  would like to try your hand at writing for our noble 
  enterprise then do not hesitate to get in touch. It is 
  an exciting life among us. Travel, adventure and all 
  the hull rats you can eat. 
  Well, dear reader, I must away ‘ere the authorities 
  are alerted to my whereabouts. May the Prophet 
  watch you until next we meet. 
  Cap’n Jack  
  March 5006 (Location undisclosed). 
   
   
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
  By Jack Oldham 
   
  “Of all the myriad worlds known to man, Manitou is 
  perhaps one of the strangest. To most of the Known 
  Worlds, it is a marginal planet, inhabited by 
  uncivilised tribes and a thousand species of heretic 
  and criminal. To the League, it is a rare boon, a 
  planet rich in alien technology where the Guilds can 
  operate with an impunity unknown elsewhere. To the 
  Church, it is a cancer, a breeding ground for sin and 
  devilry. To thousands of Republicans, psychics and 
  heretics, it is an Eden, a last refuge from oppression. 
  Manitou is feared and coveted, idealised and reviled. 
  It is never understood. 
  4 
  To my readers on distant worlds, I offer my 
  greetings. I am known as Gerard Montar, a freeman 
  and citizen of Manitou. For my whole life, I have 
  resided in the city of Noumea, but for my many 
  forays across this world, both for my employers and 
  to satisfy my not inconsiderable curse of wanderlust. 
  I am the grandson of my world’s single largest 
  import, 
  a 
  political 
  exile. 
  I 
  understand 
  that 
  Grandfather was the bastard son of some noble or 
  other on the world of Ravenna, and the machinations 
  of his betters led him to flee for his life. Here on 
  Manitou he sought peace, but like all who come here, 
  he longed for his old life. It was only with me that a 
  Montar was born who saw this dark and fearful place 
  as home. I have, in my three decades of life, been a 
  scholar, a merchant, a political envoy to the Free 
  Cities, a miner, a thief and a seeker of truth. By the 
  ways of my world, it has been a dull sort of existence. 
  I write this introduction as a small indulgence, the 
  only payment I expect to receive from my employers. 
  In my current capacity, I work as an agent of the 
  Manitou 
  Trade 
  Conglomerate, 
  preparing 
  an 
  introduction of sorts to my world to those offworld 
  traders and people of importance who wish to know 
  more of this most unique of places. I have argued at 
  length that such a task is by its very nature the 
  epitome of futility, but to no avail. So be warned, 
  gentle reader, this is in no way complete or 
  particularly accurate. All I can say in my defence is 
  that if you knew this fearsome jewel as I do, you 
  would understand how little can truly be known. 
  Well, here it is. Manitou. Abandon your prejudices, 
  dear reader. If there is one consistency here, it is all 
  that we know, the rules of politics, society and faith 
  we hold dear, do not apply here. We are the aliens of 
  Manitou, living only at the sufferance of this world 
  and its guardians.” 
  Gerard Montar - Freeman of Manitou. 
  Manitou Traits 
  Ruler: Manitou Trade Conglomerate (MTC) 
  Cathedral: 
  St. 
  Maya 
  Unchained, 
  Noumea 
  (Eskatonic) 
  Agora: Iocus Forum, Noumea (MTC/Scraver) 
  Garrison: 3 
  Capital: Noumea 
  Jumps: 4 
  Adjacent 
  Worlds: 
  Icon 
  (dayside), 
  Apshai 
  (parallel), Vau (nightside) 
  Solar System: Geesis (sun), Ishkode (0.3 AU), 
  Manitou (1.2 AU; Jiibay), The Asawajiw Belt (12-
  13.2 AU), Mukwa (24 AU; 13 moons), Mikwam 
  (43 AU), Jumpgate (67 AU) 
  Tech: 3 
  Population: 200 million Coastlanders, c. 10 
  million tribesmen (2 million Ukari, 1.5 million 
  others, Vau pop. unknown) 
  Resources: Zhrii-Ka’a Lotus, rice, pygmallium, 
  mineral ores, seafood, timber 
  Exports: Pygmallium, foodstuffs, metals, timber, 
  medicinal plants, lotus, contraband, Vau relics, 
  illegal texts, psychics 
  History 
  Very little is known about the history of Manitou 
  prior to arrival of the first human settlers. What little 
  is 
  known 
  was 
  pieced 
  together 
  by 
  Republic 
  archaeologists. It is clear from the vast number of 
  ruins and abandoned installations scattered across 
  the entire planet that Manitou once supported a 
  considerable population of Vau. At some unknown 
  point, the majority of the planet was abandoned. The 
  Vau have never explained why this happened, and 
  many theories abound. It is but one of Manitou’s 
  many mysteries. 
  Manitou was not discovered by humanity. 
  Instead, its existence was revealed by the 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  5 
  Vau during their negotiations with Benjamin Verden. 
  Describing the world as of little importance to them, 
  the Vau offered to allow human colonists to settle on 
  the eastern coast of the great continent, on the 
  condition that they recognised the Vau’s authority 
  over the world. Needless to say, in the fear that 
  followed in the wake of the massacre on Apshai and 
  the Prophet’s mysterious death, few were eager to 
  take these aliens at their word. Still, a small 
  settlement in the southern hemisphere, called Byblos, 
  was established where the various human polities 
  conducted diplomacy with the Vau governors. Over 
  time, small groups began to settle here, including 
  many early followers of the Gjartin religion. These 
  peoples included many from Urth’s Indian, south-
  east Asian and Native American populations, from 
  which most of the planet’s place names descend. To 
  this day, Manitou Urthish is heavily influenced by 
  these sources, and can be nearly incomprehensible to 
  offworlders. These early settlers saw Manitou as a 
  world untrammelled by the heavy boot of man, and 
  established small communities far from the spaceport 
  at Byblos, trying to live in tune with their new world. 
  The culture of these first settlers did much to instil 
  the superstitious awe many later colonists would feel 
  for the world. 
  Manitou remained sparsely populated until the 
  establishment of the Republic. Hoping for greater ties 
  with the Vau, and greater access to their technology, 
  the 
  Republican 
  government 
  sponsored 
  heavy 
  colonisation at the same time as Cadiz was being 
  built into a suitable site for formal diplomacy. A 
  series of small cities were built along the eastern 
  coast, pushing the Gjartin communities further into 
  the 
  interior, 
  where 
  most 
  began 
  to 
  abandon 
  technology for a simpler tribal way of life. The Vau 
  welcomed the human presence initially, although the 
  western half of the continent was still barred from 
  human settlement. Over time, however, relations 
  appeared to sour. A number of diplomatic incidents 
  broke out when some settlements began trying to 
  terraform the world, and again when humans began 
  harvesting the Zhrii-Ka’a lotus for its psychoactive 
  properties. By the end of the 39th century, the Vau 
  had cut off nearly all contact with the humans on 
  Manitou. While meetings with the Vau governors had 
  always been sporadic, they now almost ceased 
  entirely. The Vau stayed in their enclave on 
  Mhi’heresh’lathoom, only leaving to punish breaches 
  of the poorly understood settlement conditions. 
  Fearing an escalation of reprisals, the Republic 
  authorities did their best to enforce the will of the 
  Vau as they understood it. 
  In 3998, as the first signs of collapse began to 
  spread through the Second Republic, many of the 
  naval and intelligence personnel on Manitou were 
  recalled. With the Fall in 4000, the local government 
  began to fragment. As the Church and the Ten 
  crushed the remnants of the Republic, hundreds of 
  thousands of refugees began to flee to Manitou, 
  hoping that fear of the Vau would prevent their 
  enemies from pursuing them this far. In southern 
  Seralong, the influx of new settlers, many of whom 
  were destitute, armed and desperate, overwhelmed 
  the government. The region south of the Mistswamp 
  fragmented into a series of city-states, each under its 
  own government. By the mid-41st century, two main 
  powers had arisen. The northern coast, east of the 
  Verdic Hills, came under the control of a loose 
  alliance of Republican exiles called the Rhean 
  Collective, named after the city that was the centre of 
  the failed revolt on Byzantium Secundus in 4009. 
  West of the hills, the city of Mohenjo came under the 
  control of one of the few surviving nobles of House 
  Von Ferdinand. These two polities warred with each 
  other continually for much of the New Dark Ages, 
  whilst the smaller states took and changed sides in a 
  bewildering series of alliances and betrayals. It was 
  not until the last of the Tyrants of Mohenjo died in 
  4703 that a peace was reached. 
  In the north, the Republican government clung on 
  in the old capital of Noumea, but was quickly 
  overwhelmed from within by local guilds and 
  corporations, losing the last of its democratic 
  trappings by the 43rd century. In addition, the 
  starport at Noumea remained open, allowing 
  representatives from the new powers in the Known 
  Worlds to extend their influence. The Houses showed 
  little interest in the planet, although some small Li 
  Halan and Decados fiefs were established. It was the 
  Church that had the most influence. Massive 
  missionary efforts were mounted, trying to stamp out 
  the Gjartins, Lotus-eaters and Vau worshippers who 
  had made up much of the population during the 
  Republic. Mass drownings of pagans and witches 
  were conducted in the canals of Noumea, and priests 
  began to stir up hatred against the Vau. Eventually, a 
  fanatical faction of the local Church, who accused the 
  Vau of the murder of the Prophet, led mobs in attacks 
  on the seemingly abandoned Vau installations that 
  dotted the landscape. Finally, in 4216, the Vau 
  responded. Squads of Soldiers stormed Noumea, 
  apparently immune to the attacks of the human 
  defenders. All priests in the city were rounded up and 
  executed. The Mandarin governor, for the first time 
  in nearly 500 years, recited the conditions of 
  settlement to the terrified survivors. To the 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  6 
  list, a new law was added. No Church vessel was 
  permitted to enter the system, and no agent of the 
  Inquisition or Church spy was permitted to walk on 
  the planet. 
  In the wake of this momentous action, the northern 
  government collapsed entirely. A new wave of 
  settlers began to come to Manitou. Now, rather than 
  just political refugees, thousands of heretics, 
  occultists and other victims of ecclesiastic law began 
  to flee to this new sanctuary. The famous Incarnate 
  poet and preacher, Dafydd Twyd, is credited with the 
  following pronouncement, “and if it is only here, on 
  this dark and alien world, that the Children of the 
  Flame can stand free, in conscience, deed and 
  thought, then here is our Eden, and a New Cradle of 
  Man, untarnished and untainted.” 
  It was a further two centuries before the north 
  began to regroup. After the establishment of the 
  Merchant League in 4352, more offworld traders 
  began to travel to Noumea. As Manitou was seen by 
  many as a pit of sin and depravity, thanks to the hurt 
  feelings of the Church, these merchants were often 
  less than reputable. Initially uncoordinated, these 
  traders included many pirates and corsairs, some of 
  whom established bases in the wilds. Of the League, 
  it was the Scravers that had the most interest in the 
  world. As the Syndicates built up trade networks, and 
  smuggling rings to move Vau and Republican relics, 
  they began to campaign among the local merchants 
  for a more centralised body with which they could 
  work. This led to the establishment of the Manitou 
  Trade Conglomerate (MTC) in 4428. Based in the 
  spaceport at Noumea, this body began as a means to 
  regulate trade with the Known Worlds, but rapidly 
  grew to become a de facto government of much of the 
  north. In 4438, the MTC was granted membership 
  into the Merchant League, and in 4563 the Regency 
  recognised it as the official world government of 
  Manitou.  
  The MTC expanded to control most of the cities 
  north of the Mistswamp, with only the Decados fiefs 
  of the Mirojan Mountains remaining independent. 
  Attempts were made to take over the Free Cities, but 
  even with the help of the League they were unable to 
  defeat the Collective and Mohenjo in a series of naval 
  engagements, the greatest of which was the Battle of 
  Mrij Island in 4589, where an uneasy alliance of the 
  Free Cities sank the flagships of the MTC fleet. These 
  wars ended abruptly in 4616, when the Green Death 
  struck Manitou. The effect of this strange mutagenic 
  plague on all the human states was devastating. 
  Millions are thought to have died or mutated beyond 
  recognition. Many of the settlements near 
  the Mistswamp emptied, as their citizens fled into the 
  Hinterland to escape disease or famine, or sold 
  themselves to Li Halan slavers to be taken offworld 
  to Icon. Even today, there are hundreds of ghost 
  towns dotting the forests and swamps. 
  The Green Death petered out in 4642, decades after 
  it was overcome elsewhere. It has taken nearly 400 
  years for the planet to recover, and the ranks of the 
  tribes have been greatly swelled by those who fled 
  the 
  coasts. 
  The 
  MTC 
  re-established 
  itself, 
  strengthening its power by leading the effort to 
  eradicate the plague. Equilibrium was reached, with 
  the Free Cities remaining independent, but opening 
  up to allow trade. In 4703, the last of the Tyrants of 
  Mohenjo died. The city came under the control of a 
  strange cult known as the Worldsingers, who 
  stabilised the region and opened relations with the 
  League through the port city of Macao. 
  Manitou played no part in the Emperor Wars, 
  although the aftermath of the wars led to the arrival 
  of new waves of refugees, particularly from the 
  democratic government of Rampart. In 4998, the MTC 
  formally gave its fealty to Emperor Alexius, 
  confirming its membership within the resurgent 
  Pheonix Empire. Conditions in the Guild Lands are 
  stable for now, but the Free Cities are feeling the first 
  waves from a bloody revolt in Mohenjo. In 5000, the 
  ruling 
  cult 
  was 
  usurped 
  by 
  a 
  violent 
  and 
  expansionist power, which calls itself the Manitou 
  Alliance. The Manitou Alliance is actively calling for 
  the ousting of all offworlders from Manitou. For now, 
  the threat seems remote, but the centuries of peace 
  may be coming to an end. 
  The Vau Governors 
  “This world’s people, we apologise for allowing rash 
  behaviour to foment among you. We granted your 
  ancestors the freedom of this place, but unseemly 
  disorder must be chastised. Now that good conduct is 
  restored, we speak the words of the settlement once 
  more. Listen, heed and meditate on these words.” 
  Yoma Tela Srad’neth Welthuur, after the Noumea 
  Massacre 
  It is doubtful that more than one in ten thousand of 
  Manitou's citizens has ever even seen a Vau. 
  Generally, they keep entirely to themselves on their 
  island. No formal diplomatic ties exist on Manitou. 
  All of the Imperial factions maintain small embassies 
  just in case, but they are hardly ever contacted, 
  instead acting as sort of social clubs for visitors and 
  the spy networks. Vau policy is never 
  explained, just enforced. Over the centuries, 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  7 
  the humans have picked up on most of these 'laws', 
  but occasionally the Vau mount apparently random 
  assaults on small targets, thought to have somehow 
  offended the alien overlords. The Vau are entirely 
  ruthless in their response to human aggression, 
  showing no qualms about killing transgressors. 
  However, in reality this rarely happens, as all but the 
  unrepentantly stupid know better. The constant 
  threat of Vau disapproval fosters an ever-present 
  feeling of paranoia, and all who live here cannot help 
  but worry about a day when the Vau grow tired of 
  the human presence. 
  Laws of Manitou 
  The 'laws’ of Manitou are: 
  1. No violence is permitted in Manitou Space 
  (although on the planet itself it is fine). Any ship that 
  fires on another is summarily destroyed by a Vau 
  Frigate that appears out of nowhere within a few 
  hours of the incident. 
  2. No human may enter Vau territory. Any that try 
  to sail to the island continent where the Vau live find 
  themselves enveloped in a strange mist, and come to 
  weeks later far out to sea. Any flitter or starship that 
  approaches loses control within a few miles of shore 
  and crashes. The same rule applies to the apparently 
  abandoned bases on Manitou's moon, whose 
  automated defence systems fire on any approaching 
  ships. Technically, the western Hinterlands are also 
  Vau territory, although they seem to be deserted and 
  some nomadic tribes travel here with impunity. 
  3. The Inquisition is forbidden from landing on the 
  planet. Priests are permitted, but any Church vessel 
  that enters the system is given a curt warning before 
  being fired upon. This law came into effect suddenly 
  in 4216, and the Vau to this day refuse to debate or 
  repeal it. Inquisitors and Syneculla agents who 
  smuggle in on League vessels, and keep a low profile, 
  are generally left alone. 
  4. Terraforming, even on a small scale, is entirely 
  forbidden. In 3768, a Republic town attempted to set 
  up small engine to break up the cloud cover above 
  the settlement, in hopes of reducing the electro-
  magnetic interference in the region. Within days, a 
  strange invisible barrier appeared around the town. It 
  remained in place for 2 months, by which time the 
  inhabitants had starved to death. The experiment 
  was never repeated. 
  5. Export of the Zhrii-Ka'a Lotus to other human 
  worlds is forbidden, as is the cultivation or 
  processing of this psi-stimulant. Use is never 
  prosecuted, and unlike the other laws, the 
  Vau hardly ever enforce this one at all, only 
  intervening if attempts are made to export large 
  quantities openly. 
  Vau workers and minor Hegemony aliens are very 
  occasionally encountered in the coastal towns near 
  the Vau homeland. Most of these are running private 
  errands, and do not interact with the locals. Gwindor 
  are never seen on Manitou. On very rare occasions, a 
  worker has sold or given away a small piece of 
  vautech. These incidents are incredibly uncommon, 
  and those involved have a nasty tendency of showing 
  up dead (whether by Vau or human hands, who can 
  say). On even rarer occasions, a Mandarin visits 
  human lands. Occasionally they meet with local 
  dignitaries, or simply wander a town for half an hour 
  observing the panicked or exultant humans before 
  leaving. They are always heavily guarded and hardly 
  ever directly converse with humans. 
  The main means by which the Vau are thought to 
  interact with their human “subjects” (besides myths 
  about mind-reading satellites and alien drugs in the 
  water supply) is via the Shadowmen. Also called 
  “The Watchers in the Woods”, “The Endless”, and 
  “The Observers”. These men and women are 
  occasionally reported all over the planet. They speak 
  in a strange, stilted dialect, and appear and 
  disappear with impunity. Local legend holds that 
  they are humans who have sold their souls to the 
  Vau. In exchange, they receive the gifts of 
  immortality, immunity to mind-reading occult powers 
  and freedom to travel anywhere on the planet. Who 
  these people really are, and how many of the legends 
  surrounding them are true, is impossible to tell. They 
  do not seem tied to the myriad Vau worshippers and 
  Emulators who throng to the world, nor are they ever 
  seen in the company of the Vau themselves. They are 
  however present at nearly every major event that has 
  occurred on the planet in the last two millennia, 
  occasionally caught on camera. They were kept 
  hidden by the Republic authorities, but are now 
  widely 
  known 
  of. 
  Occasionally, 
  they 
  trade 
  information or strange devices with other humans, in 
  exchange for odd or inexplicable services, the reason 
  for which often only emerge months or years later 
  when they can effect massive changes on the planet. 
  Solar System 
  Ishkode: A tiny molten rockball. Ishkode appears to 
  be spiralling into the sun. Charioteer astronomers 
  expect it to tear apart within the next few centuries. 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  8 
  Manitou: This planet is roughly similar in size and 
  mass as Holy Terra. It is described in more detail 
  below. 
  Jiibay: Manitou’s single moon. Jiibay is an odd 
  greenish colour, and has a fell reputation in local 
  myth. Viewing the full moon (a rare event given 
  Manitou’s thick cloud cover) is seen as a dire omen. 
  Jiibay is about half the size of Luna, and has not 
  been explored in any depth. It has always been 
  barred from humans by the Vau, and a number of 
  giant, apparently abandoned installations are visible 
  on its dark face. 
  The Asawajiw Belt: This asteroid belt is largely 
  unremarkable. The only oddity is that ships 
  negotiating the belt have occasionally claimed that 
  the asteroids move in a manner suggesting they have 
  some form of artificial propulsion. Some crews have 
  even claimed that the rocks have formed massive 
  floating shapes and alien glyphs as they passed 
  them. This phenomenon has never been successfully 
  recorded, and the meaning of these strange displays 
  remains a mystery. 
  Mukwa: This dark purple gas giant is known to 
  house a large Vau naval base on one of its moon. 
  Small Vau vessels have occasionally been seen in the 
  vicinity of the world. It is though that the mysterious 
  Vau ships that police the space lanes are based here, 
  although how they can apparently materialize 
  anywhere in the system in a matter of hours and 
  then vanish without a trace is unknown. 
  Mikwam: This world is an iceball, which is only 
  barely large enough to be categorized as a planet. It 
  is seems of little importance to man and Vau alike. 
  Landscape 
  The planet of Manitou is roughly similar in size and 
  distance from its star to Holy Terra. It lies within the 
  range of human tolerances, although the weaker 
  gravity and high humidity makes it uncomfortable to 
  many visitors. Unlike many other worlds, Manitou 
  has never been subject to terraforming, at least by 
  human hands. As a result, it has kept the feel of the 
  alien that has been eradicated from many of the core 
  worlds of the old Republic. Much of the planet is 
  cloaked in a near permanent bank of thick, purplish 
  clouds. Unique properties of the planet’s atmosphere 
  lead to these clouds holding a surprisingly strong 
  static charge. Although most spaceships have 
  sufficient electromagnetic shielding to combat this, 
  the high levels of EM radiation can interfere with 
  unshielded electronics and radio, making 
  communication between settlements difficult without 
  advanced transmitters. The radiation also fuels the 
  breathtaking thunderstorms that can rage for weeks 
  at a time, particularly at sea, where strange greenish 
  lightening crackles across the waves. 
  The dense cloud cover forms as a permanent 
  greenhouse effect, leading to a tropical or sub-
  tropical climate across much of the surface. Rain is 
  rare, but humidity, particularly in the equatorial 
  regions, is extremely high. Coastal regions in 
  particular are subject to thick fogs and mists. The 
  planet has a fully developed eco-system, with 
  millions of native species of plants and animals. The 
  rich, black soil of the main continent of Seralong 
  feeds a riot of plant life. Most of the fertile land is 
  covered by dense jungle composed of dark green and 
  black leaved trees and creepers. Lowland regions are 
  often home to great swamps, moors and mangrove 
  forests. 
  Manitou is dominated by one continent, called 
  Seralong by the Guilders. Seralong covers roughly a 
  third of the planet. The main body of the continent 
  stretches north-south, nearly reaching both poles. 
  There is also a large peninsula in the northern 
  hemisphere, built around the backbone of the great 
  Mirojan Mountains, which stretches eastwards. The 
  rest of the world is dominated by two vast, shallow 
  oceans. These are only broken by the two small 
  poles, a long archipelago known as the Eastern 
  Reaches, and the giant island at Seralong’s base, 
  which houses the Vau governors of the world, and is 
  permanently surrounded by thick mists. 
  Human habitation has always centred along the 
  eastern coast of Seralong, on the shores of the Giraj 
  Ocean. The Guild Lands cover most of the northern 
  peninsula, centred at the capital of Noumea. South of 
  the vast fenlands of the Mistswamp, the coast is 
  home to a range of independent settlements, known 
  as the Free Cities. The interior of Seralong is known 
  to the coastlanders as the Hinterland. It is thickly 
  forested, and home to many stone and iron age tribes 
  descended from the original Diasporan settlers. The 
  western half of Seralong, beyond the Duniya 
  Mountains, is held by the Vau, although no evidence 
  of actual settlement on the mainland has been found. 
  This region is shunned by the coastal peoples, 
  although some of the tribes travel here with 
  impunity. The Vau seem to stay in their enclaves on 
  the island of Mhi’heresh’lathoom.  
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  9 
  People & Places 
  The Guild Lands 
  As far as the Empire is concerned, all the human 
  lands of Manitou are ruled by the Manitou Trade 
  Conglomerate. The MTC is a loose alliance of local 
  guilds, centred in the north-east of Seralong. The 
  MTC was founded in 4428, largely under the 
  patronage of the Scravers Guild, who sought a single 
  body to facilitate the growing smuggling trade in Vau 
  relics and lotus. Initially based around the spaceport 
  in the city of Noumea, the MTC grew to encompass 
  much of the civilised regions in the northern 
  hemisphere. Its success was largely due to the 
  willingness 
  of 
  offworlders 
  to 
  use 
  it 
  as 
  an 
  intermediary with the myriad polities and city-states 
  of Manitou. It was granted membership of the League 
  in 4438, and later was recognised as the formal 
  government of Manitou by the Regency in 4563. 
  The MTC is in truth a loose alliance of local guilds, 
  and its political influence focuses almost exclusively 
  on offworld trade and diplomacy. The MTC rules from 
  Noumea, and is led by the Council of Worthies. The 
  Council consists of appointees of the member guilds, 
  who meet to debate matters of trade and defence. The 
  Council also contains representatives of the Scravers 
  and the Charioteers. These representatives ostensibly 
  have no powers beyond their role as advisors to the 
  Council. In reality, the Scraver advisors (one each 
  from the Harrison and De Caprio Syndicates) have 
  traditionally been the power behind the throne of the 
  ruling faction in the MTC. Recently, in 4999, a 
  Questing Knight, Lady Arathana Xanthippe, joined 
  the Council as a third advisor. The Li Halan are 
  actively campaigning to be given representation, 
  which has provoked the local Decados to do the 
  same. For now, the League is doing its best to try to 
  keep the Houses out of government, fearing a 
  takeover. 
  The active council members are divided into a 
  number of factions and parties. The ruling party, The 
  Bridge of Stars, favours a growth in offworld trade, 
  and is well known to be in the pocket of the De 
  Caprio Syndicate. The Bridge is opposed by the World 
  Brothers, who began as an attempt to limit offworld 
  control of the government, but have become 
  thoroughly compromised over the years to the point 
  where there is little to distinguish them from their 
  opponents. There was an upset twenty years ago, 
  when a new party called the Reforming Wind formed. 
  The Reforming Wind argued with some 
  success for extending elections to the Council 
  to many of the smaller guilds and settlements. These 
  tentative attempts at democratization were crushed 
  in 4983, when the leaders of the party died in a 
  suspicious shipwreck. Since then, a number of 
  terrorist attacks attributed to the Wind have occurred 
  in Noumea and Meerapo, but with little effect on the 
  government. 
  The MTC maintains a small military force to see off 
  pirates, bandits and hostile Hinterland tribes. It has 
  been centuries since the last wars with the Free 
  Cities, however, and the MTC is reliant on offworld 
  technical and manual support for any operations 
  beyond basic peacekeeping. One unique strength that 
  the MTC can call on is their small cadre of psychic 
  operatives. Called the Whispers by the psychic covens 
  they police, this group was founded shortly after the 
  establishment of the MTC to combat the threats of 
  hostile occult groups and Hinterland shamans. The 
  Whispers are best known for their focus on telepathy, 
  using it to read or control the minds of their targets. 
  The organisation is very secretive, keeping to old 
  traditions. They operate mainly as a plain-clothes 
  police force, and informally as spies used against the 
  offworlder factions. The Whispers have a high level 
  of autonomy, and have been known to refuse orders 
  of the Council they consider contrary to their 
  interests. They help to add to the feelings of paranoia 
  common to visitors to Noumea and the other large 
  MTC settlements. 
  The City of Noumea 
  Noumea is the largest city on Manitou, housing a 
  population of around 1.5 million. Noumea is an old 
  town, built on the ruins of the old Republican capital. 
  The city is built on a series of islands in the great 
  lagoon of Jheel Bay. The islands are joined by a 
  network of metal bridges. Constructed using the best 
  in Republican engineering techniques, these bridges 
  appear spindly and fragile, but can support great 
  weights and have survived a millennia of use and 
  tropical storms unscathed. The bridges are intricately 
  carved, inlayed with copper, bronze and Shaprutian 
  crystal, in designs reminiscent of Vau and Annunaki 
  ruins. Some of the larger bridges have been built on, 
  and now support whole neighbourhoods. Others have 
  built their homes in the intricate supports, on 
  platforms above the water where they fish and travel 
  everywhere in tiny boats. These aerial settlements, 
  linked by rope bridges, are the scene of much of the 
  city’s organised crime. 
  The city is a great naval port, and traders from as 
  far off as the Eastern Reaches and the Free Cities 
  come here to trade with League merchants. 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  10 
  At any time, the many quays are thronged with small 
  boats 
  and 
  junks, 
  packed 
  together 
  into 
  near 
  permanent settlements. Occasionally, the massive 
  tankers used by the League can be seen towering 
  above the boats of the native fishermen. 
  About two thirds of the population are of offworld 
  extraction. Many of the merchants that come here 
  have a local mistress or even family separate from 
  any they have in the Known Worlds. These traders 
  land in the spaceport, which lies on the dry land 
  about five miles from the city limits. A maglev line 
  has survived, although the power is dead, and the 
  carriages are now towed by teams of chikal lizards. 
  The League has by far the greatest influence here. It 
  is the Scravers that dominate, and many joke that 
  they are the true rulers of the city. The Harrison and 
  DeCaprio syndicates run the planetary agora. Called 
  the Iocus Forum, the agora is a great market built on 
  a platform spanning the gap between two islands. 
  Boats can be seen passing beneath through the 
  translucent paving slabs, as the stalls stand on a 
  great mosaic of the eye-like flower of the Zhrii-Ka’a 
  lotus. All of the other guild and noble factions have a 
  presence in the capital. The noble houses and the 
  Empire maintain small embassies. 
  Noumea is riddled with agents from every spy group 
  and conspiracy in the Known Worlds, who all know 
  each other, occasionally socialize informally, and are 
  subject to bizarre alliances. They are all there to spy 
  on the Vau, but as there is hardly anything to report, 
  many are deeply bored. Occasionally, they receive 
  orders to do something, but most are rarely 
  monitored by their superiors. Some have gone into 
  business for themselves, or amuse themselves by 
  conducting petty feuds or secret dalliances with their 
  opposite numbers in the other spy networks. As 
  means of an example, there is a known Mutasih 
  agent, called Sherifah bint Mehmed, who owns an 
  exclusive coffee house, from which she conducts 
  poetry readings and sells lotus.  
  Chikal 
  Body: Strength 8, Dexterity 4, Endurance 10 
  Mind: Wits 2, Perception 4, Tech 0 
  Skills: Fight 4, Dodge 4, Vigor 8, Survival 5, 
  Observe 3 
  Vitality: (16) -10/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Move: 10m base run 
  Weapons: Bite (Goal 8, Init 5, DMG 6), Trample 
  (Goal 8, Init 4, DMG 5, target knocked prone), Tail 
  (Goal 8, Init 5, DMG 2) 
  Armour: Thick Scales (4d) 
  Special: Low Body (cannot be knocked prone) 
  Description: Chikal rival the horse as the preferred 
  beast of burden on Manitou. These large, short-
  legged reptiles can support heavy loads and riders 
  with little difficulty. Not known for their 
  intelligence, Chikal are easy to domesticate. In the 
  wild, they live in mated pairs, ranging over a wide 
  area for the huge amounts of foliage they require. 
  What little presence the Church has on this world 
  can also be found in Noumea. The Cathedral of St. 
  Maya Unchained is a small but tasteful building near 
  the seat of the MTC council. The only bishop on 
  Manitou, Magister Solomon Konteskis, is an affable 
  Eskatonic. He makes noises against the myriad small 
  Incarnate, Preceptor and Gjartin churches that 
  operate openly in the capital, but it is clear it is only 
  for form’s sake. There is a more militant faction 
  within the cathedral, called the Heralds of Zebulon, 
  who are a surviving remnant of the old Church 
  government. Fearing a repeat of the Noumea 
  Massacre, they stay in the shadows. They do help the 
  underground Syneculla and Inquisitorial agents on 
  Manitou, however, and have assassinated heretics 
  they deem particularly dangerous. They maintain a 
  paranoid theology of their own, that blames much of 
  the troubles of humanity on a vast Vau conspiracy. 
  Finally, Noumea is famous for being the home of 
  several psychic covens, most of which operate with a 
  level of impunity undreamed of elsewhere in the 
  Empire. A group known as the Favyana is an open 
  secret here, operating from an orphanage in the 
  suburbs. Another known haven is the Burning Eye, a 
  tavern owned by a company of Dervish mercenaries. 
  These 
  groups 
  are 
  fractious 
  and 
  competitive, 
  competing with each other and Guilder recruiters for 
  the fresh psychics that arrive in the spaceport in 
  large numbers every year, fleeing the threat of the 
  Inquisition. Noumea is a hub for the informal 
  ‘underground railroad’, which relocates psychics here 
  and distributes them to safe havens across the 
  planet. The MTC tolerates this situation, confident 
  that the Whispers can deal with any overly disruptive 
  occult crime. The League and the Decados have done 
  their best to try to maintain the railroad, using it as a 
  major area for recruitment of psychic agents. 
  Worryingly, the uneasy balance between these 
  groups is being upset by a series of odd deaths and 
  murders that have occurred over the last 5 years. 
  Already, the main Favyana haven has been 
  decimated, so that they have nothing more than a 
  token presence in the MTC lands now. Rumour has it 
  that the Whispers have been unable to identify the 
  perpetrators. Most speculate that a new 
  coven is seeking to seize control of the 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  11 
  ‘railroad’, and with it many scared and desperate 
  psychics. 
  The MTC Lands 
  The MTC control approximately one third of the 
  human lands on Seralong. The northern peninsula 
  along the Mirojan mountain range is the centre of its 
  power, which then peters out in the half-deserted 
  lands north of the Mistswamp. The MTC’s influence 
  is concentrated in a string of small cities along the 
  southern coast. Each is ruled by a local oligarchy of 
  merchants and landowners, who send representatives 
  to the MTC Council in Noumea. Each city has a high 
  level of autonomy, with the MTC only regulating 
  offworld trade and collective foreign policy. The 
  greatest of these cities include Meerapo, which is 
  home to much of the planet’s heavy industry, mainly 
  in the form of processing plants for the metals, gems 
  and radioactives mined in the Mirojan range. 
  Meerapo is the main seat of the World Brothers party, 
  who favour greater autonomy for the MTC from 
  offworld guilds. Offworlders are often treated with 
  hostility. The city leaders fear Scraver reprisals 
  enough to prevent this dislike from escalating into 
  violence, but visitors should beware being the targets 
  for swindles and petty harassment. Cells of the now 
  outlawed Reforming Wind are known to be based in 
  this city. 
  The interior of the peninsula becomes increasingly 
  hilly, before soaring into the heights of the Mirojans. 
  This region is less heavily forested than the rest of 
  Seralong, largely due to centuries of agriculture 
  (primarily rice paddies) and logging. Like everywhere 
  on Manitou, the highlands are home to many small 
  Vau ruins. Several of these have been successfully 
  looted, but most remain protected by bizarre energy 
  fields and other, more deadly, defences. These relics 
  of the region’s old inhabitants are great sources of 
  interest. Some are treated with superstitious or 
  religious awe by the farming communities that live 
  near them, and the priests in Noumea often rail 
  against the heathenish practices carried out at these 
  sites by the rural peasantry on certain nights of the 
  year. Others have been sealed off by the MTC, either 
  for ‘study’ or due to matters of ‘defence’. Most often, 
  this is to allow Harrison looters to pick over the ruins 
  for any missed treasures, but some sites do seem to 
  hold dangerous secrets the authorities do their best 
  to hide. 
  The people of the interior follow an odd syncretic 
  religion. Most maintain some of the practices of 
  Universalism, but do so in tandem with much older 
  Gjartin and Emulator beliefs. They hold to 
  the belief that the Pancreator exists, but is but the 
  greatest of many spirits and gods. They share their 
  worship of the Pancreator with the Gjarti of Manitou, 
  a world spirit, and with the Vau, who they see as 
  divine agents and guardians of their goddess. Most 
  will politely listen to Church missionaries, treating 
  them as honoured guests. Still, when the priests 
  leave they will resume their sacrifices to the Goddess, 
  and the great pilgrimages to the lands of the Vau in 
  the far south. Perhaps 70% of the MTC’s citizens 
  follow some version of this faith, with most others 
  being orthodox Universalists or more traditional 
  Gjartins. 
  Noble Lands 
  The northern slopes of the Mirojan Mountains are 
  the home of most of the Decados fiefs on Manitou. Of 
  all the noble houses, the Decados have the most 
  presence on this world. The local branch of the 
  Decados is rooted in those exiles that have fled here 
  over the past thousand years. It is particularly 
  popular amongst those who, while still favoured by 
  the Prince, have angered the Church authorities so 
  much as to have become a liability. This had led to 
  the famous saying in the Mantis court, ‘Anger the 
  Emperor, seek Severus. Anger the Prince, seek New 
  Tibet. Anger the Bishop, seek Manitou.’ 
  The Manitou Decados are nominally led by Count 
  Vladimir Decados, a distant cousin of Prince Hyram. 
  Vladimir is an ageing man, but still striking thanks 
  to the extensive cosmetic surgery and cybernetic 
  alterations he has undergone throughout his long 
  life. It is not entirely clear how old Vladimir is, but he 
  receives massive shipments of anti-aging drugs every 
  year. In the past decade, he has developed an intense 
  interest in biochemistry and genetics, often inviting 
  distinguished Engineer scientists to his mountainous 
  lands to discuss his own research. Not all of these 
  guests have returned. Still, Vladimir is the highest 
  ranking Decados on the planet who can still appear 
  in public without fear of reprisals, so has become a 
  de facto voice for his house. The feudal structure in 
  the fiefs is very loose, with most estates being 
  isolated and secretive in the extreme. It is generally 
  believed that some of these estates are used as 
  remote bases and safe houses by the Jakovians, as 
  well as for training camps for psychic agents. 
  Rumours of Manja and Sathraist cults and worse 
  circulate, but little can be proven.  
  The Decados have traditionally stayed out of the 
  politics of the capital, preferring to remain neutral. 
  Occasional conflicts arise with the Scravers, 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  12 
  particularly in regard to competing interests in the 
  black-market, but generally an amicable agreement 
  of mutual non-interference is maintained. Recently, 
  however, the arrival of Li Halan settlers in large 
  numbers has led them to campaign for a greater role 
  in the MTC government, particularly as the Li Halan 
  are interfering with the lotus smuggling rings in the 
  Mistswamp, which several Decados have a key role 
  in.  
  The Free Port of Heschraad 
  This city on the eastern end of the peninsula was 
  once a MTC port, but became ungovernable following 
  the collapse caused by the Green Death. Heschraad 
  closed itself off from all contact with the rest of 
  Manitou for nearly two centuries, finally only 
  opening up to outsiders in 4820. Unfortunately, the 
  first ‘traders’ to come here were pirates and 
  smugglers, and they quickly took over the surviving 
  government, turning the city into the largest and 
  most successful pirate base on Manitou. Heschraad is 
  now largely lawless, order being kept by the heavies 
  of the various smuggling gangs. The city has a crude 
  but 
  serviceable 
  spaceport 
  and 
  a 
  scavenged 
  Republican fusion generator large enough to refuel 
  mid-sized spacecraft. Pirates from half the Known 
  Worlds come here to fence their stolen cargo. It is the 
  Scravers that have the greatest role in buying 
  captured cargo and then selling it on in the 
  agora at Noumea. This arrangement has 
  been an open secret for decades, but no one has the 
  will to interfere, particularly as any attack on 
  Heschraad would need to go through Decados land, 
  disrupting the long-standing non-interference pact. 
  The Charioteers in particular are angered, especially 
  when one of them finds themselves buying their own 
  cargo which was stolen months earlier above Icon or 
  Cadiz. Thanks to the massive power of the Scravers, 
  the MTC has always turned a blind eye to such 
  complaints.  
  The Green Death 
  Small outbreaks of this deadly disease are 
  known in the interior of Seralong. Those that 
  contract it must roll End+Vigor once a day for a 
  week. If this roll is failed 3 days in a row, roll 
  again. If this roll succeeds, the character survives 
  but mutates, receiving a number of points equal 
  to the VP rolled to spend on Changed powers. The 
  PC receives Meta 1 (or +1 if already Changed) and 
  the Mutation curse. On a critical success, the PC 
  receives Meta 3 (or +3) and the Inhuman curse. 
  The GM can assign mutations if they prefer. If the 
  roll is failed, the character dies in extreme pain, 
  as the body is riddled by malignant cancers. If a 
  critical failure is rolled, the PC survives, but is 
  changed into a bestial Grendel. A cure to the 
  Green Death does exist, and if administered can 
  stop the disease, although the victim will still be 
  bedridden for two weeks and susceptible to 
  secondary infections. 
  Besides the visiting pirate crews, here are two 
  leading gangs in Heschraad. The first is a remnant of 
  the old government that ruled the city before the 
  arrival of the pirates. This group calls itself Purity 
  Control and its enforcers still wear the gasmasks and 
  thick coveralls once used to hold off the Green Death. 
  Purity Control acts as a de facto peacekeeper. There 
  are no laws as such, but these masked goons break 
  up any major disturbances and guard the city in 
  return for protection money. The second major group 
  is the House of Vaysul. Vaysul is an escaped serf and 
  pirate from Cadiz. He led a bloody takeover of the 
  spaceport in 4986, and has held control of it ever 
  since. He claims that engineers in his employ have 
  rigged the fusion reactor to explode if his position is 
  ever threatened. He collects a ‘docking fee’ from 
  visiting ships, but besides that keeps no records and 
  asks no questions. There are many rumours linking 
  Vaysul to one or more of the Decados nobles of the 
  north, and it is thought he acts as an agent, hiring 
  pirate crews to mount fully deniable missions for the 
  House. In recent years, several pirate ships that have 
  targeted Decados worlds have suffered catastrophic 
  accidents shortly after leaving Heschraad. As a 
  result, some are choosing to use the smaller port at 
  the Eyrie, as it is free of Guild and noble agents. 
  The Li Halan Expansion 
  The south-western region of the Guild Lands, 
  between the city of Bikaang and the great moors of 
  the Mistswamp, is the least populated region of the 
  territories held by the MTC. Rather than a distinct 
  border, the edge of the Guild Lands simply peters out 
  as the land becomes more wild and uninhabitable. 
  Once, before the Green Death, the Guild Lands 
  stretched all the way to the Mangroves, home to 
  many scattered farming and logging settlements. 
  When the Green Death hit Manitou, this region 
  became almost uninhabited. Many fled into the 
  Hinterland, eventually assimilating into the Gjartin 
  and Lotus Eater tribes. Many others accepted the 
  ‘aid’ of Iconian Li Halan, who shipped thousands of 
  impoverished refugees to work as slaves for 
  their Apshainghoi vassals. This episode in 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  13
  Manitou history was largely forgotten, except as a 
  warning regarding the promises of offworld nobles. 
  The region became empty, but for tiny fishing 
  villages and the bases of lotus smugglers, who traded 
  here with the tribes of the Mistswamp for Zhrii-Ka’a. 
  It still has a dark reputation, shunned by most. These 
  fenlands are rumoured to be home to weird villages 
  of cannibals and mutants, and more grendel are seen 
  here than in any other civilised region.  
  Grendel 
  Body: Str 6, Dex 7, End 6 
  Mind: Wits 3, Per 6, Tech 0 
  Skills: Fight 5, Vigor 6, Sneak 4, Dodge 6, 
  Observe 5, Survival 6 
  Vitality: (12) -10/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Move: 10m base run 
  Weapons: Bite (Goal 12, Init 6, DMG 3, victim 
  must pass a End+Vigor roll or contract the Green 
  Death), Nails (Goal 12, Init 5, DMG 4) 
  Description: Grendel hunt in small family groups 
  of 5 to 10 members. They have no higher brain 
  functions, but are still wily animals, capable of 
  planning ambushes and group tactics. They 
  mainly attack humans to drive them from their 
  territory, or rarely for meat in times of famine. 
  Some have been seen using crude clubs and 
  rocks as weapons, but most use their toughened 
  nails and teeth. Their bite has a chance of 
  passing on the fearsome Green Death. 
  Grendel is the name given to a stable form of 
  mutation resulting from the Green Death. They are 
  humans who have lost all higher reasoning, 
  becoming no more than violent apes. They are known 
  for their emaciated appearance and greenish skin. 
  They have narrow, skull-like features, and victims of 
  their bite are said to become like them. Unlike Husks, 
  grendel are alive and quick, strong and resilient to 
  pain. They are a great danger, but luckily are only 
  seen in small packs. 
  These cursed fenlands have recently become 
  important for the first time in centuries. In 4995, 
  shortly after the Emperor Wars finally ended, a lone 
  Li Halan noble and his entourage settled in an 
  abandoned town, renaming it Xin Hui-hen. This man 
  was Count Darius Hsu Zheng Li Halan. Once a 
  leading general in the Li Halan military, the Count 
  dropped out of the Iconian court following the defeat 
  of his troops during a key battle in the Malignatian 
  Wars. Becoming a virtual hermit, Hsu Zheng dropped 
  his Latinised court name and retreated to one of his 
  rural estates as an act of extreme penance. Finally, 
  when the wars ended he emerged to come to 
  Manitou. He is an aging man in his late 60s, bald 
  and generally dressed in homespun white robes, but 
  still physically powerful. In the ten years since his 
  arrival, more and more young Li Halan nobles, 
  generally landless knights or younger offspring with 
  no inheritance to speak of, have come to join the  so-
  called 
  White 
  Monk. 
  Claiming 
  surrounding 
  settlements in the fenlands, the Iconian Li Halan 
  support these seizures by claiming them as the 
  ancestral lands of the ‘Manghoi’, their Manitou 
  subjects. 
  The Li Halan now control much of the border 
  region, and are actively seeking to expand west and 
  south into tribal lands and the Mistswamp. Until 
  now, the Li Halan have been largely ignored by the 
  MTC, assuming they would behave in much the same 
  way as the secretive Decados, or the few pre-
  conversion Li Halan who live in the Free Cities. 
  Unfortunately for the MTC and their League masters, 
  the Li Halan are showing no intention of minding 
  their own business. Already, the new fiefs 
  are growing rapidly, and the strict social system of 
  the Garden Worlds is being enforced on the luckless 
  inhabitants. Beginning in 5000, the Li Halan have 
  consistently campaigned to join the MTC Council as 
  advisors. Also, in 5002, a representative of the White 
  Monk offered to police the lotus smugglers of the 
  Mistswamp on behalf of the MTC and, by extension, 
  the Vau. The embarrassed silence of the MTC was 
  taken as consent, and Li Halan knights have begun 
  breaking lotus rings and hanging captured smugglers 
  ‘in the name of the Emperor’. The Scravers and 
  Decados nobles who have a hand in much of this 
  business have so far been immune, as they mainly 
  act as middle-men between the tribesmen and 
  psychic cabals who harvest the lotus and the Known 
  World markets, but they are enraged by this 
  disruption of their trade. The MTC is plotting some 
  kind of response, but do not want to anger such a 
  close noble power. 
  It is unclear whether the White Monk is the real 
  leader of the Li Halan colonists, or merely a 
  figurehead for an expansion planned by the rulers of 
  Icon, but he adds a level of religious zeal to the 
  endeavour. Xin Hui-hen has a distinctly monastic 
  feel to it, and the young nobles of the city dress in 
  stark white to emulate their leader. The thought of 
  these zealots riding out of the mists, shouting hymns 
  and waving swords, haunts the dreams of the 
  smugglers and holdout tribals alike. The White Monk 
  sponsors missionary work into the Hinterland, and 
  these spreaders of the Word travel in large, armed 
  groups. Several have already vanished, or 
   
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  14 
  have been found mutilated at the borders of the 
  Mistswamp. This just seems to increase the White 
  Monk’s desire to convert the whole world. The Vau 
  have done nothing as of yet, probably as the Li Halan 
  do not operate with the formal help of the Church. 
  The Free Cities 
  The Free Cities is the term given to those coastal 
  city states in the southern hemisphere which lie 
  outside of the control of the MTC and their offworld 
  masters. The south was the first region to be settled 
  by humanity in the 28th century, and the settlements 
  here are built on ancient ruins from the Diasporan 
  and Republican eras. The Free Cities have been 
  dominated since the Fall by two main powers. These 
  are the radical Republic alliance of towns, known as 
  the Rhean Collective, and the City-State of Mohenjo. 
  Around a dozen other mid-sized cities exist, the most 
  influential of which are described below. The Free 
  Cities are an unsettled place, and offworlders should 
  be 
  cautious 
  and 
  discrete. 
  Fears 
  of 
  offworld 
  imperialism are rife, having been whipped up by 
  recent Republican refugees and the violent new 
  military government of Mohenjo. Only Byblos in the 
  far south and the once great port of Macao hold 
  significant foreign populations.  
  The MTC claims these cities in name, and the 
  Empire 
  recognises 
  it 
  as 
  the 
  only 
  legitimate 
  government on Manitou. However, since the general 
  collapse caused by the Green Death during the 47th 
  century, no open conflict has been fought between 
  the north and south. This uneasy truce has been 
  maintained for centuries, as all sides saw the 
  benefits of co-existence. However, the rise of the 
  Manitou Alliance and other events suggest that this 
  peace may be coming to an end. 
  The Rhean Collective  
  The Collective is one of the oldest and most 
  successful of the free cities. The Collective rules from 
  the city of New Avaneir (Recently renamed). Legend 
  claims that the city was first founded by elements of 
  the Republican Fleet fleeing the collapse of the great 
  uprising on Byzantium Secundus in 4009. Since 
  then, the original settlers have welcomed in waves of 
  refugees. The history of the Collective is incredibly 
  complex, with many civil wars and fluctuations in 
  political system, but always keeping to its radical 
  republican values. Currently, a century long period of 
  stability has been upset by the arrival of the 
  Rampartians. Initially welcomed as fellow comrades, 
  elements of the RDA have stirred up 
  resentment against the Empire, calling for support 
  for the insurrections on their homeworld and 
  elsewhere. Most of the Collective agree with the 
  impassioned calls for a Great Revolt, being ignorant 
  of the true numbers of republicans elsewhere, and 
  the RDA and their allies now dominate the 
  Parliament. Others, especially the more pacifistic 
  farming communes and the Byzantine Old Guard, 
  resent the Offworlders. Some Rampartians only see 
  the Collective as a means to wreck vengeance on 
  their Li Halan enemies, and care little for the state 
  that shelters them. Others want to abandon the lost 
  fight and rebuild here, but they are a minority. More 
  and more resources are being funnelled into weapon 
  shipments, hiring fighters and bribing pirates to 
  attack Li Halan shipping. There is a real risk that the 
  RDA may call down the wrath of the Empire if they 
  are traced here, as up until now the Collective 
  survived only due to Manitou's unique position and 
  its apparent harmlessness. The Collective is one of 
  the biggest of the Free Cities, and the principle local 
  rival 
  to 
  Mohenjo. 
  Currently, 
  the 
  RDA 
  offer 
  concessions to the Alliance to concentrate on their 
  offworld interests. The RDA faction that now runs the 
  Collective is loosely allied to the rebels in the Apshai 
  system, but sees itself as the true successor of the 
  Rampart government, leading to some hostility 
  between the two. 
  The Collective controls the coastal lands south of 
  the Mistswamp, between the Verdic Hills to the west 
  and Pentan bay in the south. New Avanier is by far 
  the largest settlement, with a population of over one 
  million. Much of the rest of the population live in 
  rural farming communes, where the land is held in 
  common. 
  The 
  members 
  draw 
  lots 
  to 
  send 
  representatives to the Parliament. The land here is 
  flat and sparsely forested, making the region one of 
  the best suited for agriculture on Manitou. The 
  majority of rural Collectivists are Gjartins, although 
  some follow an archaic form of Universalism or the 
  Banjak heresy of the Dwelthites. Due to the 
  Collective’s republican politics, it has no formal trade 
  with the MTC, relying instead on an internal 
  economy. Some limited private trade exists, but the 
  MTC has always refused to recognise the Collective 
  government. Trade with Mohenjo was once extensive, 
  but has dried up since the rise of the Manitou 
  Alliance. The Collective’s economy has held together 
  for centuries, but with the RDA spending much of its 
  resources on offworld conflicts, it is now closer to 
  collapse than the Parliament is willing to admit. 
  The people of the Free City, as New Avanier is often 
  simply called, are a proud and haughty lot. 
  The city is built around an old Republic 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  15 
  stronghold, the base for the Manitou Peace Force 
  during the times of the Republican Regional 
  Government. The city has swelled from refugees from 
  a hundred revolts and massacres since the survivors 
  of 
  the 
  Rhean 
  Revolution 
  first 
  occupied 
  the 
  abandoned base in 4009. Each of these groups has 
  maintained its identity, and neighbourhoods often 
  have distinctive flavours unique to the homeworld of 
  their inhabitants’ ancestors. Central government is 
  minimal, only exerting slightly more influence here 
  than in the anarchist countryside. A large population 
  of Ukari, and a smaller one of distinctly odd Obun, 
  interact on equal terms to the human majority. The 
  people of New Avanier have an odd, nearly religious, 
  affection for the city, something the RDA have been 
  slow to pick up on. Although the Byzantine Old 
  Guard are bitter enemies of the Ustar Exiles and the 
  Incarnate Brotherhood, they all unite behind their 
  city. The rag-tag metropolis is instilled with a 
  pseudo-divine essence. To its people, New Avanier is 
  the One Free City, the archetypal perfect human 
  society, which has manifested elsewhere when the 
  people have strived for freedom. It has become 
  traditional to rename the Free City after the centre of 
  each wave of refugees’ homeland. This self-
  confidence inevitably makes people of the City 
  insufferably smug, but gives them a spiritual 
  strength that has kept this tiny fragment of the 
  Second Republic alive for a thousand years. 
  Dwelthid Aph  
  This is a city dominated by Ukari, which broke 
  away from the Collective in 4798 after the then 
  government tried to regulate psychics. The Ukari 
  claim descent from a band of dissenters led by 
  Dwelthan Gwetherid, a taudwan of Anikrunta who 
  led a revolt against the then al-Malik rulers of 
  Kordeth in the 4640s. He is still remembered as a 
  violent terrorist and antinomist in the Known 
  Worlds, said to have drunk the blood of his enemies 
  to gain visions of the future. The people of Dwelthid 
  Aph see things differently, of course. Gwetherid 
  managed to flee to Manitou in 4648, going to ground 
  in the Collective. He rose to become the de facto 
  leader of the Ukari of much of the planet, preaching a 
  heretical, highly mystical variant of Banjak before his 
  death by agents of the AC in 4670. This reinvention 
  was clearly influenced heavily by the Collectivist 
  Ukari he met on Manitou, who were the descendants 
  of Ukari in the Republican military. Strangely, the 
  Dwelthites welcome humans as lay worshippers, 
  holding that Anikrunta extends his harsh justice to 
  all who suffer under oppression, and that the Church 
  and Empire are both agents of the Tlintoi. 
  The sect he founded now rules Dwelthid Aph from a 
  great obsidian tower, acting as an impartial mediator 
  between the various clans and the human minority. 
  Recently, another Ukari heretical group, which calls 
  itself the Children of Shurstrat, have begun 
  proselytising in the city, trying to stir up hatred 
  against the human population. Although sharing 
  some common theological positions, the Priesthood 
  of the city are trying their best to ostracise these new 
  arrivals. In addition, the Manitou Alliance is turning 
  its eye to Dwelthid Aph, apparently wanting to 
  recruit or destroy this concentration of psychics 
  before pressing north. Several psychic saboteurs have 
  been captured in the city, and have confessed that 
  they are working for the ‘true rulers’ of Mohenjo. 
  What this could mean remains a mystery. The Kadun 
  (lit. “No Man”, a ceremonial title held by the ruler of 
  the city in a similar manner to the human term 
  Exarch), is calling on the Rheans for support against 
  this growing threat, but has received no aid as of yet. 
  The Verdic Hills 
  The Verdic Hills are a lightly forested range that 
  marks the informal boundary between the areas of 
  influence of the Collective and Mohenjo. The hills are 
  named after the great diplomat, Benjamin Verden, 
  although few remember the meaning of the great 
  statue of the man in a Vau robe that stands on the 
  old road through the hills. The hills were heavily 
  populated during the Republic, with rich corporate 
  leaders and nobles owning large estates and holiday 
  homes, where they came to relax, take illicit drugs 
  and retire. The Hills are now most famous for the 
  clans of Changed that live here. They eke out a living 
  through herding and selling Republic relics found in 
  the ruins of the old villas and country homes. Most 
  are the descendants of Republican citizens who 
  underwent voluntary gene alterations. It is thought 
  many fled to Manitou during the Fall, fearing Church 
  attacks. Most of their mutations are minor and 
  cosmetic, but can be startling. Men with plumes of 
  feathers instead of hair are common, and may be 
  descended from some obscure cult or other. Much of 
  their history has been lost, only passed down in oral 
  legends. 
  Beginning in 5003, bands of Changed have begun to 
  flood north into the Collective, some spreading as far 
  north as the Li Halan estates. Those that are willing 
  to talk to outsiders describe being driven for their 
  lands by violent coastlander ‘witches’, who have 
  begun massive digs in the ruins in the hills. What the 
  Alliance could be looking for remains a mystery. 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  16 
  The Manitou Alliance 
  The City-State of Mohenjo 
  For centuries, Mohenjo has vied with the Collective 
  for position as the leading power in the Free Cities. 
  The city itself has a long history. Founded in 3613, 
  Mohenjo was built on a rocky promentary rising high 
  above the flood plains on the banks of the great 
  Shavusha river. The city was ostensibly established 
  by the Republic to act as a trade hub for the south. In 
  actuality, the settlement was cover for a huge spying 
  operation aimed at the Vau lands.  
  Much of the population was evacuated in 3998, and 
  redeployed to hotspots throughout the crumbling 
  Republic. The city was left as a ghost town, slowly 
  accumulating a population of refugees and exiles 
  during the Fall. Initially, the city was ruled by 
  competing gangs, until it was reunited under a single 
  authority in 4014 by Count Otto Von Ferdinand. The 
  Count was one of the few leaders of the Rogue 
  Houses to survive the retaking of Byzantium 
  Secundus, as he was leading a fleet to intercept a 
  Republican relief force above Liberty when the 
  hammer fell. His fleet prowled the collapsing 
  Republic for over a decade, descending rapidly into 
  piracy. Eventually, many of his ships were destroyed 
  in an engagement with the Alectos, and he fled to the 
  lawless refugee camps on Manitou. Driven out of the 
  main settled regions by remnants of the Republic 
  Navy, he settled in Mohenjo, seizing the spaceport 
  from petty corsairs and declaring himself Tyrant.  
  In 4061, Otto’s heir, Franz, abandoned his old noble 
  title to avoid reprisals from the Ten. The Tyrants of 
  Mohenjo remained a potent force in Manitou politics, 
  however, warring regularly with the Collective and 
  even with the Guilds when the Scravers began to 
  back the unification of the settlements near the 
  capital in the 4400s. With the growth of a world 
  government in the north, however, Mohenjo began to 
  decline, as offworld traders chose the larger and 
  better maintained spaceport at the Noumea. The line 
  of Tyrants was finally ended in 4703, when Heinrich 
  Darjo was poisoned by one of his mistresses. 
  Mohenjo descended into anarchy in the wake of the 
  collapse of the autocratic government. For five years, 
  the city-state suffered from raids by O’orgva and the 
  loss of territory to its rivals among the Free Cities. 
  When peace came, it was from an unexpected source. 
  The Worldsingers first appeared in the Free Cities in 
  the 4680s. At first, they seemed to be just one of the 
  many strange religions to form in the Hinterlands. 
  They combined Gjartin and Lotus-Eater 
  beliefs with some practices reminiscent of the 
  Amaltheans, and grew in popularity in the ruined 
  city-state. 
  Eventually, 
  a 
  priestess 
  known 
  as 
  Hertajma, the Shaman-Queen, rose to power in 
  Mohenjo. The Worldsingers never recovered most of 
  the territory lost in the last years of the Tyrants, but 
  trade was re-established through the sea port of 
  Macao, and Mohenjo became the main economic 
  power along the great Shavusha River. A peace treaty 
  was finally signed with the Collective in 4719, and 
  formal offworld trade was established with an 
  exclusive contract with the Harrison Syndicate in Neo 
  Edo in 4778.  
  Under the Worldsingers, the government was led by 
  a high priestess appointed by the inner council of 
  shamans. This changed in 4986, when an offworlder 
  was raised to the title for the first time. Bianca 
  Juandaastas was an exile from the Known Worlds, 
  infamous as a libertine, heretic and suspected 
  xenophile. The self-styled ‘Poet Princess’ became the 
  spokesperson for the growing offworlder population 
  of traders and recent refugees, demanding greater 
  representation in Mohenjo’s governance. Bianca 
  herself was a highly charismatic figure, and through 
  popular support was able to force the Worldsingers to 
  accept her into the cult, and then as its leader. She 
  championed greater ties to the Empire, inviting 
  fellow nobles to join her in her exile. 
  Initially the people of Mohenjo were receptive to 
  this, with the exception of some of the older 
  Worldsingers, who held that an offworlder lacked the 
  ties to the Planet needed in a ruler. However, things 
  began to turn sour as the negative implications of 
  greater ties to the Empire became apparent. In 4994, 
  a band of Avestite Pilgrims infiltrated the city and 
  assassinated 
  several 
  of 
  the 
  most 
  respected 
  Worldsinger shamans. Doubts over how such a group 
  could have reached Manitou in the first place were 
  quickly silenced in the outrage. Riots in Mohenjo 
  were only narrowly defeated by the city’s small 
  defence force. The situation worsened until 5000, 
  when Bianca was killed in an apparent flitter 
  accident. This acted as a catalyst, and a full uprising 
  overwhelmed the city. Initially leaderless, an alliance 
  of rebel groups soon coalesced to form the Manitou 
  Alliance. The Alliance drove out or slaughtered the 
  offworlder merchants and nobles, before turning on 
  those within the city they branded as ‘collaborators’. 
  The Worldsinger leadership itself was eventually 
  driven from Mohenjo, re-grouping in Macao. 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  17 
  Present Situation 
  “…and should we be silent to the cries of the 
  Mother? Should we allow the filth from the darkened 
  void to pollute our homes? I say no! I say all 
  Manitans, regardless of creed, faction or clan, must 
  rise against the tyranny of the offworlders! We must 
  act before the Mother’s Guardians turn their 
  disfavour on all mankind…” 
  Maximum Leader Rochek, at a political rally in 
  Mohenjo, 5003 
  Mohenjo is now firmly in the control of the Manitou 
  Alliance, under the leadership of Maximum Leader 
  Rochek. Rochek is a powerfully built man. Formally a 
  captain in Bianca’s defence force, he switched sides 
  with most of his men shortly after the Princess’ 
  death. He is the public face of the Alliance, appearing 
  often to lead great rallies and military parades 
  through the city’s streets. After 5 years of 
  consolidation, the city has been transformed into an 
  armed camp, with an ever growing standing army. 
  The wide boulevards now are hung with great 
  banners, displaying the dawning sun emblem of the 
  Alliance, and a great system of moats has been 
  constructed to guard the stone outcrop the city 
  stands on. The Alliance has begun an active 
  campaign of expansion. Mohenjan diplomats are now 
  spread throughout the Free Cities, and even have a 
  presence in some of the Guilder cities. Already, the 
  Black Mantis of Kiril and the smuggler towns around 
  Sharktooth Bay have signed formal treaties with the 
  Alliance. More alarmingly, the Garden City of Alor 
  has been annexed in its entirety by Mohenjo, adding 
  its vast agricultural lands to the Alliance. 
  With the expansion, foul rumours have begun to 
  spread regarding the Alliance. It is known that a 
  number of Hinterland tribes, including the feared 
  cannibals of the Mersharadii, have joined the 
  Alliance as mercenaries. Those that have stood 
  against the Alliance so far have had a tendency to die 
  or go mad in strange circumstances. The abbot of the 
  heretical monastery of the Blood of the Prophet 
  initially refused to pay tithes to Mohenjo, until he 
  announced before his congregation that he was the 
  Pancreator made flesh, and slit his own throat. 
  Likewise, a strange plague of madness and suicide 
  has struck the leaderships of several bordering cities, 
  most 
  particularly 
  amongst 
  the 
  surviving 
  Worldsingers. It is also known that the Alliance has 
  many psychics in its ranks, although it does much to 
  try and conceal this fact. Recently, the people of an 
  anarchist farming commune, loosely allied to the 
  Rheans, attacked and lynched a group of 
  bandits that had been harassing them for 
  months. They claim that the bandits had documents 
  linking them to Mohenjo, and that their leader was a 
  witch with two sets of teeth, one behind the other. 
  This man’s badly mutilated corpse was presented to 
  the Rhean parliament as evidence of Mohenjan 
  aggression, but the Collective’s government has been 
  slow to act. 
  The Minor City-States 
  The following are some of the second tier of states 
  within the Free Cities. These lack the power of the 
  Collective and Mohenjo, but have traditionally 
  remained independent of both.  
  Macao 
  Formerly a colony of Mohenjo, this major port city 
  lies at the mouth of a great river that runs through 
  the region of the Free Cities. It has acted as a hub for 
  trade with the Guild lands for centuries, founded by 
  the then Tyrant of Mohenjo in 4704. It acted as 
  Mohenjo’s principle port, with Mohenjo itself lying in 
  the centre of the arable land further up-river. Always 
  second to its founder, Macao has recently jumped in 
  importance since the revolution. The surviving 
  remnants of Princess Bianca's government have fled 
  here. Originally a strange ecstatic cult from the 
  Hinterlands, the ruling Worldsinger government is 
  now in deep decline, with its shaman-leaders 
  descending into confusion. Rates of suicide, madness 
  and mysterious deaths among the Gjartin-inspired 
  cult are staggering. The few effective administrators 
  that remain are faced with the daily struggle of 
  keeping the port open, as shipping is targeted by 
  Alliance raiders. It is only a matter of time before the 
  revolt boils down the river valley and swamps the 
  city. Now, the offworlder merchants and settlers are 
  desperate to flee, paying extortionate fees to local 
  fishermen to ferry them to the safety of the capital. 
  Those that remain are the most desperate and 
  hopeless, and an aura of fear hangs over the half-
  deserted markets and quays. 
  The Eyrie  
  The Eyrie is one of the most famous of the so-called 
  'free ports'. Lying inland of the Free Cities in the 
  heights of the Duniya Mountains, the Eyrie is a 
  relatively recent settlement. It was discovered and 
  settled in 4854 by a band of corsairs, whose ship lost 
  control unexpectedly when approaching the planet. 
  They crashed in the remains of an old city, 
  constructed in a massive crater apparently 
  manually carved out of a mountain, the top 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  18 
  of which had been sliced off and hollowed out. Most 
  suspect this was done by the Vau or the Ur long 
  before humanity's arrival, but the region had been 
  inhabited during the Republic and no reports of the 
  hollow mountain were ever made. As usual, the Vau 
  have declined to comment. 
  The humans of the Eyrie are an odd mixture of 
  offworlders and native Gjartin tribesmen, some of 
  whom have come to live in the city. The human 
  enclave takes up perhaps a quarter of the ruined city, 
  with a population of around 7000. Much remains 
  unexplored, especially in the tunnels beneath the 
  city. Rubble has been cleared to grow food within the 
  crater, and a serviceable spaceport has been built. 
  The city is governed, if that term can be used, by a 
  loose alliance of pirate captains. Any ship which 
  gains the approval of a majority of the captains can 
  berth here, and their captain can join the Council 
  while they are there. In exchange, they must swear a 
  blood oath to protect the city, and to not war within 
  the walls of the crater. The Council is divided into 3 
  main blocs. These are led by 'Baron' Khartoum al-
  Asadhi, a disgraced al-Malik naval captain turned 
  pirate, the Smiler, a hideously scarred mercenary 
  from Midian who proudly bears the Black Mark for 
  his Incarnate beliefs, and Captain Eliza Toa, the 
  Stormwife, a feared Zuranist crime lord from Madoc. 
  Baron al-Asadhi was the most powerful, but recently 
  was forced to ground in Yintrai after his flagship was 
  crippled over Criticorum. Now his faction is falling to 
  the others. The Smiler recently allied with the 
  Collective, agreeing to target Church vessels in the 
  Rampart system. The Stormwife prefers to stay out of 
  politics, and has the strongest ties to the Scravers, 
  selling her ships' cargoes to Scraver middlemen to 
  sell in Noumea and engaging in the Lotus trade. 
  Access to the city is generally only possible from the 
  air. The friendly tribes of the surrounding forests 
  know some precarious paths down the surrounding 
  cliffs, but they would prove near impossible for an 
  armed force to navigate. In 4998, the local 
  Charioteers mounted an aerial assault on the Eyrie. 
  Their heavy flitters were shot down by the defenders 
  in an intense dogfight, and the surviving leaders of 
  the assault were captured and treated to the Chauki 
  Stride. 
  The Kingdom of Taltholobad  
  Lying inland of Mohenjo, this primitive kingdom 
  lies on the borders of the Free Cities, just before the 
  forests and swamps of the interior take over 
  completely. Taltholobad itself lies within the flood 
  plane of the great Shavusha river. The 
  entire structure is built on a two-kilometre slab of 
  terracrete, constructed by the Republic for a frontier 
  settlement. The land around it is both highly fertile 
  and underwater for half the year. The people of the 
  city have an uncanny ability to retreat to the interior 
  ahead of the annual floods, however, returning to 
  reap the benefits of the rich paddy fields. They are an 
  insular people, barely maintaining a Victorian tech-
  level from trade with the Free Cities. They are ruled 
  by a King, appointed for life, who governs in tandem 
  with the priesthood of the River God, Taltholemepolo, 
  the Water Serpent. Foreigners are forbidden from 
  entering the city, a full half of which is devoted to 
  the temple of the Serpent. The religion is deeply 
  secretive, and is rarely discussed with outsiders. The 
  Taltholii maintain that their god resides with them in 
  the city, but what this could mean is anyone's guess. 
  There is one mad preacher in Noumea who claims to 
  have entered the temple as a missionary, and to have 
  seen an immense, coiling nightmare in the inner 
  sanctum. Of course, this is Manitou, where you can 
  probably find a mad preacher claiming that Hyram 
  Decados is the Prophet reborn if you look hard 
  enough. In recent months, the Alliance has begun 
  demanding more and more food for their war effort. 
  The Tatholii have grown resentful, and drove off the 
  last 'traders' with their crude muskets. The Alliance 
  intends to return in force. 
  O'orgva'heelesh'thenloen
  (trans. 'City of the Glorious Lotus', allegedly) 
  One of the largest of the Emulator settlements, but 
  by no means the only one, O'orgva has a dark 
  reputation in the other city-states, who only 
  occasionally trade with it. Founded on a second 
  republic ruin in 4319 by a Li Halan eccentric, the city 
  was intended as a utopia, built on its founder’s 
  idiosyncratic views of Vau culture. Initially mainly a 
  drug den and nest of anti-Church Li Halan rebels, 
  things took a turn for the worse in 4705, when 
  Hidden Martyrs assassinated the last of the Li Halan 
  rulers. A short but bloody coup propelled a highly 
  charismatic madwoman, Herhemanowan, into power. 
  It is thought that this woman may have been General 
  Kamiko Li Halan, the Scarlet Dragon, who was exiled 
  by the Regency for massacres of Zuranists and 
  suspected heretics (read: political enemies) during 
  the reign of the Theocrat. Killing off her enemies, she 
  enforced a strict system modelled on what was 
  known of the Vau caste system. The O'orgvans 
  believe that only Mandarins are in line with 
  prophecy, and that Soldiers and Workers 
  are tainted souls who can only attain 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  19 
  perfection by loyal service and reincarnation into a 
  higher caste. Every year, as the seasons change, the 
  Mandarins ritually murder all criminals and foreign 
  captives, and pray for the Vau to whisk them away 
  for their piety. As of yet, nothing has happened. 
  Conditions for the Workers are squalid, living in 
  rickety buildings which vaguely resemble Vau towers 
  and subject to insanely complex laws of auspice. The 
  Soldiers are essentially bandits, attacking travellers 
  and pilgrims with impunity. The Mandarin caste is 
  small, and devotes much of its time to seeking 
  'prophecy' by ingesting astonishing quantities of 
  lotus, and it is for this alone that they occasionally 
  trade with outsiders. It remains neutral in regards to 
  the politics of the world, except when it has been 
  attacked by Mohenjo or the Collective in the past for 
  raiding their lands. Currently, it seems in decline, 
  with the Soldiers only attacking unarmed pilgrims on 
  the road to the Vau enclave. 
  Once, on a rare visit by a Vau Mandarin to the 
  capital, the Decados ambassador jokingly apologised 
  for O'orgva, explaining that jealousy brings out the 
  worst in humanity. The Mandarin looked puzzled for 
  a moment, then politely claimed to have no idea to 
  which city he was referring. 
  Kiril 
  Kiril is an old city, built on the coast of Sharktooth 
  Bay by some long forgotten corporation. The vast 
  rusting warehouses and industrial sectors suggest 
  that Kiril was involved in extensive marine 
  industries, possibly including underwater mining. 
  Strangely, no detailed records of the city’s history 
  during the Republic remain. What is clear is that the 
  population of the city were abandoned by their 
  corporate masters in the chaos of the Fall. Since that 
  time, Kiril has had a chequered history, rising and 
  falling in influence but never reaching the levels of 
  Mohenjo or the Collective. 
  Until recently, Kiril was ruled by an odd 
  government. The Jade Dragon Brotherhood was a 
  mercenary band, formed centuries ago during the 
  wars between the northern Free Cities. The Jade 
  Dragon’s leadership grew rich by changing sides 
  many times in the wars between the Tyrants and the 
  Rheans. Since the peace orchestrated by the 
  Worldsingers took hold in the north, the Brotherhood 
  slowly lost much of its martial character, becoming a 
  ruling caste in the city. Kiril was divided between 
  soldiers and workers. The caste differences were 
  strictly enforced, although worker youths were given 
  a chance to compete for entry into the ruling caste 
  during annual contests of skill. By the 50th 
  century, the Brotherhood did little in the way of 
  actual warring, only testing their skills against 
  O’orgvan bandits and the pirate bands of the coast. 
  This all changed in 4987, when a group of some fifty 
  offworld soldiers entered the city. Who these men 
  were is unclear, but given that all stood in excess of 
  eight feet in height and displayed extensive 
  cybernetic alterations, it is likely that they were 
  Grimson deserters from some noble war. In a matter 
  of a year, their leader had ascended to the head of 
  the Jade Dragon, slaying the previous High Command 
  in ritual combat.  
  The new ruler of Kiril, who calls himself the Black 
  Mantis, has spent the past decade shaping the Jade 
  Dragon into an elite army once more. The small city’s 
  influence has been spreading. Tensions with Mohenjo 
  grew as soon as the Alliance seized power, and the 
  cities were on the brink of open war until the Black 
  Mantis had a sudden change of heart last year. For 
  unknown reasons, the Grimson King sold his services 
  to the Alliance. A revolt among his own officers was 
  brutally crushed, and now Jade Dragon soldiers 
  march under the Sunburst Banner. Kiril remains an 
  autonomous city, but for all intents and purposes is 
  now a member of the Manitou Alliance. The 
  capitulation of one of the only real military powers in 
  the region has only increased the paranoia of the 
  remaining Free Cities. 
  The City of the Open Eye 
  This mysterious settlement to the south of Dwelthid 
  Aph is rarely visited by outsiders. The city, which 
  was known as Podaruh during the Republic, survived 
  as a large population centre until 4308, when over 
  two thirds of the city was drowned in a massive 
  tsunami. Only a tiny number of the survivors decided 
  to stay, and since then much of the remaining ruins 
  have been cloaked in dense jungle. The city perhaps 
  would have been lost forever, if it had not been for 
  the actions of one man. In 4629, a prophet of sorts 
  appeared among the near tribal descendants of 
  Podaruh’s survivors. Known to history only as the 
  Dreamer, this man claimed to have received visions 
  from a mysterious group of Vau, who taught him 
  many secrets of the world. He spread these 
  revelations among his people, forming the core of a 
  new faith. He preached a need for humanity to awake 
  from the ‘dream’ reality they inhabited, and that the 
  Vau had brought men to Manitou to achieve this 
  ‘awakening’. The monastery he founded still draws 
  pilgrims to this day. 
  Over the years, the population has slowly grown 
  once more, with perhaps ten thousand people 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  20 
  living in what remains of the old wealthy district in 
  the hills above the bay that covers the heart of the 
  city. These people are descended from Vau Emulators 
  from across Manitou, who came to hear the words of 
  the Dreamer. The faith he founded has become the de 
  facto government. Known only as the Awakened, 
  they form a strange monastic order, living ascetic 
  lives and seeking to attain the ‘awakening’ the 
  Dreamer called for. The Awakened are viewed as 
  heretics by many Emulators, although some Manitan 
  Vau worshippers are drawn to them. 
  The City of the Open Eye, as Podaruh is now known 
  to all but a few historians, is a strange and haunted 
  place. The surviving streets are choked with creepers 
  and flowering vines. Most buildings are in disrepair, 
  and some have collapsed entirely, with families now 
  living in the hollows in the carpet of vines left behind 
  by these collapses. Tales of whispering voices and 
  alien shapes glimpsed at twilight and near dawn are 
  common. Most outsiders find the city oppressive, 
  while a few that come each year find it impossible to 
  leave. The Collective and Macao send a few 
  merchants to buy some of the rare plants that grow 
  here, but by and large the city remains outside of the 
  affairs of its neighbours. A few bands of scavengers 
  have begun picking over the ruins lost in the bay, 
  looking for treasure in sealed buildings. Only the 
  desperate join these bands. While the Awakened 
  ignore them, many go missing every year. Legend 
  holds that the ghosts of Podaruh protect their homes 
  to this day. 
  The Hinterland and the Tribes 
  The civilised lands of the coastal city-states cover 
  less than half of the great continent of Seralong, 
  clinging as they do to the edges of the Giraj oceans 
  and the fertile river valleys of the Shavusha and 
  other 
  great 
  waterways. 
  In 
  the 
  half-forgotten 
  settlement conditions, the Vau forbade humanity 
  from settling on the land west of the great Duniya 
  mountain range, which neatly bisects the continents 
  from north to south. This region, which all satellite 
  pictures and secret reconnaissance suggested was 
  entirely deserted, is still formally uninhabited to this 
  day, and remains cloaked in vast rainforests and 
  unmapped stretches of swamp and mangrove. It is 
  not, however, free of human life, nor has it been 
  since the Republican settlers displaced the first 
  Gjartin communities established during the Diaspora. 
  These groups, who already sought a more primal 
  relationship with their new planet, slowly abandoned 
  modern technology, eventually reaching a 
  sustainable level of culture as stone or iron 
  -age semi-nomadic tribes. During the Republic, these 
  groups were looked down upon but tolerated by the 
  Republican government, who only interacted with 
  them for half-hearted census attempts. The tribes 
  have swelled again since the Fall. Initially refugees 
  who could not survive in the crumbling coastal cities 
  came to join the tribes, and then again the Green 
  Death displaced millions into the interior, where they 
  were rapidly assimilated into the tribes. 
  There is a confusing multitude of tribes, sub-tribes, 
  clans and cults among the Hinterland peoples, and 
  no coastlander can claim more than a passing 
  understanding of the complexity of their relations 
  and ways of life. Indeed, the tribes seem to frequently 
  change, 
  collapsing 
  and 
  coalescing 
  into 
  new 
  confederations and alliances. Likewise, culture is 
  strangely mutable. Nearly all follow some variant of 
  Gjartin practices, believing in a world-soul of 
  Manitou, and a plethora of animistic spirits. 
  However, specific religious practices seem to change 
  often. In addition, social and linguistic drift happens 
  more quickly among the tribes than most ethno-
  linguists believe should be possible. If a Hinterland 
  clan were to be cut off from its parent tribe for only 
  fifty years, its language and cultural ways would 
  change almost beyond recognition. 
  In addition to belief in Gjarti, there is one other near 
  constant in Hinterland culture, and that is use of the 
  Zhrii-Ka’a 
  lotus. 
  Nearly 
  all 
  tribes 
  use 
  this 
  psychoactive plant in their religious ceremonies. As a 
  result, most tribesmen see the world in a manner 
  quite different from most Known Worlders, blurring 
  the lines between the material world and a 
  hallucinatory, dream-like existence. It has been 
  theorized that some tribals, in particular the shaman 
  caste, take such quantities of lotus tincture over their 
  lifetimes that their bloodstreams become saturated 
  with the drug, leading to permanent hallucinatory 
  experiences and heightened senses. The unique 
  properties of the lotus also lead to higher than 
  average rates of psychic ability among the tribes. 
  Every tribe will have psychics in its numbers, and all-
  psychic cabals and cults are fairly common. 
  Of the tribes that interact with the coastlanders, 
  some of the largest follow. 
  The Messad Pakma 
  The Pakma are one of the most northern of the 
  great tribes, and as a result have the greatest contact 
  with the Guild Lands. Like most tribals, the Pakma 
  are Gjartins, worshipping Manitou itself as a mother 
  goddess. The tribe is divided into hundreds 
  of small clans, each numbering around 60 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  21 
  to 100 members. They maintain a stone age culture, 
  but are known to trade with the Guild towns for steel 
  implements, textiles and hunting weapons. In 
  exchange, they gather and trade medicinal herbs and 
  the Zhrii-Ka’a lotus. They are the main tribe with 
  which the Scraver and Decados lotus smugglers 
  interact, on the borders of the Mistswamp where 
  most of the Pakma live. Several of the psychic covens 
  of the Known Worlds also have links with the Pakma. 
  In particular, members of the Favyana occasionally 
  spend time among the tribe to learn their psychic 
  traditions and their understanding of the lotus. The 
  Pakma are generally peaceful, but have responded 
  with violence when coastlanders invade their holy 
  places. In recent years, tensions caused by Li Halan 
  missionaries have soured relations for many of the 
  clans with the Guild towns, and many Pakma now 
  shun contact with the coast. 
  Most of the Pakma clans live within the Mistswamp. 
  This vast land of swamp and moor marks an 
  impassable barrier between the MTC and the Free 
  Cities of the south. Lying near to the equator, the 
  Mistswamp is incredibly humid, and much of it is 
  cloaked in a permanent pall of thick purplish mist. 
  The odd electromagnetic phenomena of Manitou are 
  much more pronounced here, and are capable of 
  wrecking even shielded electronics. As a result, only 
  primitive technology can be maintained here. The 
  centre of the Mistswamp is dominated by hundreds 
  of miles of dense mangrove swamps, with only small 
  patches of dry land lying between the great trees. The 
  tribes who live here make their homes in the 
  mangrove branches, high above the water, which 
  teams with serpents and biting insects. This land 
  features the largest known lotus beds on Manitou. It 
  is said that the groves where these semi-aquatic 
  flowers grow are so abundant that the fumes from 
  the lotus can drive a man mad. Only the Pakma know 
  where these grottoes lie, and they guard them 
  fiercely. 
  The Pakma are not the only humans to live in the 
  Mistswamp. A psychic coven known as the Favyana 
  has a presence here, trading with the Pakma for 
  lotus. Recently, other smuggler groups have begun 
  retreating further into the swamps to escape the 
  White Monk’s patrols. Already, some of these groups 
  have vanished. There are also persistent rumours of 
  tribes of horrific mutants living in the deep swamps. 
  These creatures are said to have mighty occult 
  powers, and to dwell beneath the surface, having 
  developed gills and other amphibious characteristics. 
  Even the Pakma fear the Children of the Waters, as 
  these beasts are called. 
  The Pelomorii 
  This 
  confederation 
  of 
  tribes 
  dwells 
  in 
  the 
  mountainous region around the Eyrie and in the 
  northern Verdic Hills. They are semi-nomadic 
  agriculturalists, moving between sites every few 
  years, and maintain an iron age technology base. 
  Nominally Gjartins, the Pelomorii primarily worship 
  personal animal totems, and try to emulate the 
  behaviour of their chosen animal. The Pelomorii have 
  domesticated several species of native animals. The 
  most commonly encountered of these is the shidra, a 
  long-necked, carnivorous dog-like reptile, used in 
  hunting and herding the more docile chikal. The arts 
  of Beastmastery are relatively common among the 
  Pelomorii, and those that trade with the Verdic 
  Changed or the pirates of the Eyrie are always 
  accompanied by their animal companions. 
  The Mersharadii 
  This southern tribe has a dark reputation among 
  those who border their homelands in the mountains 
  west of the Shavusha River. The Mersharadii are 
  violent bandits and raiders, preying on other tribes 
  and on the settlements of the river valley. 
  Mersharadii do not farm or hunt, instead relying on 
  slaves captured from their enemies to work for them. 
  They worship a debased form of Gjartinism, offering 
  blood sacrifices to the Ravenous Mother. They are 
  also infamous for the practice of cannibalism. During 
  their lotus-fuelled ceremonies, Mersharadii shamans 
  eat the brains of victims caught in slave raids. They 
  claim that the lotus allows them to absorb the 
  memories of those they consume, which are in turn 
  passed on to the Ravenous Mother when the 
  shamans enter her caves (thought to lie somewhere 
  in the Duniyas) to die. In recent years, the 
  Mersharadii have begun to expand, taking advantage 
  of the chaos in the Free Cities to spread eastward. 
  Already they are encroaching into the lands of the 
  Taltholii. 
  In 
  addition, 
  many 
  thousands 
  of 
  Mersharadii warriors have become mercenaries for 
  the Manitou Alliance, acting as scouts and terror 
  troops.  
  There is little known about the more western tribes, 
  living in the Vau lands beyond the Duniya 
  Mountains. It is known that many tribes live here, 
  through talks with the eastern tribes who have 
  occasional contact with them. The Vau seem to take 
  no interest in this breach of the conditions of 
  settlement, although the rare coastlander groups that 
  have tried to settle here have always vanished 
  without a trace. What little is known about 
  the deep Hinterland is more myth and legend 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  22 
  than fact, and much is filtered through the drugged 
  perceptions of the lotus tribes. Still, occasional brave 
  souls return from searches for vautech or rare metals 
  with outlandish tales. I have heard stories of clans of 
  humans 
  with 
  no 
  spoken 
  language, 
  or 
  who 
  communicate only by telepathy. Other stories speak 
  of clans which sit for days in silent meditation, 
  heedless of their surroundings, or of men with lotus 
  flowers growing in their hair, or of great herds of 
  Grendel, thousands strong, which whoop and cry as 
  they migrate through the deep jungles. The Gjartin 
  tribes hold that these deep tribes are those who have 
  reached true communion with Manitou, and as such 
  have long since ceased to be truly human. 
  Shidra 
  Body: Str 5, Dex 8, End 4 
  Mind: Wits 3, Per 5, Tech 0 
  Skills: Fight 4, Observe 6, Dodge 6, Vigor 4, Sneak 
  5, Tracking 6 
  Vitality: (8) -10/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0 
  Move: 20m base run 
  Weapons: Bite (Goal 12, Init 6, DMG 3) 
  Special: Sensitive Smell (+4 Tracking w/scents), 
  Infra-Red Vision (+2 Observe to spot heat sources) 
  Description: Shidra are relatively common dog-
  analogues. They resemble Alsatian-sized lizards 
  with straight legs and long, snake-like necks. In 
  the wild, they hunt in packs like Urthish wolves, 
  using similar tactics to tire out and outnumber 
  larger prey. They are easily domesticated, and will 
  follow commands with ease.  
  The Eastern Reaches 
  This great archipelago, which stretches from the 
  north-eastern coast of Seralong down to the great 
  island of the Vau, is only sparely populated by 
  humans. The islands are generally rocky and 
  forested, and are buffeted by great seasonal storms. 
  They are also home to several vicious amphibious 
  species. These include the mersosh, a hunched 
  bipedal frog-like creature that has no fear of man and 
  hunts in packs, and the leshy, a strange plant-like 
  creature that feeds on blood.  
  Wild Gift: Beastmasters can borrow the Bite, 
  Sensitive Smell and Infra-Red Vision abilities of 
  cohort shidra. 
  The only island with a large human population is 
  that of Khuda-Maghz. The largest of the chain, 
  Khuda-Maghz lies closest to Seralong in the north. It 
  is home to the city of Neo Edo, a smallish naval port 
  founded by the descendants of Republic settlers. The 
  interior of the island is hilly and covered in thick 
  jungle. It is also the site of extensive Vau ruins, 
  many of which seem to lie beneath the surface. The 
  natives of Neo Edo are thought to be the descendants 
  of archaeological teams who came here during the 
  Republic, 
  and 
  were 
  stranded 
  after 
  the 
  Fall. 
  Eventually, the MTC established contact with the 
  port, and a small amount of trade began. This has 
  grown explosively since Scraver archaeologists 
  discovered deposits of pygmallium in the island’s 
  interior. Now, Neo Edo is firmly in the grip of the 
  Harrison Syndicate, who hold a monopoly on the 
  extraction and trade of the rare mineral. The city and 
  the mining operations are run by Dean Markos Arad, 
  and access to the island is severely restricted, but for 
  the shipments that take pygmallium to Noumea four 
  times a year. 
  The pygmallium apparently lies in surprisingly pure 
  deposits, and while not as extensive as the mines on 
  Leminkainen, it is still a source of great wealth for 
  the Guild. Rumours from miners suggest 
  that the pygmallium has been found in strange, 
  concentric circles running throughout the island. 
  While most of the natives work quietly for the 
  Scravers, there are a growing number who try to 
  sabotage the mines. These rebels hold to some 
  strange religious tradition, claiming that the mining 
  is angering ‘the King under the Hill’, a god that 
  dwells within the Vau ruins and will kill all humans 
  if it grows angry. The rebels’ numbers have swelled 
  since the island was struck by a series of 
  earthquakes last year. 
  The Vau Enclaves 
  As mentioned above, the original conditions of 
  settlement agreed by the Diasporan settlers in 2855 
  marked over half of the land on Manitou as the 
  exclusive domain of the Vau governors. Since that 
  time, the Vau have never shown much indication of 
  actually dwelling on Seralong, although enigmatic 
  ruins and monuments suggest that they once dwelt 
  across the globe, apparently centuries before humans 
  ever came here. Now, the vast majority of the Vau 
  dwell on the large island of Mhi’heresh’lathoom. 
  There is a token presence on the southernmost tip of 
  Seralong. Here, a rocky peninsula is claimed by the 
  Vau, the edge of this enclave marked by the small 
  city of Byblos. This is the oldest human settlement 
  on Manitou, and has always existed solely as a 
  meeting place for the races. Legends hold that the 
  Vau used to visit Byblos every year, 
  celebrating the Vau New Year festival with 
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  23
  their human subjects. If this ever happened, it ended 
  long ago, and the Vau rarely show themselves now. 
  The city is nominally a member of the MTC, largely 
  due to the desire of the League and the Empire to 
  maintain ambassadors as close to the Vau as 
  possible. Much of this once great city is deserted, 
  inhabited only by a mismatched population of Vau 
  Emulators, diplomats and spies. It has a strange, 
  melancholy feel, especially at twilight when the 
  Temples of Auspice vainly chant hymns for their Vau 
  masters, who have not replied in centuries. 
  Byblos lies at the end of an old Republic motorway, 
  part of a network that once linked the cities of the 
  east coast. Now, much of this network has become 
  buried by landslides or encroaching jungle, but a 
  path is still navigable north past the cities of the 
  Shavusha river valley, through the Verdic Hills, and 
  ending in the city of New Avanier. This has become 
  known as the Pilgrim’s Road, and bands of Vau 
  Emulators still travel it every year. This practice is 
  most common among Manitans, a large minority of 
  whom worship the Vau as spiritual teachers and 
  guardians. Still, each year sees a small number of 
  offworlders taking the trip, and numbers 
  have grown since the Emperor Wars, as more 
  in the Known Worlds seek for meaning beyond the 
  teachings of the Church. The Pilgrim’s Road is 
  dangerous, as bandits from O’orgva and violent 
  tribals pick off small groups. Still, the Emulator 
  pilgrims have a certain mystique associated with 
  them, and many are reluctant to harass them, 
  perhaps fearing their alien masters. 
  No humans are permitted to step beyond a great 
  green arch erected by the Vau on the southern edge 
  of Byblos. Every year, pilgrims, adventurers and thrill 
  seekers attempt to thwart this rule. The Vau seem 
  oddly 
  tolerant 
  of 
  this 
  transgression. 
  Some 
  trespassers are left alone, allowed to wander the 
  peninsula at will. Others vanish for weeks, only to 
  awake on the borders of Byblos with no memory of 
  what has transpired. Those that have returned 
  unmolested report that the peninsula has scattered 
  towns of alien design, but that they appear deserted. 
  Small teams of Vau soldiers have been seen watching 
  these explorers, but do nothing unless provoked. At 
  the tip of the peninsula there appears to be a large 
  Vau town, again apparently deserted. In its centre is 
  a great wheel, of the same odd green stone that 
  decorates the border at Byblos. This wheel is 
  intricately carved with Vau glyphs, and has 
  © Jack Oldham, 2005 
   
  
  Imperial Survey: Manitou 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  24 
  more than a passing resemblance to the great 
  jumpgates. The wheel stands atop a great white cliff, 
  rising hundreds of feet above the crashing surf. The 
  Great Gate, as this artefact is called, has a mirror on 
  the shore of Mhi’heresh’lathoom, ten miles distant 
  across a wide and turbulent channel. Some theorise 
  that these mark some strange bridge of energy or 
  another great work of Vau technology. Certain 
  Engineers will offer vast sums for a single 
  photograph of the Gate. 
  The Island of the Vau is and always has been an 
  enigma. No human is known to have set foot on the 
  isle and returned. The island is often obscured by 
  thick mists, and its strange defences described above 
  mean that no explorer has gotten within a few miles 
  of it. The isle is girt by massive sandstone cliffs that 
  in places display vast and alien murals. The isle 
  appears forested, and low mountains arise in the 
  south-west. There are two apparent settlements 
  visible on the northern coast. These are the southern 
  half of the Great Gate, and the even more enigmatic 
  city of impossibly tall and thin towers and gossamer-
  like banners known only as the City of Mists. This 
  city is thought to be the capital of the Vau governor, 
  and Vau spaceships have been seen descending 
  towards it. Like all else with Manitou’s enigmatic 
  rulers, nothing more is known beyond rumour, 
  paranoia and legend. 
  Game Rules 
  The Atmosphere 
  The Manitou atmosphere disrupts long-range radio 
  communications. All radar and other sensors operate 
  with a penalty of -2, which can rise as high as -10 
  during electrical storms. The Mistswamp can ruin 
  any electronics, except perhaps some Republican 
  hardened military tech, in a matter of hours. All 
  sensor rolls automatically fail, and any equipment 
  with 
  electronic 
  components 
  (including 
  lasers, 
  blasters and energy shields) will become inoperable. 
   
   
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  25 
  Lost World: Svarog 
  By Jack Oldham 
   
  History 
  The planet of Svarog was initially discovered by 
  explorers from Cadiz in the employ of the young 
  House Decados in 2830. Discovering a pleasant, 
  Urth-like world suitable for human habitation, the 
  Decados were quick to claim the planet as their own. 
  Until the establishment of the Second Republic, 
  Svarog was only sparsely inhabited, home to Decados 
  pleasure palaces and a few million indentured 
  farmers (most of whom were of Slavic origin, 
  descended from TUW workers first used by the 
  Gloucesters in the settlement of Cadiz). The Decados 
  monopoly on the world was weakened with the 
  discovery of a new jumproad from New Java in 3512, 
  and a steady stream of colonists from the Republic 
  Core set up independent and corporate-sponsored 
  settlements throughout the early centuries of the 
  Republic.  
  The second era in Svarog’s history began with the 
  decision of the Republic Senate to mount massive 
  development projects to turn Cadiz into a paradise 
  suitable for a centre of diplomacy with the Vau 
  Hegemony. In 3850, the Republic used diplomatic 
  pressure to force the Decados to sell their holdings on 
  Svarog to the controversial terraforming consortium, 
  the Eco Green Organization. EGO was granted 
  significant government funds to develop Svarog into 
  a breadbasket, intended to feed the massive urban 
  population of Cadiz. The climate of the planet was 
  optimised for the growth of massive harvests of 
  staple crops such as scarlet wheat and millirice. Even 
  after the Vau rejected Cadiz in favour of their own 
  world of Vril-Ya, Svarog remained one of the main 
  exporters of crops in the region, supplying foodstuffs 
  to heavily industrialised and marginal worlds as far 
  away as Liberty and Istakhr. The underbelly of the 
  world, with the poor treatment of farm labourers and 
  growing problems with the terraforming engines, 
  were criticised by the Republic’s liberal politicians, 
  but no concerted action was taken to challenge the 
  control of a vast megacorporation such as EGO. 
  By the end of the 39th century, Svarog had become a 
  centre for the Eco Green’s vast corporate empire. In 
  3886, Dr Maria Soltsein, an EGO scientist, 
  made a number of breakthroughs in the 
  harnessing of geothermal energy for the production 
  of electrical power. Theoretically providing an 
  unlimited supply of power in excess of even the 
  fusion technology of the Republic, the first of these 
  experimental geothermal plants was constructed on 
  the northern coast of the equatorial island of 
  Letovysche, within a pre-existing terraforming node. 
  A resounding success, the geothermal plant was 
  chosen to become the foundation of a great arcology, 
  intended to house the corporate executives. This 
  arcology, known as Pershi Vezha, was begun in 
  3902, and was completed in 3934. Standing over five 
  kilometres in height, the great edifice housed over 2 
  million EGO employees. The Spire, as it was 
  colloquially known by Svarog’s inhabitants, was 
  capped by a space elevator, which stretched 
  thousands 
  of 
  miles 
  up 
  to 
  a 
  station 
  in 
  geosynchronous orbit.  
  As the Republic began to unravel in the last years of 
  the 40th century, Svarog did not escape unscathed. 
  Rocked by the scandals following the mysterious 
  abandonment of Chernobog, and with it with several 
  thousand EGO employees (most of whom came from 
  Svarog), the political control of the planet by the 
  corporation began to slip. In 3987, the Republic 
  revoked EGO’s ownership of the world as part of a 
  raft of punishments against the terraforming 
  industry designed to pacify the Church. A Republic 
  senator was established, but it became clear quickly 
  that this man was a Decados puppet. When the 
  Senate on New Istanbul was massacred by the Ten, a 
  Decados fleet mounted an unsurprising invasion of 
  Svarog, claiming the Republic purchase had been 
  nothing more than an illegal land grab. 
  The war for Svarog stretched on long after the Fall 
  of much of the Republic. The EGO forces used their 
  defensive position on the space station to fight off 
  any large Decados invasion fleets, while on the 
  surface the Jakovians stirred up worker revolts in the 
  mega-farms of the north. At the same time, hundreds 
  of thousands of refugees from the Core came flooding 
  through the New Java jumpgate, escaping from the 
  Church-sponsored 
  purges 
  tearing 
  apart 
  the 
  Golcondan worlds. It is unknown who finally sealed 
  the jumpgate in 4036, but in so doing sizable 
  numbers of people from all these factions were 
  stranded. Svarog had become clogged with 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  2
  refugee camps, and the economy built solely on 
  offworld trade had collapsed. Vast stockpiles of grain 
  rotted as distribution networks broke down or were 
  destroyed by the warring Decados and corporate 
  forces. Millions died as disease and famine ravished 
  the camps and corp cities alike. 
  Svarog Traits 
  Ruler: The Svit Uryad (The World State) 
  Cathedral: Malo Sontse (Church of the Bohoslov 
  Mashyna) 
  By 4200, Svarog had settled into a squalid state. 
  Much of the northern continent was held by the 
  descendants of the Decados invasion force, which 
  tried to enforce feudal control over rebellious farming 
  communes. 
  Around 
  the 
  Spire, 
  the 
  corporate 
  government clung on to their arcology, although the 
  space station had been demolished in the closing 
  days of the War, barring them from space. A state of 
  cold war developed, with both sides threatening 
  nuclear annihilation. This situation finally began to 
  change in the 4220s, when the corporate government 
  began to be subverted from within by a strange cult 
  among the ranks of the terraforming engineers who 
  maintained the Spire. This shadowy group, that 
  appears to have originated as a branch of the 
  SoulCraft sect (destroyed in the Known Worlds during 
  the Fall), threatened to disable the geothermal 
  engines unless negotiations were opened with the 
  northern states. The Church of the Bohoslov 
  Mashyna, as this group called itself, began to send 
  missionaries across the world, offering to use their 
  technology to construct copies of the Spire, complete 
  with geothermal power plants in all of the warring 
  states. By the end of the century, all of Svarog’s 
  nations had conceded to the offers of the Enerhiyist 
  Church, and around 30 spire arcologies were built 
  across the world.  
  Agora: Kosmofabryka (Independent Spire) 
  Garrison: 4 
  Capital: Osnova Odyn (The Svit Uryad) 
  Jumps: 5 
  Adjacent Worlds: Cadiz (dayside), Mataran 
  (dayside) 
  Solar System: Sun, Perun (0.52 AU), Svarog (1.4 
  AU; Svarozhich, Dazhdbog, Khors), 
  Ersvorsh (10.2 AU), Beilbog (14 AU; 6 moons), 
  Myesyats (19 AU), Jumpgate (66 AU) 
  Tech: 6 (8 in the cores of the Spires) 
  Population: 50 million Lotchyk, 300 million 
  Khodak (50,000 Hironem) 
  Resources: Mineral 
  ores, 
  high-tech 
  devices, 
  scientific knowledge 
  Exports: High-tech ceramics and metal alloys, 
  aerial technology, forbidden scientific 
  texts 
  In the face of apparently limitless energy, the 
  various warring states atrophied and eventually 
  disbanded. The Church became the leaders of a world 
  government, called the Svit Uryad, which was 
  formally founded in 4319. This strange theocratic 
  empire ruled unchallenged for nearly 500 years. The 
  world’s population congregated in the spires, each of 
  which became a largely independent city-state. 
  Technology was venerated as a holy sacrament, an 
  embodiment 
  of 
  the 
  Bohoslov 
  Mashyna 
  (Holy 
  Machine), and was restored to a level on par with the 
  early Republic. Much of the world’s population 
  enjoyed an excellent standard of living. Nearly all 
  came to own the small, powerful airplanes which 
  were to become to ubiquitous on this world, serving 
  as both personal transportation and as a religious 
  artefact.  
  Unfortunately, this peaceful era was to prove short-
  lived. In the late 47th century, astronomers began to 
  note 
  strange 
  fluctuations 
  in 
  the 
  electromagnetic radiation emitted by Svarog’s sun. 
  Within years, the star began to noticeably dim. With 
  it, the temperature on Svarog plummeted. The near 
  tropical climate maintained by the terraforming 
  engines fell, and great icecaps began to expand 
  across the poles. In 4732, the northernmost spire was 
  abandoned as it became engulfed by the expanding 
  glaciers. In the equatorial regions, always the centre 
  of Svarogian civilisation, the falling temperature 
  devastated the crops. No longer able to rely on 
  robotic workers to sustain the farms needed to feed 
  the spire-dwellers, the Svit Uryad began encouraging 
  citizens to return to the deserted farming towns of 
  their ancestors. This proved highly unpopular, and by 
  4750, the Church began sending criminals and social 
  malcontents to work the farms. At their worst, these 
  became armed camps, where petty criminals and the 
  merely unlucky were worked to death to feed their 
  fellows.  
  Over time, the children of these farm workers came 
  to be viewed as lesser creatures by the spire-dwellers. 
  By the beginning of the 49th century, Svarog had 
  become split into two castes. The people of the spires 
  came to be called Lotchyk (airmen), living the easy 
  and decadent life of their culture at its height as if 
  nothing had changed. The farm workers came to be 
  called Khodak (walkers), and were viewed 
  as sub-human chattel. Soon, the Khodak 
  6 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  27 
  came to outnumber the Lotchyk. Early revolts were 
  countered with devastating air raids, with modified 
  aircraft dropping bombs and napalm on rebel 
  villages.  
  The Svit Uryad has struggled on to the present day, 
  its 
  citizens 
  increasingly 
  living 
  isolated 
  and 
  delusional lives. In 4867, the remote spire of 
  Kosmofabryka revolted, refusing to send delegates to 
  the Outer Duma at Osnova Odyn. When no retaliation 
  occurred, more of the eastern spires quietly broke 
  away. Some continued much as they had before, but 
  cut off from the world government. Others took to 
  piracy and raiding their neighbours for food, 
  technology and Khodak slaves. These so called Nebo 
  Zlodiy became a growing threat, forcing the spires of 
  the Svit Uryad to arm themselves and mount air 
  patrols to scan their borders.  
  The 50th century has seen the Svit Uryad 
  fragmenting further. In 4920, much of the southern 
  island of Zemlja was swamped by a massive Khodak 
  revolt, culminating in the destruction of the Perevani 
  Drotyk spire by a vast peasant army. A decade later, 
  in 4936, three spires broke away at once. The 
  priesthood of these spires was usurped by a conclave 
  of fighter pilots, who claimed descent from the old 
  Decados kingdoms of the 41st and 42nd centuries. 
  Since then, the Decados pretenders have been in a 
  state of constant war with the Svit Uryad, with epic 
  air battles being fought over the crashing waves of 
  the Straits of Oskol. 
  Svarog finally rejoined the jumpweb in 4963. It is 
  unclear exactly when the gate reopened, but it was 
  first used by a corsair ship called the Bloody Hawk. 
  This ship was a Republic relic, discovered by a pirate 
  crew in the ruins of an abandoned city on Cadiz. The 
  pirates made landfall at Kosmofabryka, as the spire 
  was built on the ruins of the old EGO spaceport 
  mentioned on the Hawk’s think machine. Since then, 
  this spire has conducted limited trade with the 
  handful of pirates and smugglers who know of the 
  world. This changed in 4989, when Decados agents 
  attacked and boarded the Hawk above Cadavus. 
  Under torture, the ship’s captain surrendered the 
  codes to Svarog. Since then, the Decados have sent 
  small scouting teams to the world, but have not 
  decided as of yet whether to mount a full invasion. 
  Around a year ago, a pirate known a Jarak the Red 
  was captured by the MTC on Manitou, and has sold 
  his story of a trip to Svarog in 4997 to both the 
  League and the Imperial Eye. Both parties are 
  planning investigations of their own. 
  Solar System 
  Sun: Svarog’s star is a fairly standard sun, much 
  like Sol. In the past 300 years, however, it has 
  dimmed dramatically. It is now a sullen orange-red in 
  colour, and gives off less heat than it should. The 
  change defies the understanding of the greatest 
  Svarogan astronomers. 
  Perun: Perun is a hot, cloud-covered world, which is 
  around the same size as Svarog. Attempts at 
  terraforming were made during the Republic, but the 
  engines were destroyed by Decados invaders during 
  the Fall. There is no evidence that any humans 
  survived in the toxic atmosphere. 
  Svarog: Svarog has three moons in various orbits. 
  Svarozhich and Dazhdbog are unexceptional, being 
  uneven captured meteorites. Khors is a larger 
  planetoid. It was inhabited during the Republic, and 
  many deserted mining installations dot the airless 
  surface.  
  Ersvorsh: This is a large, ice-covered world. It was 
  terraformed, and still has a breathable atmosphere. 
  However, its large size and crushing gravity make it 
  impossible for normal humans to survive for long. 
  Tribes of Changed, designed by EGO to cope with the 
  harsh conditions, dwell here. They are great shaggy 
  creatures, only vaguely resembling standard humans, 
  and have only a very primitive culture. 
  Beilbog and Myesyats: These are both large gas 
  giants. Beilbog has a number of abandoned naval 
  stations on its moons. Myesyats has no satellites 
  other than a vast network of rings. 
  Landscape 
  The world of Svarog was well-suited for human 
  habitation even before it was heavily terraformed 
  during the Second Republic. The size, atmosphere 
  and gravity of the world are well within human 
  tolerances, with the only oddity being the 28 hour 
  day resulting from a slightly slower rate of rotation. 
  Svarog is roughly 70% water, although much of this 
  is held up in the large polar glaciers. The northern 
  hemisphere is dominated by the continent of 
  Liskrayina, which almost rings the globe, only split 
  by the Nova Baltic Sea in the east, and the 
  hazardous, ice-filled Straits of Oskol. In the south, 
  the only land is in the form of the two large islands 
  of Letovysche in the west and Zemlja in the east. 
  The climate of Svarog was once subtropical, 
  deliberately engineered to aid in the growth 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  28 
  of crops which were the centre of the planet’s 
  economy. Since the sun began to fade in the late 
  4700s, the temperature has plummeted. Now, a full 
  fifth of the world lies beneath the poles, which 
  continue to expand by several metres a year. All the 
  land north of the Dosch Mountains on Liskrayina is 
  now little more than tundra and frigid scrubland. 
  South of the mountains, the climate resembles 
  northern Europe, and is cloaked in the remains of the 
  old mega-farms (now largely lost to the wilderness) 
  and great tracts of pine forest. Only Letovysche on 
  the equator remains largely unchanged, and as a 
  result is still a centre for agriculture. 
  The three moons of Svarog exert a strong and 
  complex gravitic force on the world. This has always 
  made the oceans of the world dangerous to navigate, 
  and is one of the principle reasons why the people of 
  this world have relied so heavily on aircraft. Great 
  storms in the world-spanning Buria Ocean can rage 
  for weeks at a time, and become so fierce that they 
  can blow aircraft hundreds of miles off course. 
  People & Places 
  The Church of the Bohoslov Mashyna 
  For all of its existence, the Svit Uryad has been 
  under the control of the Church of the Bohoslov 
  Mashyna, the strange amalgam of technosophy and 
  Universalist religion that formed among EGO’s 
  terraforming engineers in the last days of the Second 
  Republic. The priesthood of the Church, who are 
  known by the title of Inzhener, serve three roles in 
  the culture of the Lotchyk. Firstly, they still continue 
  their original role as the operators and preservers of 
  the great geothermal engines that lie at the core of 
  each of the spire arcologies. In this role, they are also 
  the maintainers of much of the other technology of 
  the Lotchyk. Over the centuries, the knowledge of 
  technology held by the average citizen has atrophied 
  to the point where all but the simplest devices are 
  viewed with religious awe. The functioning of 
  technology is kept hidden by the priesthood, to 
  maintain their vital roles as engineers, terraformers 
  and aircraft mechanics.  
  The second and largest role of the Enerhiyist Church 
  is that of the ruling government of the Svit Uryad. 
  The Church, and by extension the whole World State, 
  is governed by an Inner and Outer Duma. The Outer 
  Duma, which contains representatives from the ranks 
  of the Inzheners of all of the loyal spires, maintains a 
  parliamentary system, based in the capital 
  spire of Osnova Odyn. This body holds 300 members, 
  and carries out all its debates in public. Ostensibly, 
  any citizen can petition the Outer Duma to listen to 
  his suggestions or grievances. In reality, very few 
  take advantage of this right, with most of the 
  Lotchyk being largely ignorant or apathetic towards 
  the mechanisms of their government. The Outer 
  Duma is tasked with debating and passing laws with 
  regards to the internal workings of the spires, and 
  acts as the high court for secular law. The Inner 
  Duma, which meets in private in the holy spire of 
  Malo Sontse, is tasked with matters of foreign policy, 
  defence and relations with the Khodak, in addition to 
  policing religious law through an agency called the 
  Doslidnyk (Investigators). The Inner Duma controls 
  the Kapitans of the air force, issuing all orders 
  beyond local defence against pirate raids. The Inner 
  Duma has met behind closed doors since an 
  assassination attempt on one of its members by a 
  Khodak sympathizer in 4834, and likewise the 
  identity of its members is a matter of utmost secrecy. 
  In the old days, the two Dumas were on relatively 
  equal footing in regards to power. The Outer Duma 
  handled most affairs of the State, while the Inner 
  Duma concentrated on the rare Khodak revolt or case 
  of banditry. However, the rebellions of the past 150 
  years have led to the Inner Duma assuming a 
  position of importance far in excess of its more public 
  counterpart. 
  The third and most public role of the Church is as 
  the spiritual advisors and shepherds of its flock. 
  Clearly modelling itself on the Universal Church of 
  the Republic, the Church is at the same time 
  startlingly different from its parent in many ways. 
  The faith, known as Enerhiyism, is basically a highly 
  rationalised variant of Universalism. In its original 
  form, the founders of the sect stripped away nearly 
  all of the superstition and mythology that had 
  accrued around the Universal creed since the days of 
  the Prophet. Indeed, the role of the Prophet himself 
  has been dropped from the faith. The Church worship 
  a fundamental principle or force known as the 
  Bohoslov Mashyna (the Holy Engine), or simply as 
  the Enerhiya (the Energy). This is essentially the 
  notion 
  of 
  the 
  Pancreator 
  stripped 
  of 
  all 
  anthropomorphisms and supernatural beliefs. The 
  Enerhiya is seen as the universal force that powers 
  the entirety of the universe (called the Matrytsia by 
  the Church). Everything from the vibration of atoms 
  to the great nuclear forces of the stars is imbued and 
  empowered by the Enerhiya. Likewise, life itself is 
  the product of this primal energy. By extension, the 
  geothermal power plants at the core of the spires are, 
  in a way, great temples to the Enerhiya, 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  29 
  shaping and harnessing the stuff of the universe. 
  Old records suggest that the Enerhiyists initially 
  rejected all notions of the supernatural, seeing the 
  divine as a product of the physical universe. To be 
  sure, human understanding was limited, but the 
  Church held to the essentially scientific belief that 
  with time all the mysteries of God could be revealed, 
  and that the search was itself a kind of worship. Over 
  the centuries, however, the standard irrational 
  trappings of religion have re-emerged. In particular, 
  the technology that harnesses the Enerhiya is now 
  venerated. This is particularly common in the eyes of 
  the citizens, who have an essentially magical view of 
  life, seeing the technological marvels of their 
  arcology homes and their aircraft as holy relics. In 
  particular, the airplane has a central role in common 
  religion. The swift motion and isolation felt in long 
  flights is seen as communion with the divine. As a 
  result, most fetishize their aircraft, painting them 
  with religious insignia. The main public rites of the 
  Church take the form of great aerial displays, with 
  thousands 
  of 
  planes 
  involved 
  in 
  carefully 
  choreographed dances that can last for days. In 
  recent years, these displays have taken on a darker 
  and apocalyptic aspect. As the sun, the greatest of 
  Holy Engines, fails, the Church hopes to reignite it 
  with great displays of piety. As a result, each year 
  sees greater and greater aerial dances, which can 
  stretch on for weeks. Now, an observer will see 
  planes spiralling out of control or colliding in mid-air 
  as their pilots pass out from exhaustion. These 
  sacrifices are seen as martyrs for the cause, and 
  refusal to perform in the rites leads to immediate 
  expulsion into the ranks of the Khodak. 
  The Svit Uryad 
  “Enerhiya grant Life. Life grant Motion. Motion 
  grant Enerhiya.” 
  The Airman’s Hymn. 
  Despite the loses of the past two centuries, the Svit 
  Uryad of the Bohoslov Mashyna remains the largest 
  state on Svarog. Centred around the three great 
  spires of Pershi Vezha, Malo Sontse and Osnova 
  Odyn, the World State controls the island of 
  Letovysche and around a third of the southern coast 
  of the continent of Liskrayina. In total, twelve of 
  Svarog’s thirty spires are still loyal to the Svit Uryad. 
  The Svit Uryad still considers itself to be the only 
  legitimate government on Svarog, viewing the other 
  state’s as mere rebels. The eastern spires which 
  refuse to obey orders but have maintained 
  their own branches of the Enerhiyist Church 
  are tolerated, but those that have deposed their 
  priests such as the Decados cities and the Nebo 
  Zlodiy are ruthlessly opposed. 
  The core of the State lies on the island of 
  Letovysche, the centre of the world since the days of 
  the EGO. This rocky island straddles the equator at 
  the base of the Dogoda peninsula. It remains largely 
  untouched by the encroaching cold caused by the 
  fading sun, and much of its surface is devoted to 
  massive Khodak farms. Letovysche also hosts the 
  first spire, Pershi Vezha, on its north-western coast.  
  In addition to this oldest and largest of the 
  arcologies, the island holds two others. These are 
  Malo Sontse, the spiritual centre of the Enerhiyist 
  Church, and the southern spire of Storozh. These 
  three spires house over half of the Svit Uryad’s 
  population between them, as they have been the least 
  touched by the chaos of the past two centuries. The 
  island is closely guarded, and no Sky Pirate would be 
  foolish enough to raid here. In addition, the Khodak 
  of Letovysche are remarkably docile. Holding the 
  spires in religious awe, they deliver their annual 
  harvests to their masters each year, where they 
  receive blessings and gifts of medical aid and 
  harmless technological trinkets from the priesthood. 
  There has not been a revolt in centuries, as oral 
  legends among the villagers speak of the fire the 
  angels which will rain down on any who oppose 
  them. 
  Pershi Vezha 
  Although Pershi Vezha is now neither the political 
  nor religious centre of the Svit Uryad, the original 
  spire remains an important symbol to the people of 
  Svarog. Pershi Vezha was the first arcology, built by 
  the corporate masters of Svarog centuries before the 
  others, and the higher technical aptitude of the late 
  Republic is evident in the size and magnificence of 
  this great city. Standing in excess of five kilometres 
  in height, Pershi Vezha is a larger template for the 
  smaller spires built by the Enerhiyists. As a result, 
  the following description can serve as a rough guide 
  to the layout of all of Svarog’s spires. 
  The 
  Spire 
  begins 
  nearly 
  half 
  a 
  kilometre 
  underground, where the terraforming node and the 
  three great geothermal sinks that fuel the structure 
  lie. This region is restricted to all but the Inzheners 
  of the Church, and no citizen has ever been allowed 
  beyond the great bulkheads at ground level. This 
  area is viewed with religious awe, acting as an inner 
  sanctum for the faith. Traditionally, high priests and 
  those who give their lives in the defence of 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  30 
  the State are taken here to be interred within to the 
  geothermal plants, to rejoin the swirling forces of the 
  Enerhiya.  
  At ground level, the spire houses vast grain silos, 
  which holds the annual tribute of the Khodak. This is 
  supplemented by protein-rich fungi and vat grown 
  meat processed in large hydroponic factories, keeping 
  the citizens healthy. From here up, an entire city 
  exists, housing palatial residences, theatres, music 
  halls and public boulevards. Pershi Vezha houses 
  around 1.5 million people, leaving around a quarter 
  of the city deserted. Standards of living are not 
  hugely variant, but those who work for the good of 
  the State, as patrolmen, city managers and other 
  civic workers, are granted the best housing. This lies 
  on the outer surface of the spire. From around a 
  kilometre above ground, the spire is covered in small 
  bays, each housing a short runway attached to the 
  garages holding the aircraft of the Lotchyk. 
  Originally used to travel the world, these aircraft are 
  now largely reserved for religious ceremonies and 
  protecting the arcology. All who own an aircraft are 
  obliged to enter the city militia. Most are part-time 
  only, and their planes are only fitted with weapons 
  systems when they are called to defend their homes. 
  A smaller number form part of a standing air force, 
  and are known as Lytsar. These pilots are led by 
  Kapitans appointed by the Inner Duma, and are 
  housed in the best apartments in the highest third of 
  the spire. They are treated with considerable respect 
  by the other citizens, something they take for 
  granted. They do much to foster an image as 
  glamorous heroes, protecting the Lotchyk from 
  insane pirates and sub-human Khodak.  
  At the height of the spire, the tapering point is 
  studded with antennae, great docking pylons for the 
  large airships that travel between the spires, and 
  thousands of brightly coloured prayer wheels, 
  harnessing the raging winds to churn out offerings to 
  the Enerhiya. In the case of Pershi Vezha, the spire 
  ends with the thin but impossibly strong strand of 
  the space elevator. This ribbon stretches up for 
  thousands of kilometres, anchored to the burned out 
  ruin of the old space station, abandoned since the 
  Fall. In the early years of the Svit Uryad, the 
  priesthood hoped to repair the station and renew 
  journeys into space. However, the will to invest in 
  this project never appeared, and is now largely 
  forgotten. The station is remembered with religious 
  awe, and a popular but technically heretical belief 
  among the Lotchyk holds that the Enerhiya will 
  restore the station when the planet is reunited. 
  Malo Sontse 
  Malo Sontse holds the honour of being the first 
  spire to be constructed by the Enerhiyist Church. 
  Work began on it in 4219, and it was completed fifty 
  years later, despite considerable setbacks and many 
  deaths among the construction crews. As a result, the 
  spire was seen as a kind of miracle by the Church, 
  and cemented in the minds of the Svarogians that the 
  Church were true saviours after years of decline and 
  war. Since its opening, Malo Sontse has been the 
  centre of the Church. Fully one half of the 3 kilometre 
  tower is devoted to a vast cathedral, with the Lotchyk 
  restricted to the lower levels of the spire. All citizens 
  who 
  perform 
  well 
  in 
  standardized 
  tests 
  in 
  mathematics, physics and theology are invited to join 
  the Church, and it is here that they come to begin 
  their long years of training at facilities that bear a 
  strong resemblance to a traditional university. Most 
  leave after ten years, qualified to act as basic 
  Inzheners, tasked with performing the common rites 
  and maintaining airplanes and the spires’ internal 
  systems. A few stay on for another five years, and 
  the best of these are inducted into the inner 
  mysteries 
  of 
  the 
  planetary 
  engineers. 
  After 
  graduation, most priests return to their home spires, 
  although some stay to enter the service of Duma 
  members, as preparation for later political careers of 
  their own. After years of servitude to the elders of the 
  Church, a lucky few are appointed into the Outer 
  Duma in Osnova Odyn. Only after a lifetime of service 
  is there a slim chance of entering the Inner Duma. At 
  this time, the priest’s identity is wiped from the State 
  system, and they cease to exist. The Inner Duma 
  meets in the great plastisteel dome that caps the 
  spire, within what once served as an astronomical 
  station. Since the discovery of the fading sun, the 
  Inner 
  Duma 
  has 
  restricted 
  public 
  access 
  to 
  astronomical data, and any research that may still be 
  conducted is carefully hidden. 
  In the past two centuries, the changing nature of 
  the graduate system at Malo Sontse has seen a 
  marked division appearing among those who leave to 
  serve as engineers and priests, and those who remain 
  within the walls of the cathedral to pursue a political 
  career. This has begun to manifest as unrest among 
  the Inzheners of some of the more remote spires, and 
  was a contributing factor in the rebellion of the 
  eastern spires in the 49th century. Some whisper that 
  the leaders in the Inner Duma are abandoning their 
  sacred task as engineers of the Svit Uryad, and are 
  allowing the machinery of government to unravel. 
  Although this is restricted to mutterings in the lower 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  31 
  ranks for now, the danger of a fundamental schism is 
  growing. 
  Osnova Odyn 
  Lying across the strait from Pershi Vezha, Osnova 
  Odyn stands on the southern tip of the of the Dogoda 
  peninsula. Since its construction, Osnova Odyn has 
  served as the de facto capital of the Svit Uryad. It is 
  here that the Outer Duma, the public government of 
  the State, meets, and it is here that the Council of 
  Kapitans which leads the air force is based. Osnova 
  Odyn itself stands over four kilometres, and even 
  with a population of over two million, it is still 
  partially deserted. Much of the population is involved 
  in the apparatus of government, serving as aides, 
  guards and assistants to the priests of the Outer 
  Duma. Osnova Odyn sees itself as the centre of 
  Lotchyk culture, not lost in the past like the spires of 
  Letovysche and not descending into barbarism like 
  the northern peoples of the mountains. As a result, 
  the people here do much to try and prove their 
  cultural worth. Even the lowest of citizens invests 
  much in their appearance and in perfecting an air of 
  cultivation. Huge crowds attend the great dances and 
  plays held in the gigantic theatres that dot the spire 
  (all of which are from a small handful of classics, 
  none less than 300 years old). The holy days see the 
  greatest aerial dances on the world, with upwards of 
  thirty thousand aircraft weaving patterns above the 
  southern cliffs. 
  The Outer Duma which rules Osnova Odyn was once 
  on equal terms with the Inner Duma, but since the 
  opening of hostilities with the Decados separatists 
  seventy years ago, the priests of Malo Sontse, and 
  the Kapitans they control, have slowly usurped many 
  of the parliament’s powers. Although the Outer Duma 
  is still tasked with the internal apparatus of the Svit 
  Uryad, they are purposely barred from influencing 
  the air forces and their war in the north-west. This is 
  becoming 
  no 
  small 
  source 
  of 
  consternation, 
  especially as foreign Kapitans are assuming more 
  and more control over areas of the spire to house 
  airship factories and docking pylons. In recent years, 
  a faction of the Outer Duma has begun campaigning 
  for the reconquest of the eastern spires, wanting an 
  end to the wars with the Decados until some 
  advantage over them can be found. This is probably 
  as a result of the discovery by these Duma members 
  of 
  the 
  presence 
  of 
  offworlders 
  trading 
  with 
  Kosmofabryka. This faction, led by High Inzhener 
  Tremsin Yanovich, is doing its best to hide the real 
  reasons for its demands. Technically, the 
  Inner Duma could claim that relations with 
  offworlders 
  lies 
  within 
  its 
  remit, 
  but 
  these 
  conspirators hope that by securing ties first, they can 
  use offworld aid to reassert their control over the 
  government of the Svit Uryad. 
  The Northern Spires 
  Despite the fact that the political and religious 
  centres of the Svit Uryad lie in the south, the forested 
  mountains that form the centre of the Liskrayina 
  continent have always held the majority of the spire 
  arcologies. Now, only seven of the twenty spires lie 
  under the clear control of the Svit Uryad. Of these, 
  three lie on the eastern coast of the Straits of Oskol, 
  and the other four lie along the coast to the east, in 
  the shadow of the snow-covered Dosch Mountains. 
  The three near the Straits are collectively known as 
  the Sentinels. Initially built close together to exploit 
  a well of geothermal energy formed by a tectonic 
  fault in the region, the Sentinels have now taken on 
  a new central role in the defence of the State. The 
  three spires lie closest to the Decados rebels who 
  hold three of the spires west of the Straits, and the 
  last half-century has seen dozens of pitched aerial 
  battles over the waters as both sides have mounted 
  raids, offensives and full-blown invasion attempts. 
  The Sentinels have come under the informal but very 
  real control of the Kapitans, who have set about 
  turning them into armed camps.  
  The central spire, called Viyskov Tabir, houses vast 
  aerial docks, containing thousands of gunships and 
  bombers. This spire also houses three great Povitria 
  airships. These vast constructions consist of airborne 
  aircraft carriers. They are massive gun platforms, 
  with rows of aircraft bays along both sides. Each can 
  carry over two hundred craft (mainly smaller militia 
  planes, with a wing or so of larger gunships and 
  bombers, and tiny stealthed scout planes which 
  resemble microlites with a fusion engine). The planes 
  are fired from the bays by powerful catapults, and 
  freefall for a second before their engines engage. The 
  Povitiria are slow moving but devastating weapons. 
  None has lost a direct engagement it has been 
  involved in. They were designed to cross the Straits 
  of Oskol and pummel Mayak into surrender. Only the 
  expert flying of the Decados has stopped them. The 
  Decados target the long supply lines of airships that 
  keep the Povitria fuelled and armed. The Svit Uryad 
  has yet to find an effective way to defend the supply 
  lines once Decados break through, and have stopped 
  attacks 
  while 
  they 
  try 
  to 
  formulate 
  a 
  countermeasure. Despite these drawbacks, these 
  mobile fortresses are the main reason the 
  Svit Uryad has been able to hold its own 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  32 
  against the superior fighter pilots of the Decados 
  spires. 
  The four eastern spires lie in the hilly forests south 
  of the Dosch Mountains. These are the poorest of the 
  Svit Uryad territories, and have been neglected for 
  decades by the spires of the south. The lands here 
  were once covered by the massive mega-farms 
  established by the EGO corporate authorities. The 
  rusting remains of the corporate  towns, which lay 
  among fields which could stretch over hundreds of 
  kilometres, carefully tended by robotic harvesters, 
  can still be seen jutting from the thick pine forests 
  that have covered the region since the climate 
  changed. The spires here are in a miserable state. 
  None hold more than a million souls, despite being 
  designed to hold more than twice that number. The 
  main reason for this decline is lack of food supplies. 
  With the fall in temperature, the crops that grew 
  here, genetically designed for a Mediterranean 
  climate, failed. Those strains that have proved viable 
  in the new conditions are grown in squalid farms 
  maintained by the region’s Khodak. These wretches 
  cling to small villages in the cleared land near the 
  spires. The Lotchyk demand so much that the 
  Khodak barely have enough to feed themselves. 
  Unsurprisingly, rebellion is not uncommon. The 
  Lotchyk care little for what the Khodak do, as long as 
  the harvests arrive each autumn. Every year, more 
  slip away into the forests, living in primitive clans 
  beneath the trees that give some defence from the 
  aerial reprisals of their masters. The Lotchyk are not 
  above attacking the remaining villagers to encourage 
  ‘cooperation’. 
  The Lotchyk of the eastern spire seem to have sunk 
  even further than their brethren elsewhere. A kind of 
  millennialist depression has seized many, and 
  apocalyptic variants of the Enerhiyist faith have 
  become popular. Most citizens try to ignore the 
  encroaching ice and the dwindling food by turning 
  inward, or leave to join the air forces fighting the 
  Decados or the Khodak rebels in the far south. 
  Suicidal flights, where pilots fly out over the sea 
  until their planes run out of fuel, are a growing 
  practice, despite attempts by the Inzheners to outlaw 
  the practice. 
  The Decados Kingdoms 
  “The problem with you lot is you’re so predictable. If 
  you would just stop taking commands from your 
  damn mechanics you’d give us a fight worth 
  boasting about.” 
  Ambassador Iosif Decados at the Viyskov Tabir 
  Peace Talks, 4998 
  With the appearance of the Nebo Zlodiy sky pirates 
  in last years of the 49th century, the Svit Uryad was 
  forced for the first time to turn its attention to the 
  matter of external defence. Until now, the only 
  threats had been from the Khodak, who could be 
  easily cowed by aerial raids. With the appearance of 
  sky borne raiders, however, the Lotchyk found 
  themselves threatened for the first time. Initially, 
  these raiders concentrated on attacking remote 
  Khodak villages, or grounded lone pilots flying 
  between the spires. However, the massive attack on 
  the spire of Sekvoyia in 4887, which led to the 
  deaths of several thousand citizens, spurred the 
  Dumas to found a permanent air force. This was 
  placed under the control of the Inner Duma, who had 
  previous experience of organising the policing of the 
  Khodak. Each spire was assigned a number of 
  Kapitans to form and lead an air force to police its 
  airspace. 
  Initially, the Kapitans were under the careful 
  control of the Enerhiyist Church, answering to the 
  local Church leaders. However, as the pirate attacks 
  escalated, and the remote spires began to break 
  away, the air forces of the western spires began to 
  doubt the capabilities of the Church to defend their 
  lands. The lands west of the Straits of Oskol had 
  once been the heart of the Decados kingdoms formed 
  in the centuries after the Fall. Even when the Svit 
  Uryad was formed, elements of Decados culture 
  remained hidden in the ways of the people of this 
  region. When this combined with the growing doubts 
  of the fighter pilots and their Kapitans, it culminated 
  in open rebellion. When a surprisingly organised 
  horde of Khodak (who most Lotchyk had took to 
  viewing as little more than animals) stormed the 
  southern spire of Perevani Drotyk and overloaded its 
  geothermal power stations, a cabal of Kapitans based 
  in the spire of Mayak decided the Church had grown 
  incapable of governing the World State. After 16 
  years of careful planning this cabal gained the 
  support of most of the Lytsar pilots under their 
  command, and overthrew the priesthoods of Mayak 
  and two neighbouring spires. 
  The rebels succeeded in crushing the internal 
  revolts that rocked the spires, and in a bid for 
  legitimacy began claiming the long defunct titles of 
  the old Decados rulers. The Kapitans adopted noble 
  titles, and their leader, the newly declared Duke 
  Baldak Decados, claimed Svarog in the name of his 
  ancestors. The response of the Dumas was swift. 
  Shocked by the overthrow of the local 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  33 
  priests, an invasion was mounted in 4937. The 
  Decados succeeded in fighting off this attack, and 
  since then over twenty wars have been fought 
  between these two states. Neither side has been able 
  to gain a foothold in the other’s territory, and a 
  period of cold war has descended since the last war 
  in 5003 ended in a stalemate. 
  The spires of the Decados Kingdom are undergoing 
  considerable internal change. The Inzheners have 
  been reduced to the level of servants to the military 
  elite, forced to maintain their fighter craft and the 
  power systems that make the wars possible. Much of 
  the core religious beliefs remain the same, although 
  heresy is more openly tolerated and the new rulers 
  have refused to waste resources on the aerial rites 
  (preferring 
  instead 
  equally 
  elaborate 
  military 
  pageants). The Khodak are treated as harshly as 
  elsewhere, although the supplies gained from raids 
  supplement the food grown to an extent where the 
  Khodak can keep enough for themselves to avoid 
  starvation. The Lytsar have become much like Known 
  World knights, although lesser noble titles are not 
  hereditary, being granted in a manner similar to 
  military rank. The culture of bravado and egoism 
  seen in the Svit Uryad’s fighter pilots has become 
  practically a religion for the new Decados. Famed 
  warriors are granted huge respect, and the lean pilots 
  in their flowing black greatcoats festooned with 
  religious icons and totems are an impressive sight. 
  The current Duke is one Luka Maksimovich-
  Decados, Baldak’s great-nephew. Luka is a born 
  killer, who has flown in battle since he was a child. 
  Rumour holds that he is a Vidma, a witch and 
  practitioner of the strange animist cult that has 
  grown popular in the northern pirate spires. 
  Certainly, he has formed a small cadre of psychics 
  around him. He is said to be able to blind enemy 
  pilots with a thought, sending them spiralling to 
  their deaths. His elite fighters, called the Koldun, are 
  probably the best pilots on this world of expert 
  airmen, and their distinctive black and green planes 
  can be seen engaging in play dogfights around the 
  heights of Mayak every evening. 
  Duke Luka has cut back on the expansionist plans 
  of his uncle, who died in the last war with the 
  Sentinels. The young Duke still fully plans to take 
  the world he sees as his birthright, but is canny 
  enough to explore other avenues to this goal. He has 
  sent emissaries to the pirate spires, hoping to form a 
  greater alliance, but few of these have returned. He is 
  considering trying to unite the Eastern rebels next, 
  and has even thought of talking with the Khodak 
  savages in the northern forests, to maybe 
  recruit them as infantry or saboteurs. Some of his 
  uncle’s advisors dislike the new Duke’s ‘rash 
  notions’, and some talk of deposing him if he doesn’t 
  renew the war within the year. 
  The Eastern Rebels 
  This is the term used by the leaders of the Svit 
  Uryad to describe the six spires which lie in the 
  eastern reaches of Liskrayina, along the Bosch 
  Mountains to the west coast of the Nova Baltic. It is 
  something of a misnomer, because of these spires, 
  only one has voiced a formal desire to break all ties 
  with the World State. This spire is Kosmofabryka, 
  which stands in the heights of the Dosch Range, near 
  the ruins of the old Republic spaceport. In 4867, tired 
  by the lack of response to calls for aid in the growing 
  famines, the Church of this spire simply announced 
  that it would no longer send representatives to the 
  Outer Duma, and would ignore future edicts of both 
  the branches of government. Despite the fears of the 
  spire’s leaders, the Svit Uryad responded with 
  silence, sending no retaliation force or even envoys 
  to negotiate.  
  It became clear from this point that the core of the 
  Svit Uryad had functionally abandoned the declining 
  spires of the north, concentrating their relief efforts 
  only on those closest to Osnova Odyn. The Dumas 
  fully expected the more remote spires to fall like the 
  four already engulfed by the encroaching ice, or to 
  descend into barbarism like the Pirate Spires. One by 
  one, the neighbouring spires of this region began 
  abandoning their ties to the central government, 
  until fully half of the continent lay outside the Svit 
  Uryad’s sphere of influence. 
  The Rebel Spires have not changed significantly in 
  terms of culture since this separation. They are still 
  led by their local priesthoods, and still practice the 
  aerial rites. In addition, they still survive on the 
  labour of their Khodak servants, although the level of 
  oppression varies greatly between the spires. Like the 
  other spires of the north, the Rebels have suffered 
  greatly from the growing polar regions, and famine is 
  a constant threat. The spires themselves are in poor 
  repair, as young Inzheners can no longer travel to 
  Malo Sontse for proper training. The spires are 
  riddled with streaks of rust, and large sections lie 
  abandoned and without power. None of the Rebel 
  Spires have a population of over half a million, and 
  several have initiated birth control restrictions to 
  prevent food shortages. 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  34 
  Kosmofabryka 
  “This is Traffic Control to starship Ganesha. We find 
  your terms unacceptable. Your Motion is exhausted.” 
  Kapitan Jaryschko at the outbreak of the Mataran 
  Folly, 4983. 
  Of the Rebel Spires, Kosmofabryka is by far the 
  most successful. This spire lies in valley in the heart 
  of the eastern Dosch Mountains, and as a result is in 
  a uniquely defensible location from the attacks of the 
  sky pirates. The Church of the spire is also in the 
  unique position of being the only government on 
  Svarog to have contact with offworld traders. 
  Beginning in 4963, a small number of less than 
  legitimate Known World merchants have come here, 
  finding a market for contraband which would be too 
  difficult to fence within the Empire. In addition, 
  around the same time a number of trader princes 
  from the Golcondan lost worlds began more large-
  scale trade. Kosmofabryka has done its best to 
  accommodate these traders. They sell high-tech 
  devices and sheets of ceramsteel and rare alloys 
  scavenged from the two abandoned spires to the 
  north in exchange for food and slaves from Penang 
  and Kalimtan and luxury items and tech from the 
  Known Worlds.  
  This relationship has proven enough to sustain the 
  spire, 
  which 
  still 
  hosts 
  around 
  1.5 
  million 
  inhabitants. The only upset in this trade came in 
  4983, when a Golcondan trader prince attempted to 
  hold the spire to ransom, threatening to fire on it 
  with his ship’s lasers if his demands were not met. 
  The spire responded with an attack by hundreds of 
  its tiny fighter craft, which quickly overwhelmed the 
  much larger starship’s shields and sent it crashing 
  into a nearby mountain. The wreckage can still be 
  seen, and is calmly pointed out by the spire’s 
  negotiators when an offworld captain grows too 
  belligerent. 
  Kosmofabryka has done its best to keep its contact 
  with offworlders a secret, and gives dire warnings to 
  visitors against exploring other spires, which they try 
  to paint as being under the control of insane pirate 
  lords. 
  Sporadic 
  attacks 
  by 
  sky 
  pirates 
  on 
  Kosmofabryka itself have added weight to these 
  stories, and the common traders and smugglers have 
  not tried to push their luck by testing the spire’s 
  claims. On the other hand, the Decados agents that 
  have begun arriving in the past decade have been 
  slowly trying to get a better understanding of the 
  planet’s political situation, and are considering 
  opening up secret relations with a faction 
  of the Svit Uryad, or possibly the Decados 
  Kingdoms (who they view as simple pretenders, and 
  have no intention of inviting back into the House 
  unless doing so would present a clear advantage). 
  Offworld Relations 
  The Leaders of Kosmofabryka have set aside a 
  fifteen level section near the top of their spire as a 
  foreign quarter. Here, offworld traders are permitted 
  to land and sell their goods. Contact with the citizens 
  of the spire is kept to a bare minimum, and all 
  negotiations have to go through a complex set of 
  customs departments and trade officials. The level of 
  bureaucracy is such that, unless one goes through 
  one of the established negotiators such as Josef 
  Kiyoda-Toa or the Jirair Consortium, all but the most 
  basic trade is nearly impossible. Except for the large-
  scale Golcondan traders, visitors receive a polite but 
  cold reception. Lytsar squads constantly patrol 
  around the spire, and the customs officials make a 
  point of showing the explosives rigged to the docking 
  pylons and the wreckage of the Mataran Folly. Still, 
  very few are turned away, except for those the Jirair 
  want rid of and those who are known to have gone 
  beyond the Dosch Mountains. 
  The foreigners quarter is very heavily influenced by 
  the Golcondan culture of the majority of the traders. 
  The sparse corridors and modernist rooms of the 
  spire have been decorated with rich mosaics and 
  statues of NeoHindu deities. The Svarogans tut at 
  this, thinking all the decorations to be nothing more 
  than frivolous firetraps. Still, elements of Golcondan 
  fashion are becoming popular among the younger 
  Lotchyk, particularly jewellery. A small number of 
  hostels, brothels and NeoHindu and Zuranist shrines 
  have been built to accommodate visitors. A small 
  population 
  of 
  permanent 
  residents 
  run 
  these 
  businesses, and sell their services as translators and 
  guides. 
  The Lotchyk remain largely separate, with most 
  interaction being with the flashily dressed Lytsar 
  officers or Inzheners in their stark black and white 
  robes. Still, curious parties on both sides exist, with 
  illicit meetings taking place. A black-market of sorts 
  exists, where Lotchyk can buy such unknown 
  luxuries as spices and fresh meat. Dalliances 
  between 
  young 
  Lotchyk 
  and 
  the 
  'glamorous' 
  offworlders are also becoming more common, despite 
  official disapproval. 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  35 
  The Golcondan Merchants 
  The vast majority are free traders from Penang and 
  Kalimtan. They sell food and slaves in return for 
  high-tech alloys and machinery. While Svarog is 
  common knowledge to the independent traders, keys 
  are rare, and only a handful of competing interests 
  come here. Svarog is widely known to Golcondans as 
  a frozen hell of crazy people who are terrified of dirt 
  (they're not really, but the sterile environment of the 
  spire means that they tend to look down on the 
  untidy) and die if they touch the ground. 
  These trader princes have very good relations with 
  the spire's leaders. They do their best to stay at the 
  top of the pecking order in regards to the offworlders. 
  The fleets of these trader princes get preferential 
  docking and refuelling privileges, and receive the 
  best contracts. Beneath them are the various 
  ambassadors 
  from 
  most 
  of 
  the 
  Golcondan 
  governments (who the spire is polite to but largely 
  ignores), then the Known World traders (who are 
  seen as unreliable but useful scum). The spire has 
  been known to take care of 'problems' for its favoured 
  trade partners. The Golcondan traders try to keep 
  aloof of their Known World counterparts, viewing 
  them (quite rightly) as untrustworthy pirates. There 
  was a spate of attacks on Golcondan vessels leaving 
  Svarog between 4997 and 5001, until a trader prince 
  identified the attackers as the Sable Vorox, a pirate 
  vessel out of Cadavus. The crew were captured 
  and executed by the spire's authorities when 
  they landed for fuel, although some escaped 
  and are thought to be living with the Khodak 
  savages in the mountains. 
  Most Golcondans accept the wild tales the leaders of 
  Kosmofabryka tell them to discourage exploration of 
  the planet. This is mainly to maintain the good 
  relations with the spire, but also as the Svarogans 
  are happy to bring goods to them. It tends to be the 
  more adventurous (i.e. desperate) Known Worlders 
  who go exploring. 
  The Matarani have access to Svarog, but since one 
  of their captains tried without success to annex the 
  spire they are very wary of it. Their leaders plot a 
  second attack, but have too many other concerns to 
  set aside the forces needed. The Mataran Folly, as the 
  disastrous attack has come to be known, is still a 
  blow to Matarani pride, and one they fully intend to 
  rectify when the time is right. Since the destruction 
  of the Matarani ship, the priests of Kosmofabryka 
  refuse to trade with anyone with disfiguring injuries, 
  and Matarani must now trade through independent 
  middle men. Matarani have become figures 
  of ridicule to the Svarogans, and appear as 
  pathetic villains in low brow music hall dramas. 
  The three leading Golcondan mercantile interests at 
  Kosmofabryka are: 
  Vrij Jirair 
  Vrij represents the Jirair Consortium on Svarog. The 
  Jirair family is a vastly wealthy trader family, with 
  holdings on both Kalimtan and Penang and exclusive 
  trade contracts on Mataran. It was a ship in the 
  employ of the Jirair that first successfully jumped to 
  Svarog in 4968. Since then, the Jirair are responsible 
  for most of the slave trade with Svarog. Vrij is an 
  elderly man, who has lived on Svarog for over 30 
  years and has become acclimatised to the world's odd 
  culture. He has excellent relations with High 
  Inzhener Polina Yanova, who is tasked by the Holy 
  Council with the governance of the Foreign Quarter. 
  He even owns a specially built airplane with a Lytsar 
  pilot on retainer. The Jirair do their best to hold a 
  monopoly on Svarogan jumpkeys, only handing out 
  the small quantity they own to trusted employees. 
  There have been a few exceptions to the monopoly 
  over the years, but the Consortium can be ruthless in 
  preventing large competitors from muscling in on 
  their cash cow. 
  Sir Kaliq Keddah-al-Malik 
  A young, disgraced noble from Penang. It is not 
  entirely clear how he got access to Svarog, but his 
  family are powerful enough that the other Golcondan 
  merchants have not challenged his presence here. 
  Kaliq runs a fleet of three traders, dealing mainly in 
  luxury 
  goods 
  and 
  foodstuffs. 
  His 
  egalitarian 
  upbringing means he opposes the slave trade, and 
  refuses 
  to 
  deal 
  in 
  human 
  cargo 
  despite 
  Kosmofabryka's great appetite for labour. He is the 
  most open of the Golcondan factions, and will 
  happily negotiate with Known Worlders. He is 
  particularly interested in buying information on the 
  worlds and factions of the Phoenix Empire. 
  Hayati 
  Hayati is a trader prince from Kalimtan. She bought 
  a key five years ago from the Jirair, and her ship has 
  specialised in trading foodstuffs ever since. She is 
  also pretty openly involved in smuggling, trading 
  illicitly with the Lotchyk without the permission of 
  the Enerhiyist Church. She has found ready markets 
  for various drugs and other luxuries among the 
  spire's 
  citizens. 
  It 
  is 
  theorised 
  that 
  she 
  is 
  blackmailing Vrij Jirair in some way, as she has 
  generally gone unchallenged. Both the Jirair and the 
  Inzheners are unhappy about her presence, but 
  tolerate it for now as a minor nuisance. 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  36 
  The Known World Merchants 
  Svarog has been a whispered secret among the 
  underclass of pirates and smugglers who haunt 
  planets such as Cadavus and Manitou. No keys are 
  known to exist. Instead, the jumpcode is passed 
  furtively between crews as part of black-market 
  trades. Svarog has been used for nearly 50 years as a 
  safe port, where contraband can be sold for much 
  needed repairs and supplies without alerting the 
  noble and Imperial authorities. Especially since the 
  chaos of the Emperor Wars has ended, and the 
  powers that be have reclaimed control of their 
  domains, Svarog is seen as one of a rapidly 
  dwindling number of Free Ports. 
  The leading Known Worlders with a strong presence 
  in Kosmofabryka are: 
  Captain Josef Kiyoda-Toa 
  A Zuranist pirate from Madoc, Captain Josef is a 
  relative of the Storm Wife of Manitou, and has 
  extensive links with the pirates of the Eyrie on that 
  world. Having reached middle age without dying 
  horribly, Josef is seeking to settle down, and has 
  done so by becoming a sort of informal ambassador 
  to the Enerhiyist authorities. He acts as a middle 
  man, using his gift for languages and diplomacy to 
  smooth out trade agreements between Known 
  Worlder crews and the authorities. His ship, the 
  Coyote's Eye, is now captained by his niece and her 
  Lotchyk lover. Josef is in many ways the counterpart 
  to Vrij Jirair, although the latter deeply resents the 
  comparison. Josef is a good-natured giant of a man, 
  who the Lotchyk respect for his considerable skill as 
  a pilot. Most newcomers to Svarog will be 
  approached by one of his family and offered his 
  services as a mediator, for a small fee of course. 
  Lucita Draven 
  A smuggler from Cadiz, Lucita is in fact a Jakovian 
  agent, leading the Decados exploration of Svarog. 
  Lucita has been operating here for ten years, and has 
  yet to be discovered. She hires the crews of pirate 
  vessels on their first trip to Svarog to mount 
  'scouting missions'. These involve flying to a location 
  on the planet and observing the situation there, and 
  then kidnapping a few locals to be taken back to 
  Cadiz for questioning. Already, such 'ambassadors' 
  from Kryha Hora, the Svit Uryad and the Povstanets 
  Al'yans have been seized. The latter, a hardened 
  guerrilla, managed to kill his guards and has fled 
  somewhere into the slums of Cadiz. In the past year, 
  two of these scouts have failed to return. A third, the 
  Maid 
  of 
  Sunval, 
  limped 
  back 
  to 
  Kosmofabryka after being captured by the 
  pirates of Kryha Hora. The crew of this ship still hold 
  a grudge against Lucita, and have threatened to 
  spread word of the Decados' dealings here in revenge. 
  In recent years, Lucita has also been involved in 
  selling Selchakah to the Lotchyk. The Svarogans are 
  not aware of the devastatingly addictive nature of 
  this drug, and have allowed its sale. Now several 
  high-placed Inzheners and Kapitans are thoroughly 
  addicted to the stuff. The Decados have been careful 
  not to exploit this advantage yet, but may do so 
  when rivals from the Empire begin appearing. 
  Captain Dreja Vordwed 
  Dreja is an Aylon Ukari and captain of the Maid of 
  Sunval. A hero of the Ukari Uprising, Dreja was on 
  the losing side, and turned to piracy after the war. 
  She still has an impressive price on her head from 
  the al-Malik authorities of her homeworld. Now, she 
  is involved in the black-market operated within the 
  Ukari ghettos between Cadiz and Istakhr. Svarog is 
  the end destination for those goods to hot for sale in 
  the Empire, in particular restricted tech which the 
  Inzheners are always interested in examining. 
  Wanted Ukari criminals have a tendency of ending 
  up among her personal servants in her quarters in 
  Kosmofabryka. 
  The Maid is unique among the pirates of Svarog in 
  having a very thorough understanding of the other 
  polities of Svarog. Hired by Lucita Decados to scout 
  the abandoned spires of the north, the ship was 
  downed and captured by Kapitan Danil Romanavichi 
  of Kryha Hora. Held for six months, the crew was 
  forced to tell all they knew of the Empire to the pirate 
  leader. In turn, they discovered much from captured 
  Svit Uryad and Svarogan Decados slaves before they 
  were inexplicably released. An attempt by Lucita to 
  have them barred from Kosmofabryka failed when 
  the ship managed to get Captain Josef and Sir Kaliq 
  Keddah-al-Malik to speak in their favour to the 
  spire's leaders in exchange for their information. The 
  Inzheners were persuaded that the ship was captured 
  by 
  pirates, 
  but 
  learned 
  nothing 
  during 
  its 
  imprisonment. The ship's presence is still a source of 
  tension, and Dreja could easily upset the complex 
  network of alliances among the offworld traders if 
  she revealed what she knows. 
  Sir Jarak the Red 
  Jarak the Red was Dreja's purser. This Aylonian 
  human was looking to enter the Lotus trade on 
  Manitou when he was captured by Li Halan 
  vigilantes. He managed to ensure his survival by 
  selling his story of Svarog to the MTC, and 
  his report was copied down by his cellmate, 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  37 
  the Republican poet and agitator Gerard Montar. 
  Both men were freed for their contribution to the 
  Empire. Montar has returned to his native Manitou, 
  refusing offers of a title in disgust, but ‘Sir’ Jarak has 
  becoming something of a celebrity. Even the jaded 
  courtesans of the Imperial Court find humour in the 
  presence of a pirate at their social gatherings. Jarak 
  has been helping arrange separate expeditions by 
  both the Questing Knights and the Charioteers. More 
  than one pirate captain has demanded his head for 
  this act of ‘betrayal’ against his kind. 
  The Pirate Spires 
  When the Polar Regions began to expand in the 
  4700s, the first spires to be affected were those lying 
  to the north of the Dosch Mountains. By the present 
  day, four spires have been abandoned entirely, the 
  vast ice-covered ruins now being home to only a few 
  salvage teams from Kosmofabryka looking for scrap 
  metals and electronics to sell to their offworld 
  markets. When the encroaching ice first began to 
  threaten, the leadership of the Svit Uryad organised 
  massive relief operations, relocating the populations 
  to the more southern spires. However, by the 49th 
  century, problems of overcrowding and famine, 
  combined with the growing apathy of the religious 
  leaders on Letovysche, meant that no such measures 
  were made available to the mountain spires who now 
  found their farms replaced with tundra.  
  By the mid-49th century, several of these spires 
  suffered bloody internal revolts, as panic over famine 
  spread. Hunger and disease led to a rapidly falling 
  population, and much of the Khodak fled into the 
  deep mountains to avoid complete starvation (these 
  groups are now said to live as violent cannibals, 
  attacking any who brave the mountain passes by 
  foot. As very few of the Lotchyk would ever deign to 
  walk the surface, there is no hard evidence to say 
  whether this is the case). As a means of survival, 
  some of the airmen of the spire of Kryha Hora, which 
  lies in the mountains north of the Straits of Oskol, 
  began mounting raids on the Khodak farms of their 
  neighbours, stealing crops and slaves. These raiders 
  gained the title of Nebo Zlodiy, or sky pirates, and 
  were the first serious military threat to face the Svit 
  Uryad in its 500 year history.  
  Kryha Hora has remained the largest and most 
  dangerous of the Sky Pirate spires, attacking both the 
  Svit Uryad and the Decados Kingdoms whenever it 
  perceives a weakness in either state’s defences. 
  Several other spires have resorted to the same 
  tactics, three lying in the mountains between 
  the Svit Uryad and the Eastern Rebels, and another 
  two north and west of the Decados, near the eastern 
  coast of the Nova Baltic. All have a similar society. 
  Much like the Decados spires, the Enerhiyist Church 
  has been overthrown or abandoned. Indeed, the 
  pirates hold priests in contempt, bearing a grudge for 
  their ‘abandonment’ over a hundred years ago. The 
  pirate spires have tiny populations, never more than 
  ten thousand or so, the rest having long since fled or 
  starved. Each spire has several gangs of raiders, each 
  of which holds a few hundred aircraft. Dwellers in 
  the spires must gain the respect of a gang leader to 
  fly with them, and doing so is the only way to ensure 
  a steady supply of food and protection from the other 
  gangs that roam the rusting corridors. 
  In recent decades, a replacement to the Eherhiyist 
  faith has begun to appear among the pirates. Centred 
  in Kryha Hora, this new, informal animistic religion 
  worships a host of wind spirits and demons. 
  Practitioners, called Vidma, offer sacrifices to these 
  various little gods, and sell charms and totems to 
  fellow pirates to decorate their planes and flight 
  suits. This religion has begun to become popular with 
  the younger Decados nobles, largely to try and gain 
  favour with the Duke who is rumoured to be a Vidma 
  himself. It is clear that the Vidma cult includes some 
  psychics, a discipline long dismissed and unpractised 
  by the Enerhiyists. This give the sky pirates an edge 
  against the better trained and equipped planes of 
  their targets. 
  The Vidma are particularly common in Kryha Hora, 
  where the faith may have originated. One of the 
  spire’s three main gang leaders is Mama Dernyaya, 
  an aged crone who claims to be the daughter of the 
  Great Ice Wind, the spirit of the northern glaciers. 
  She rules from the top of the spire, and is said to 
  dwell in a chamber open to the air, where she can 
  miraculously survive the freezing winds and low 
  oxygen. She still leads raids despite her age, and is 
  rumoured to be in some kind of alliance with the 
  young Decados duke.  
  The Mama is growing in power within the spire, but 
  is still opposed by two rivals. King Oleg Vedmid is a 
  huge brutal man who runs a small slave kingdom in 
  the lower reaches of the spire. He has been targeting 
  the aircraft of Inzheners, hoping to seize someone 
  with the ability to restore the spire’s geothermal 
  engines. The mid-levels are ruled by Kapitan Danil 
  Romanavichi. A surprisingly young man, the Kapitan 
  seized control over three rival gangs in a series of 
  brilliant and ruthless manoeuvres. The Kapitan 
  focuses on negotiation far more than his rivals, 
  acting as a mediating force in the politics of 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  38 
  the spire. He recently became aware of the spacecraft 
  visiting Kosmofabryka, and is very interested in 
  gaining entry into that source of wealth. The Kapitan 
  is a handsome and charming man, but this covers a 
  vicious mind, and he is perhaps the most dangerous 
  of the Sky Pirates. 
  The Viterbis (Wind Devils) 
  In the freezing wastes of the north, numerous 
  strange cults have begun to spring up among the 
  Pirate Spires, as the survivors seek for meaning 
  beyond the faith of the Inzheners who abandoned 
  them. These sects are collectively known as Vidma 
  (witches) by the civilised spires. Still, even in their 
  ranks, there are some who are shunned and reviled 
  by all.  
  No one knows where the Viterbis originated from, 
  although common myth holds that they were citizens 
  of one of the polar spires who refused to abandon 
  their homes during the evacuation. They first began 
  to prey on their neighbours in the early 49th century. 
  Initially, Viterbis attacks were rare, and often 
  confused with the slave raids of the Sky Pirates. 
  However, the northern Svit Uryad spires have noticed 
  a different mode of behaviour for these groups. They 
  mount bloody raids against the Khodak, butchering 
  villages and burning crops. Gory stories speak of the 
  Viterbis raiders eating human flesh, making grisly 
  fetishes from their victims and destroying loot that 
  would seem valuable.  
  Even the Sky Pirates hate and fear the Viterbis. 
  Those Vidma who will talk about them say they 
  consort with 'the dark spirits of the White Wastes' 
  and Mama Dernyaya in particular makes a habit of 
  killing any she encounters. How these raiders can 
  keep their aircraft running is a mystery, as they are 
  often barely functional. In recent years, the Viterbis 
  seem to have swelled in numbers and grown bolder. 
  Last year, a wing of black planes flew straight into 
  one of the airship bays of the spire of Sekvoyia, 
  killing over a hundred in the resulting explosions.  
  Captured Viterbis often die before they will talk. It is 
  not entirely clear if many of them still understand 
  human speach. Those that can converse boast of 
  being children of Nehatyv, the entropic end of all 
  Motion. They claim that the Enerhiya is unravelling, 
  the Holy Engine grinding to a halt. They seek to 
  speed up the process. Those Inzheners who have 
  studied these nihilists are at a loss to comprehend 
  where their suicidal beliefs could have come from, as 
  they have no clear basis in Eherhiyist religion. 
  The Povstanets Al’yans 
  The southern island of Zemlja is unique in being in 
  the hands of the hated Khodak. During the height of 
  the Svit Uryad, Zemlja was considered too arid and 
  rocky to be suitable for widespread habitation. As a 
  result, only three spires were built here. As the 
  glaciation began, the southern two spires were 
  evacuated, leaving their Khodak serfs to their fate. 
  For the next 200 years, the majority of the island was 
  ignored, with the Svit Uryad only maintaining a 
  token presence in the spire of Perevani Drotyk on the 
  northern coast. 
  This period of indifference ended in 4914, when 
  Lotchyk scouts spotted a number of mid-sized towns 
  being built in the hills of the interior by the 
  descendants of the Khodak. Realising that the 
  Khodak had thrived since their abandonment, and 
  hoping to harness them again as a source of labour, 
  the Inner Duma ordered Perevani Drotyk to pacify the 
  ‘rebels’, and to prepare them for shipment to the 
  failing farms in the north. Unsurprisingly, the 
  Khodak responded with violence, and the Svit Uryad 
  began air raids, targeting the larger settlements. In 
  4920, the Khodak struck back. It is still a mystery 
  how the peasant army managed to successfully storm 
  Perevani Drotyk, but a team of saboteurs entered and 
  destroyed the geothermal engines, gutting much of 
  the spire in the explosion. Now, Perevani Drotyk still 
  stands, but is a blackened ruin. The top third of the 
  tower has broken away, and what remains, lists at 
  an alarming angle. Tales of great technological 
  treasures within the spire are popular, and bored 
  Lotchyk occasionally mount expeditions to pick 
  through the ruin. 
  After the destruction of Perevani Drotyk, the Svit 
  Uryad 
  responded 
  with 
  firebombing 
  campaigns 
  against the known Khodak towns. However, by the 
  time the reprisals began, most large settlements had 
  been abandoned. Now the Khodak, who are known as 
  the Povstanets Al’yans by their enemies, live in a 
  series 
  of 
  small 
  temporary 
  settlements 
  and 
  underground refuges. The war has dragged on for 
  nearly a century, with the Svit Uryad leading 
  offensives from one of the great Povitria airships 
  permanently docked a few miles offshore. Fighting 
  the Povstanets is considered to be a great honour by 
  the Lytsar fighters, and many young pilots hope to 
  gain renown here. The war would be one-sided, if not 
  for the ability of the Khodak to blend into the 
  countryside, and the use crude rocket 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  39
  launchers and clever ambushes to even the odds. The 
  greatest weapons of the Povstanets are the 
  mechsoldat. These appear to be converted farming 
  golems, rebuilt for war. They are roughly humanoid, 
  standing around 15’ tall. They are studded with 
  missiles and machine guns scavenged from crashed 
  gunships, and are strong enough to take considerable 
  damage in a firefight. 
  Very little is known about the Povstanets Al’yans, 
  especially as the Inner Duma does its best to hide 
  any real information from the citizens of the Svit 
  Uryad (most of whom see the rebels as little more 
  than dangerous animals). They are thought to live in 
  small clans, which only unite in the face of large 
  attacks. They seem to have built up a level of 
  technology unseen elsewhere among the ground 
  walkers. Some theorise that they are aided by a fifth 
  column within the Svit Uryad, and several Khodak 
  ‘sympathizers’ are uncovered and executed each year 
  by the Inner Duma’s Investigators. More likely is the 
  possibility that the Khodak have gained their 
  knowledge by exploring the abandoned spires to the 
  south. The Povstanets also include in their number 
  the small number of Hironem who have 
  survived on Svarog. Descendants of workers 
  brought in by EGO, they lived in the hills of Zemlja, 
  having refused to join the Svit Uryad when it formed. 
  Legend holds that they dwell in an underground city, 
  modelled on their ancestors’ home of Turaz on Cadiz. 
  It is now thought that this city is the centre of the 
  Khodak resistance, although its location remains a 
  mystery. 
  Game Rules 
  Those Who Soar: Svarogan Character 
  Histories 
  The following character histories represent the 
  unique cultures of the world of Svarog. 
  These rules are primarily designed for human 
  characters. To create a Hironem PC, use the Illa 
  Upbringing from Orphaned Races: Ascorbites & 
  Hironem, and then follow the Khodak path below. 
  © Jack Oldham, 2005 
   
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  40 
  Upbringing 
  Lotchyk 
  This represents the citizens of the Svit Uryad and its 
  successor states, including the Decados Spires and 
  Kosmofabryka. 
  Characteristics: Wits +2, Tech +2, Faith +1 
  Skills: Charm +1, Etiquette 1, Read Svarogan (2pts), 
  Lore (Home Spire) 1 
  Blessing: Loyal (+2 Passion when following leader) 
  Curse: Delusional (-2 Perception when confronted 
  with the decaying state of their way of life) 
  Failing Spire 
  Not all of the Spires have survived the chaos of the 
  past two centuries unscathed. The dwellers in the so-
  called ‘pirate’ spires must fight for survival in their 
  decaying and lawless homes.  
  Characteristics: Wits +2, Perception +2, Ego OR 
  Faith +1 
  Skills: Observe +1, Sneak +2, Knavery 1, Survival 1 
  Blessing: Suspicious (+2 Perception when rivals 
  about) 
  Curse: Callous (-2 Passion when asked for aid) 
  Khodak 
  This upbringing represents both those wretches who 
  live in constant fear of their aerial masters, and 
  those few who have sought to flee from or attack 
  their oppressors. 
  Characteristics: Strength +2, Endurance +2, Faith 
  +1 
  Skills: Vigor +1, Beast Lore 1, Lore (Regional) 1, 
  Survival 2 
  Blessing: Alert (+2 Perception when trying to remain 
  undetected) 
  Curse: Secretive (-2 Extrovert around strangers) 
  Apprenticeship 
  The majority of Lotchyk will follow careers similar 
  to Known World freemen, although formal guilds do 
  not exist. ‘Tame’ Khodak use the Those Who Toil: 
  Peasants character history tree by Colin Chapman 
  (available from the Fading Suns Renaissance 
  website). 
  Inzhener Priest 
  The brightest youths in the Svit Uryad are sent to be 
  trained in the great university-cathedral of Malo 
  Sontse. Even in the rebel spires, a few still train in 
  the practices of the Enerhiyist tech priests. 
  Characteristics: Wits +2, Tech +1, Faith +2 
  Skills: Focus 2, Science (Engineering) 1, Tech 
  Redemption (High Tech) 2, Tech Redemption (Mech) 
  2, Tech Redemption (Volt) 2, Think Machine 1 
  Lytsar Fighter Pilot 
  Many young Lotchyk compete to join the ranks of 
  the dashing, arrogant sky knights who protect their 
  spires. 
  Characteristics: Dexterity +2, Wits +1, Perception 
  +1, Extrovert +1 
  Skills: Observe +1, Shoot +2, Drive Aircraft 2, 
  Etiquette 1, Science (Meteorology) 1, Think Machine 
  1, Warfare (Gunnery) 2 
  Sky Pirate 
  A lucky few in the failing spires succeed in joining 
  the powerful pirate gangs, raiding neighbouring 
  spires for food, fuel and slaves. 
  Characteristics: 
  Strength 
  +1, 
  Dexterity 
  +2, 
  Perception +2 
  Skills: Impress +1, Observe +1, Shoot +1, Drive 
  Aircraft 2, Science (Meteorology) 1, Survival 1, Think 
  Machine 1, Warfare (Gunnery) 2 
  Povstanets (Guerrilla) 
  Growing numbers of Khodak are unwilling to accept 
  their lot, and in the south many thousands have 
  joined the Povstanets Al’yans to strike back at their 
  masters. 
  Characteristics: 
  Strength 
  +1, 
  Dexterity 
  +2, 
  Perception +1, Passion +1 
  Skills: Observe +2, Shoot +1, Sneak +2, Vigor +2, 
  Lore (Zemlja Highlands) 1, Survival 2 
  Early Career 
  Inzhener Mechanic 
  Upon graduation from the university at Malo 
  Sontse, the majority of Inzheners return to their 
  home spires to maintain the infrastructure and 
  aircraft of their congregation. 
  Characteristics: Strength +1, Dexterity +1, Wits 
  +1, Perception +2, Tech +1, Introvert OR Extrovert 
  +1, Calm +1, Faith +2 
  Skills: Observe +1, Focus 2, Science (Engineering) 2, 
  Science (Physics) 2, Tech Redemption (High Tech) 2, 
  Tech Redemption (Mech) 2, Tech Redemption (Volt) 
  2, Think Machine 2 
  Benefice: Rank (Novachok) 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  41 
  Inzhener Administrator 
  Each year, a smaller number of Inzhener graduates 
  choose to pursue political careers, hoping in time to 
  rise to a seat on the Dumas. This career represents 
  those who choose this path, as well as the diplomats 
  appointed by Kosmofabryka to interact with the 
  offworlders. 
  Characteristics: Dexterity +1, Wits +1, Perception 
  +2, Extrovert +2, Passion OR Calm +2, Faith +1, 
  Ego +1 
  Skills: Impress +1, Observe +2, Academia 2, 
  Bureaucracy 2, Empathy 1, Etiquette 1, Lore (Law) 
  2, Lore (Home Spire) 2, Lore (Rival Spires) 2 
  Benefice: Rank (Novachok) 
  Lytsar Fighter Pilot 
  Characteristics: Strength +1, Dexterity +2, Wits 
  +1, Perception +2, Tech +1, Passion OR Calm +1, 
  Extrovert +1, Faith OR Ego +1 
  Skills: Charm OR Impress +2, Observe +2, Shoot 
  +2, Drive Aircraft 3, Lore (Home Spire) 1, Science 
  (Meteorology) 
  1, 
  Think 
  Machine 
  1, 
  Warfare 
  (Gunnery) 3 
  Benefice: Rank (Lytsar) 
  Sky Pirate 
  Characteristics: Str +1, Dex +2, End +2, Tech +1, 
  Passion OR Calm +1, Extrovert +2, Faith OR Ego 
  +1 
  Skills: Impress +2, Fight OR Melee +2, Observe +2, 
  Shoot +2, Drive Aircraft 3, Science (Meteorology) 1, 
  Think Machine 1, Warfare (Gunnery) 2 
  Benefice: Refuge (3pts) 
  Povstanets Guerrilla 
  Characteristics: 
  Strength 
  +1, 
  Dexterity 
  +2, 
  Endurance +2, Wits +1, Perception +1, Passion +1, 
  Extrovert OR Introvert +1, Faith OR Ego +1 
  Skills: Dodge +1, Fight +2, Impress +1, Melee +1,  
  Observe +1, Shoot +2, Sneak +2, Vigor +1, Lore 
  (Zemlja Highlands) 1, Remedy 2, Survival 1 
  Benefice: Refuge (3pts) 
  Extra Stages 
  Any Svarogan characters can take the Tour of Duty 
  Extra Stages. It is highly recommended that all 
  Lotchyk characters spend some of their skill points 
  on Drive Aircraft. Lytsar and Sky Pirates must take 
  their aircraft (usually a Zbroya gunship) in place of 
  the Worldly Benefits from their first Tour of Duty, 
  and other Lotchyk may do the same to receive a Litak 
  civilian plane.  
  In place of the names used in the Fading Suns 
  rulebook, Lytsar and Inzheners use the following 
  ranks: 
  Pts Lysar Rank 
  Inzheners Rank 
  0 Kadet (cadet) 
  - 
  3 Lytsar (airman) 
  Novachok (apprentice) 
  5 Leytenant (flight 
  lieutenant) 
  Mehkanik (deacon) 
  7 Komandyr (wing 
  commander) 
  Inzhener (priest) 
  9 Kapitan (captain) 
  Planeta Inzhener 
  (terraformer) 
  11 - 
  Verkhovnyy Inzhener 
  (bishop) 
  Since the usurpation, the Svarogan Decados have 
  begun to use old noble titles interchangeably with 
  the above terms. 
  In the case of Khodak and Sky Pirate characters, 
  rank should be used to represent the informal 
  prestige the character holds amongst their people. 
  Only the Svit Uryad, the Decados and Kosmofabryka 
  have maintained the technology to allow for the 
  Cybernetics Extra Stage.  
  Although it is possible to create a psychic Lotchyk, 
  the Enerhiyist Church has long denied the existence 
  of such powers. As a result, only the Natal Psi Extra 
  Stage 
  is 
  appropriate 
  for 
  Svit 
  Uryad 
  and 
  Kosmofabryka characters. The growth of the Vidma 
  pagans in the north has begun to overcome this 
  cultural restriction, and Sky Pirates can take any 
  Psychic Extra Stage or Theurgy Extra Stage to 
  represent training as a shaman. Vidma rites are 
  identical to those of the Contemplative Gjartins. 
  Svarogan Language 
  The language of the Svit Uryad on Svarog is an 
  amalgam 
  of 
  various 
  ancient 
  Urth 
  dialects, 
  particularly from the Slavic and northern Baltic 
  nations. In the time since the Fall, it has changed 
  dramatically, losing all but a token similarity to 
  Urthish. It is a very logical language, deliberately 
  codified by Enerhiyist mathematicians. As a result, 
  most Known Worlders cannot understand the 
  Svarogan dialect. Natives of Severus and Cadiz may 
  attempt to translate using a Wits+Observe roll, at a -
  6 penalty. Those who can read Urthtech can attempt 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  42 
  to translate Svarogan texts with a similar penalty. 
  Vehicles 
  Aircraft 
  The aircraft flown by many citizens of Svarog’s 
  spires are a ubiquitous image of this world. Many 
  different models and designs exist within the Svit 
  Uryad, and many more have been jury-rigged by the 
  mechanics of the sky pirates. Most citizens fly in 
  small, one or two-man fixed wing craft. These are 
  relatively small, carrying only the pilot and a small 
  amount of cargo. They tend to resemble incredibly 
  sleek versions of early aircraft, covered in chrome 
  and religious icons. Jet aircraft exist, but most tend 
  to prefer slower models. Manoeuvrability is vastly 
  preferred over speed. Standard propulsion is via a 
  small fusion engine. Some common models follow. 
  Litak Airplane 
  Speed: 500km/hr 
  Armour: 6d 
  Fuel: Fusion 
  RNG: 1000km 
  Cargo: 1 ton 
  People: 1/0 
  Vitality: Ruin/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Weapons: None 
  Tech Level: 6 
  Firebird Cost: None. Provided free to loyal citizens. 
  The Litak is a standard model for many civilian 
  aircraft. By law, they cannot be armed except when 
  activated to serve in the local militia. These craft are 
  generally used for travel between spires and religious 
  ceremonies. 
  A militia airplane has a Lt. Machinegun (DMG 7) 
  and 2 Armour Piercing Missiles (DMG 15, halve 
  target’s armour) fitted.  
  Zbroya Gunship 
  Speed: 600km/hr 
  Armour: 8d 
  Fuel: Fusion 
  RNG: 700km 
  Cargo: 200kg 
  People: 1/0 
  Vitality: Ruin/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Weapons: See below 
  Tech Level: 6 
  Firebird Cost: None. Military vehicles only. 
  Notes: +2 to Drive Aircraft rolls. 
  The Zbroya is built on the same chassis as a basic 
  civilian aircraft, but with a modified engine designed 
  for manoeuvrability over range and a number of 
  inbuilt weapons systems. This is the traditional 
  aircraft of the Lytsar fighter pilots of both the Svit 
  Uryad and the Decados Kingdoms. Zbroya can be 
  rigged as either anti-aircraft or bomber planes. 
  Fighter Load 
  2 Hvy. Machineguns (DMG 10) 
  2 High Explosive Missiles (DMG 20, 20m area of 
  effect) 
  OR 
  Armour Piercing Missiles (DMG 15, Halves target’s 
  armour) 
  Bomber Load 
  Lt. Machinegun (DMG 7) 
  4 High Explosive Bombs (DMG 20, 20m area of 
  effect) 
  OR 
  Fire Bombs (DMG 10, see rules for Flamegun, 15m 
  area of effect) 
  Notes 
  Larger military aircraft exist, but are rarely used 
  except in the epic air wars periodically fought 
  between the Decados and the Svit Uryad. 
  Pirate aircraft tend to be based on scavenged 
  civilian craft, but without the strict protocols of the 
  Enerhiyist mechanics. Designs and weapon systems 
  can be radically different. As a general rule, pirates 
  prefer light aircraft designed for anti-air combat. 
  The Lytsar of Kosmofabryka are the only ones to 
  make regular use of laser weaponry. Svit Uryad 
  military technology runs a few centuries behind its 
  general tech base due to the long period of peace 
  between 4200 and 4800. Kosmofabryka has begun 
  buying ship-grade medium lasers (DMG 12) from 
  illegal scavenger ships and fitting them to a small 
  elite force of fighter planes. These replace the 
  machineguns. 
  Mechsoldat 
  These golems are the best asset the Povstanets 
  Al’yans has in its war for survival. These giant robots 
  have no set appearance or weaponry, each being 
  hand-made by a small number of Khodak who have 
  recovered the technical knowledge of their ancestors. 
  They are clumsy, clunking machines, but remarkably 
  effective at the same time. Generally, mechsoldats 
  are used in ambushes, targeting aircraft 
  
  Lost World: Svarog 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  43 
  that are lured into the narrow rocky gorges of 
  Zemlja’s interior hills. Most vary between 15’ to 25’ 
  in height. A typical model is described here. 
  Tech Level: 5 
  Body: Strength 15 (+4 DMG bonus), Dexterity 6, 
  Endurance 15 
  Mind: Wits 4, Perception 7, Tech 2 
  Natural Skills: Dodge 4, Fight 8, Impress 8, Shoot 8, 
  Vigor 15 
  Learned Skills: Warfare (Gunnery) 8, Warfare 
  (Tactics) 5 
  Armour: 10d (thick metal plating) 
  Vitality:  
  Wrecked/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Weapons:  
  Punch (Goal 14, DMG 8) 
  Arm Mounted Hvy. Machinegun (Goal 14, DMG 10) 
  Shoulder Mounted Missiles x4 (Goal 14, DMG 15, 
  Half target’s armour) 
  Author’s Note 
  If any readers are wondering what all this talk of 
  ‘Golcondan Worlds’ is, I have taken the liberty of 
  drawing on Chris Hogan’s excellent work on a non-
  canon cluster of Lost Worlds of that name. They can 
  be found, along with a wealth of other setting ideas, 
  on the Empire of the Phoenix Throne website. 
   
   
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  4
  Lost World: Leng 
  By Jack Oldham 
   
  History 
  The history of Leng is a long one, beginning with 
  the first expansion into the Jumpweb made by the 
  zaibatsu rulers of the First Republic. The system was 
  discovered from Aragon by corporate explorers in 
  2431. The rocky, desolate world they found, with an 
  atmosphere choked by hundreds of active volcanoes, 
  was of little interest to the TDA, the agricorp giant 
  that ruled the neighbouring worlds of Aragon and 
  Vera Cruz. The world remained unclaimed until 2455, 
  when it was purchased in whole by a Sino-Japanese 
  mining consortium called Jinzi Kuangshan Ltd. 
  Working in tandem with the industrialist oligarchy 
  that controlled much of East Asia during the First 
  Republic, JKL arranged for the transport of tens of 
  thousands of indentured workers from various 
  minority ethnic groups (primarily Tibetan, Mongolian 
  and Nepalese) to construct their mining operations 
  on the world they called Xizang. 
  Conditions on Xizang were harsh even by the 
  standards of other industrial worlds of the time. 
  Distracted by the wars between the TDA and 
  Kanawha corporations on Aragon, the Republican 
  authorities did nothing in response to the rumours of 
  endemic deaths and injuries in the Jinzi Kuangshan 
  work camps. The rulers of Xizang mined the rich 
  seams of heavy metals, gemstones and radioactive 
  minerals found in the planet’s mountain chains. Use 
  of 
  explosives 
  and 
  vast 
  earthwork 
  operations 
  destroyed entire mountains, and the scars of these 
  first mining operations can still be seen to the 
  present day. Cut off from Urth, the TUW workers 
  were treated as chattel. Some attempts at primitive 
  terraforming, using genetically designed plant life to 
  increase the oxygen in the atmosphere, succeeded in 
  making Xizang’s atmosphere breathable, but toxins 
  remained in the air. Sickness from noxious volcanic 
  gases and native bacteria remained a constant threat. 
  The end of the Jinzi Kuangshan government came in 
  the early years of the 26th century. When the First 
  Republic began to unwind in the wake of the Sathra 
  Revolts, the governors of Xizang found themselves 
  cut off from their superiors on Earth. Sensing the 
  weakness of their masters, revolts began to 
  break out in the more remote mining 
  complexes. The insurrection spread rapidly, forcing 
  the corporate authorities to retreat to their capital 
  and the world’s sole spaceport. Initially disorganised, 
  the revolt began to coalesce around one man. The 
  identity of this man remains a matter of speculation, 
  although it seems likely he was one of thousands of 
  political dissidents sent to work in concentration 
  camps on Xizang in the 2490s. Drawing both on anti-
  corp and religious rhetoric, he succeeded in crushing 
  the Jinzi Kuangshan government after 4 years of 
  bloody warfare. In the ruins of the Corp stronghold 
  (later the site of the capital city of Bya Lung Pa), he 
  was hailed by his followers as the reincarnation of 
  King Gesar, a folk hero of old Tibet. The iconography 
  of the First Gesar that survives depicts a scarred man 
  wearing a tattered red robe over combat armour, 
  holding a broken frapstick in one hand and a 
  budding lotus in the other. 
  In the chaos of the early Diaspora, the Gesar Rebels 
  consolidated their control of Xizang, renaming the 
  world Leng, and began to spread to neighbouring 
  worlds. This early period saw a great cultural revival. 
  Leng Traits 
  Ruler: Consul Simon Solace (The Great Valley)  
  Cathedral: 
  Mt. 
  Gngas 
  Monastery 
  (Nyima 
  Buddhist) 
  Agora: Bya Lung Pa (Muster) 
  Garrison: 2 
  Capitol: Bya Lung Pa (Muster) 
  Jumps: 3 
  Adjacent Worlds: Grail (dayside), Rimpoche 
  (parallel), 
  Zud 
  (parallel), 
  Chomolangma 
  (nightside), New Amhara (nightside) 
  Solar System: Skarma (Sun), Me Bya (0.338AU), 
  Leng (1.1AU), Bruk (23 moons, 15.6AU), 
  Bstansig (56-58AU), Jumpgate (60AU) 
  Tech: 2 (4 in Nagara) 
  Human Population: 23 million 
  Alien Population: 5 million Etyri, 40,000 Obun 
  Resources: 
  Slaves, 
  metals, 
  gemstones, 
  radioactives, jade, religious texts and artwork, 
  fire coral, herd animals 
  Exports: Slaves 
  4 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  45 
  The Gesar reintroduced those elements of Tibetan 
  and Mongolian culture that could be remembered 
  after the destruction of most historical records during 
  the revolts. A form of theocratic monarchy developed. 
  The Gesar Worlds were led by a succession of Kings, 
  each believed to be the direct reincarnation of the 
  previous ruler. Although the supporters of the First 
  Gesar came to form a noble oligarchy much like those 
  coming to power elsewhere in Human space, the 
  Kings came from all walks of life, selected from 
  among those born at the time of the last King’s 
  death. 
  This strange monarchic system was supported and 
  legitimised by a new Buddhist movement. Known as 
  the Shespaskarma (Star Wisdom) school, this 
  outgrowth of the esoteric practices of Tibetan 
  Buddhism sought to adapt the religion to the needs 
  of humanity’s new place in the jumpweb, as well as 
  the political ambitions of their noble sponsors. While 
  largely unchanged from the traditional practices of 
  Mahayana Buddhists, the Shespaskarma were most 
  notable for formalising the semi-divine role of the 
  Gesar line. The Gesar King was considered a living 
  bodhisattva, and the rest of the House were 
  considered to be gifted by their station with a higher 
  understanding of Enlightenment. Strangely, despite 
  attempts to imbue the Gesar King with the status of 
  the Living Buddha, this was rejected by the Gesar 
  themselves. Legend holds that the First Gesar himself 
  rejected this title, arguing that the bloody nature of 
  his rise to power had barred him from Nirvana for ‘a 
  hundred lifetimes’. The later Gesar Kings (with the 
  notable and infamous exception of King Wangdue the 
  Rash, who was assassinated by his own family in 
  3219) continued this practice. A common but never 
  formally accepted belief held that the hundredth 
  Gesar would erase the sin of his line, and lead the 
  way to a new age. 
  By the beginning of the 28th century, the Gesar 
  controlled ten worlds, and Star Wisdom Buddhism 
  was one of the most successful religions of the age. 
  The Gesar vied with the other great states, such as 
  the Irem Confluence and New Istanbul, for status as 
  the leading power in Human Space. During this era, 
  the Gesar’s only real rival was the emergent House Li 
  Halan. Descended in part from the Zaibatsu 
  overthrown by the First Gesar, the Li Halan held a 
  long-term feud with the Gesar as a result. This 
  conflict was to rekindle repeatedly over the next two 
  thousand years. 
  The early to mid Diaspora saw a great cultural 
  outpouring from Leng. Only shreds of this literary 
  and artistic age survives, the best example 
  probably being the heavily mythologized Journey 
  Homeward, where a small party of Gesar monks 
  recovered the true Vedas from the irradiated 
  wasteland of what had once been Northern India. It 
  is clear to any student of the Prophet’s early theology 
  that Gesar philosophy influenced some of his 
  theories. In the year 2809, the Prophet was invited by 
  King Chonden Gesar to debate with a council of the 
  greatest Buddhist teachers of the age. After three 
  days of intense debate, Chonden declared Lama 
  Yeshe Tenzing the winner, but was so impressed by 
  Zebulon’s enlightened teachings that he granted him 
  a place in his court, and gave him the right to preach 
  his beliefs in Gesar lands. Only a small minority of 
  Gesar converted to Universalism, but they were to 
  have a great influence in the years to come. 
  On the Prophet’s death, the Shepaskarma Buddhists 
  granted him the title of bodhisattva. However, 
  around the same time a more radical fringe began to 
  merge the teachings of the Prophet with their own 
  beliefs. When the Universal Church first formed 
  under Palamedes Alecto, relations between the two 
  faiths became strained. The Alecto that backed the 
  new Church viewed the Gesar with envy, and the two 
  religions became a battleground between the Houses. 
  Around the year 3000, the underground of Zebulon 
  worshippers on Leng began to emerge into the 
  mainstream. They founded a new Buddhist school, 
  called the Nyima, which proclaimed Zebulon as the 
  Maitreya Buddha. This messianic figure had been 
  central to Buddhist beliefs for millennia, and his 
  birth was seen as the heralding of a new age. By 
  bestowing this title on the Prophet, the Nyima were 
  mounting an open attack on the Shepaskarma 
  orthodoxy and their Gesar rulers, who had long held 
  to the belief that the Last Gesar would fulfil the role. 
  The conflict between the sects accelerated, with the 
  earlier respect for Universalism being forgotten. First 
  the Nyima, and then the small number of orthodox 
  Universalists, were outlawed in Gesar space. In 3025, 
  flush from the defeat of the Ukari clans, House 
  Alecto and a loose alliance of minor states united 
  behind the Church declared war on King Dorje, 
  ostensibly to defend the rights of their oppressed co-
  religionists. 
  The Wars of Religion stretched on for nearly twenty 
  years. Despite their strength, the Gesar were slowly 
  forced back by the other noble houses, which united 
  behind the Alecto to bring down their larger rival. In 
  3043 Dorje died during the naval bombardment of 
  the world of Chomolangma. His successor was, 
  thanks to the ways of the House, a mere infant. The 
  regent council formed by the Gesar sued for 
  peace on very unfavourable terms. The Gesar 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  46 
  formally disavowed the Shepaskarma monasteries, 
  and accepted the Nyima as the state religion. 
  Universalist missionaries were given free reign, and 
  set about aggressive conversion on most Gesar 
  worlds. The Gesar fell back to four worlds based 
  around Leng, and their age as a great power was 
  ended forever. 
  The Gesar were early supporters of the Second 
  Republic, hoping that a central government would 
  protect them from the aggression of the Alecto and Li 
  Halan. During the Republic, their political role 
  atrophied, although the Gesar King remained an 
  important cultural and religious icon on Leng and 
  some of its neighbouring worlds. The Republican 
  period saw a continuation of the merging of Nyima 
  Buddhism with Universalism, until by the time of the 
  Fall the two faiths were nearly inseparable. 
  Leng itself saw a recovery of its fortunes in the 
  early years of the Republic, as a Planetary Senate 
  peacefully took over from the Gesar, who abdicated 
  their temporal power to become the leaders of the 
  Nyima religion. Although much of the world’s 
  mineral wealth had long been exhausted, Leng grew 
  rich on tourism and a faddish popularity for the 
  Nyima sect among the Republican elite in the 36th 
  and 37th centuries. In the late Republic, more 
  extensive terraforming was conducted. Tectonic 
  stabilizers 
  brought 
  the 
  constant 
  threat 
  of 
  earthquakes and volcanic activity under control, and 
  the 
  primitive 
  ecology 
  established 
  during 
  the 
  colonisation was strengthened by the importation of 
  various gengineered and compatible alien species. 
  The Republican period also saw an influx in 
  immigration to the ‘majestic solitude’ of the world. In 
  particular, the large Etyri population dates from this 
  time. 
  With the Fall, the Planetary Senate of Leng found 
  itself undermined and replaced by the Gesar once 
  more. Although the House had long ago abdicated its 
  political role, it had remained an intrinsic part of 
  Leng’s social and religious identity, and in the crisis 
  of the Fall millions flocked to the Swan Banner for 
  the security it promised. A number of small pro-
  democratic revolts erupted. These were at there worst 
  when a renegade Republican fleet, under the 
  leadership of Admiral Mehmet Burns Keddah, 
  attacked the poorly prepared defences of Leng in 
  4002 in a quixotic attempt to preserve the Republic 
  on a single world. The Admiral met his end when his 
  flagship received a direct hit from an orbital defence 
  laser and crashed deep in the Seguder Mountains. 
  The democrats never recovered from this defeat, and 
  by the 4050s all of the rebels had 
  capitulated or fled into the lawless regions of the 
  world, such as the Broken Lands of Phnom. The 
  Gesar made the prudent move of throwing in their lot 
  with the Ten, and Leng and its neighbouring worlds 
  survived the chaos of the 41st century relatively 
  unscathed. The first major threat to the world came 
  from the Universal Church. The Nyima religion was 
  one of many targeted by the fanatics that came to 
  control the Church after the Fall.  
  When the Doctrine of the Cleansing Flame was 
  initiated, the Gesar worlds were targeted by many 
  fanatical Universalist crusaders. Finally, in 4096, 
  King Yonten Gesar surrendered to the Patriarch. 
  Prostrating himself before the father of the Church, 
  the 63rd Gesar King denounced his claims to divinity 
  and accepted the Orthodoxy as the one true faith. 
  This move sparked chaos at home, with the world of 
  Zud rebelling against Leng under a self-declared King 
  and then vanishing from the jumpweb. The Gesar 
  became a more traditional hereditary elite, and the 
  Nyima, 
  now 
  almost 
  indistinguishable 
  from 
  mainstream Universalism, were subsumed into the 
  Church as a Heyschast order. 
  The New Dark Ages saw a great fluctuation in the 
  fortunes of the House. Recovering from the threat of 
  excommunication and extinction, the Gesar began to 
  regain a measure of their old influence by the end of 
  the 42nd century. During years of careful planning by 
  King Palden IV Gesar, the Gesar took possession of 
  hundreds of small estates on Byzantium Secundus. 
  When the then ruling House Cameton fell into 
  infighting over a dispute of succession, the Gesar 
  were able to draw on their myriad holdings and 
  alliances to seize effective control of the world in 
  4271. King Palden was the first of the Gesar to rule 
  from this world, leaving Leng in the hands of a junior 
  branch of the family. The Byzantium Gesar grew rich 
  on trade with the nascent Merchant League, while 
  their homeworlds slowly declined into agrarian 
  backwaters. Over time, the two branches grew further 
  apart, until the Gesar of Leng barely upheld their 
  fealty to the King on Byzantium Secundus. 
  When the Barbarian Invasions began, the Gesar 
  leadership was badly hit by devastating Vuldrok 
  raids on Byzantium Secundus. When the young 
  Vladimir Alecto began his campaign against the 
  invaders, the Gesar became one of his earliest and 
  strongest allies, despite the traditional antipathy 
  between the houses. This alliance was strengthened 
  when the houses united with the Justinian to defeat 
  an invasion of Byzantium Secundus mounted by the 
  young Grand Duke Tahir al-Malik in 4548. When 
  Vladimir announced his intention to unite 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  47 
  the Known Worlds into a single empire, a Gesar stood 
  by his side.  
  When Vladimir died on his coronation, the Gesar 
  were again targeted by their old enemies. Within a 
  year of the death of the first Phoenix Emperor, the Li 
  Halan were stirring up resentment against the Gesar 
  Worlds. In 4572, Patriarch Nadrim was convinced by 
  an Inquisitorial Court to excommunicate the entire 
  population of Leng, after evidence of continued 
  heretical practices in the Nyima monasteries was 
  exposed. The truth of these rumours is impossible to 
  determine, although it is probable that heterodox 
  beliefs such as that of reincarnation and the 
  veneration of the Buddha as a pre-reflective prophet 
  on a level with Zebulon were still being practiced in 
  secret. The more outrageous claim that the Gesar 
  intended to seize Vladimir’s legacy and proclaim 
  themselves as god-kings seems less likely. 
  The Li Halan and Hazat led the Church-sponsored 
  attack on Leng. Under pressure from all sides, the 
  Byzantine Gesar broke their ties with Leng.  The Li 
  Halan finally broke the Gesar lines in 4574. Conquest 
  of Leng seemed a certainty, until the remnants of the 
  Gesar fleet mounted a suicidal offensive against their 
  enemies. The Li Halan and Hazat were driven back to 
  Aragon, and by the time they had regrouped they 
  found the Leng gate to be sealed. 
  The branch of the Gesar that ruled Byzantium 
  Secundus survived this crisis, by severing all ties 
  with their ‘heretic’ cousins on Leng. The Byzantine 
  Gesar clung on to power until 4663, when an alliance 
  of Houses Cameton, al-Malik and Decados drove 
  them from power. King Dorje III was tried before a 
  Regency Court, sentenced on spurious charges of 
  treason against the Phoenix Throne, and executed. 
  The remaining Gesar were systematically hunted 
  down, and by the end of the 47th century the House 
  was considered extinct. The House’s voting sceptres 
  were divided between their persecutors. Within the 
  Empire, the long history of the Gesar Kings ended 
  with fall of a headman’s axe. 
  The Lengese View 
  And so ends the history of the Gesar as known to 
  the historians of the Known Worlds. However, the 
  records of the Nyima monks of Mt Gngas tell a 
  different story of the last centuries of the ancient 
  house. Beginning with the relocation of the house 
  leadership from Leng to Byzantium Secundus in 
  4271, an increasing number of junior Gesar nobles 
  and Nyima theologians began to resent the 
  ‘abandonment’ of their leaders. By the early 
  46th century, Leng had undergone a great cultural 
  revival, spurred on mainly by a wish to distance itself 
  from the materialist merchants who now seemed to 
  dominate the council of the King. Under the very 
  nose of Orthodox censors and inquisitors, the old 
  Buddhist-inspired theology of the Nyima and the 
  ancient Shepaskarma schools began to find fertile 
  ground among the monasteries of Leng. 
  This movement came to a head in the secret 
  crowning of an infant as the true reincarnation of 
  Gesar, in defiance of the dynastic line of kings that 
  had ruled since King Yonten’s confession in 4096. 
  Very little can clearly be said about the early life of 
  the child who was to become King Chonden II Gesar, 
  the Child of the Moon and the Winter Swan. Legend 
  holds that he was found by a humble Lama on the 
  banks of the Moon River, in a nest of reeds and swan 
  feathers in the year 4551. Raised in secret at the 
  oldest Nyima monastery on Mt. Gngas, many 
  miracles are associated with the child, who spoke 
  with the wisdom of 82 perfectly remembered previous 
  lives. In 4570 he was brought before a secret council 
  of Gesar nobles, who swore fealty to him and began 
  to prepare for a war of independence. This conspiracy 
  is remembered as the Silent Insurrection. 
  The rebels made their move in 4572, sending 
  delegates to Byzantium Secundus informing King 
  Wangdak IX that Leng was no longer his to control. 
  Enraged, the old king washed his hands of Leng and 
  of the Nyima sect, fully aware that the Church and 
  House Li Halan would seize on the opportunity to 
  invade. Sure enough, the world was excommunicated 
  by Patriarchal decree and the invasion began within 
  weeks. King Chonden himself blinded the last 
  Orthodox bishop of Leng and threw him from the 
  walls of the Red Palace in his capital. Although the 
  Lengese had prepared for a war with the Byzantine 
  Gesar, they were ill equipped for the attack of the 
  Patriarchal fleet and two other noble houses. In 
  4574, Patriarch Nadrim reluctantly permitted the use 
  of orbital bombardment to hasten the capitulation of 
  the heretics.  
  The last actions of King Chonden recorded by 
  history are perplexing to say the least. In the last 
  months of the war he retreated once again to Mt. 
  Gngas, 
  where 
  he 
  entered 
  silent 
  meditation. 
  Eventually 
  he 
  re-emerged 
  with 
  a 
  startling 
  proclamation. He ordered his entire house to leave 
  their stations and congregate in the capital. There, he 
  explained his decision to enter self-enforced exile, 
  leaving Leng until the Gesar could rediscover the 
  Enlightenment lost since the Fall. Those Gesar who 
  refused were executed, and nearly ten 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  48 
  thousand nobles boarded the surviving ships of the 
  Gesar fleet. Legend holds that Chonden’s last words 
  to his subjects were “As Rimpoche the Enlightened 
  was reborn as Gesar the King, now the ruler must be 
  reborn as the monk. We go to seek enlightenment 
  once more, lost in the glory of battle and the lure of 
  riches. Look to the North for our return, when the 
  Winter Swan will herald Gesar's rebirth”. 
  The Gesar fleet swept the Li Halan and Hazat 
  attackers from the system in a surprise assault, and 
  then themselves vanished through the jumpgate, 
  sealing it behind them. The survivors on Leng were 
  left in confusion. By the end of the 46th century, any 
  semblance of a world government had collapsed. The 
  high passes that linked the settled valleys of Phnom 
  became clogged with snow and bandits, and the 
  Lengese splintered into many hundreds of clans, 
  tribes and petty nations. The only thread that bound 
  the world together was the actions of the Nyima 
  monks, who travelled between valleys keeping alive 
  the legend of the Last Gesar’s promise of his return 
  and a future paradise. They found a ready audience 
  in most regions, although some peoples such as the 
  inhabitants of the city of Nagara and the rebellious 
  High Clans refuted this message. By around 4800, 
  the Nyima had built up a solid legend of Chonden’s 
  return. Consisting of hundreds of stories and songs, 
  the work is collectively known as the Swan King 
  Legend, and has spread by word of mouth over most 
  of the globe. 
  Despite the efforts of the priesthood, society on 
  Leng continued to fragment. While larger polities did 
  form in some regions, such as the Gnas Ri Alliance in 
  the Great Valley and the Empire of Nagara on the 
  coast of the Sea of Mists, most adopted a nomadic, 
  pre-industrial way of life. Leng seemed destined for 
  many more centuries of slow recovery, until 
  everything changed in the spring of 4995. The people 
  of Bya Lung Pa were shocked to see a spaceship 
  descending through the flocks of winter swans flying 
  overhead on their yearly migration south. The men 
  that emerged were Muster slavers, keen to exploit a 
  world they had secretly discovered from a dying slave 
  of unknown origin. Led by Consul Simon Solace, the 
  crew had the sense to accept the cheers and prayers 
  of the crowds that surrounded them. Once Solace 
  discovered that he was being proclaimed as some 
  kind of sacred ruler, he was happy to assume the 
  role. The Gnas Ri swore fealty to King Solace Gesar, 
  Swan King and 84th reincarnation of the Liberator. 
  Within the year, the first shipment of slaves, in the 
  form of criminals and rebels who opposed the new 
  king, was shipped for the markets of the 
  Known Worlds. Since then, two great 
  insurrections (the Blood Water Revolt of 4996 and 
  the ongoing High Revolt) have only swelled the 
  coffers of the Swan King. The world, misnamed 
  Swan’s Way by lazy Muster translators, remains a 
  secret known only to the members of Solace’s 
  conspiracy. 
  Solar System 
  Skarma (Sun): Leng’s sun is much like Sol, except 
  for the fact that it seems largely uninfluenced by the 
  Fading. No reason for this is known. 
  Me Bya (Firebird): Me Bya is a large, blood-red 
  planet which is easily visible on the low horizon on 
  Leng. It is considered a symbol of good luck, and the 
  Lengese believe that spirits cannot travel abroad on 
  nights when the Firebird is in the sky. 
  Leng: This planet is roughly similar in size to and 
  slightly denser than Holy Terra. It is described in 
  more detail below.  
  Kailas: Leng’s single moon is a large, chalk white 
  planetoid. Kailas has always played a central role in 
  the religion of Leng, with a popular folk belief 
  holding that it is home to the Bodhisattvas and good 
  spirits. This myth probably descends from the 
  numerous abandoned Gesar estates which litter the 
  airless surface. Kailas is still orbited by the wreckage 
  of dozens of starships and spacestations, destroyed 
  during the failed invasion four centuries ago. 
  Bruk: Bruk is a large gas giant with many moons in 
  complex orbits. An unusual rock, about 1.5km 
  across, was found in high orbit during the Republic. 
  Bizarrely, it turned out to be made entirely of the fire 
  coral found in the Sea of Mists on Leng. At a total 
  loss to explain this, astronomers blamed the Ur and 
  moved on. 
  Bstansig (Trickster): This dark green gas giant 
  gets its name both from its erratic orbit, which 
  occasionally brings it close to the jumpgate, and the 
  bursts of electromagnetic energy it sporadically gives 
  off. These have been known to damage ships’ 
  systems. 
  Landscape 
  Leng is roughly Urth-like in diameter, but has a 
  slightly increased mass, giving it a surface gravity of 
  1.2 G. This slight gravitational increase is well within 
  the tolerance level of unchanged humans, but has led 
  to a distinct stocky appearance among the 
  planet’s natives, and can be exhausting for 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  49
  offworlders who have not become acclimatised to 
  local conditions.  
  Kyikra (trans. Dog-hawk) 
  Body: Strength 10, Dexterity 8, Endurance 7 
  Mind: Wits 2, Perception 6 
  Skills: Dodge 4, Fight 4, Observe 3, Vigor 6 
  Vitality: (12)-10/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 
  Move: 15m (not slowed by broken ground) 
  Weapons: Claws (Goal 12, Init 4, DMG 5), Bite 
  (Goal 14, Init 6, DMG 3), Horns (bulls only; Goal 
  14, Init 6, DMG 6) 
  Description: Kyikra are a rare sight in the 
  lowlands, but they are by far the most favoured 
  steeds of the High Clans. The origin of these 
  beasts is unclear. They are certainly not native to 
  Leng, but their homeworld has long been 
  forgotten. Kyikra are giant, shaggy creatures, 
  vaguely resembling bull-sized goats. Their thick 
  fur and stocky features make them appear 
  ungainly, but they are surprisingly swift and 
  agile. Their legs end in broad, bird-like feet, with 
  sharp talons and a strong grip that allows them 
  to move easily in the broken ground of the high 
  passes. Their heads are large and slightly dog-
  like (thus their Lengese name), with a powerful 
  bite suited to their omnivorous diet. Kyikra are 
  pack animals, feeding on fish and small 
  mammals in the summer months and lichens and 
  hardy grasses in winter. They are belligerent 
  creatures, and difficult to train. The High Clans 
  tend to ride females or gelded males, although a 
  few brave souls learn to harness the violent bulls 
  for use in war. The latter are at least half again 
  as large as females, and boast massive, curled 
  horns that can cause grievous wounds. 
  Old reports suggest that Leng originally had a toxic 
  atmosphere, but crude terraforming begun by the 
  corporate rulers during the First Republic created a 
  standard oxygen-nitrogen mix. Since the Fall, and 
  the failure of the terraforming engines in the 47th 
  century, the balance of elements in the atmosphere 
  has begun to become unstable. While still perfectly 
  breathable, the level of oxygen has increased. This 
  has the interesting side-effect of causing fires to burn 
  hotter and faster than they do in a standard 
  atmosphere. For this reason, natives of Leng are very 
  cautious about the use of open flames, which has 
  further stagnated the local technology level. 
  Geographically, Leng displays the complex tectonics 
  and high mountains of a relatively young world. The 
  landmasses of Leng cover about 55% of the planet, 
  and are concentrated in two continents in the 
  southern hemisphere, linked by a narrow land bridge. 
  These are Phnom in the west, which stretches from 
  the southern pole to the mid-point of the northern 
  hemisphere, and the smaller crescent shaped 
  continent of Bód in the east. Both continents are 
  extremely mountainous, with peaks reaching heights 
  of over 9,000 metres in places. Besides the plains 
  and deserts at the coasts, most of the inhabitable 
  land of Leng is at least 2,000 metres above sea level. 
  The planet has always been subject to severe tectonic 
  instability, and this has only increased since the Fall. 
  Because of this, the Lengese have tended towards a 
  rural way of life, rather than constructing large cities 
  that 
  would 
  be 
  vulnerable 
  to 
  damage 
  from 
  earthquakes. 
  Although 
  the 
  nature 
  of 
  Leng’s 
  geography would suggest the presence of rich 
  mineral deposits, very little of this remains. Much 
  was aggressively mined during the First Republic (as 
  evidenced by the ravaged land around the Brug Skad 
  Brgyab Mountains, where millions of tons of rock 
  was displaced by explosives), and what was left was 
  exhausted by the end of the Second Republic. 
  Although some deposits of rare minerals and 
  radioactives still exist, they are in such remote 
  locations that mining them would be prohibitively 
  expensive. 
  The climate of Leng has always been chilly, and this 
  has only increased since the terraforming began to 
  unravel. Temperatures never exceed 20˚ C, even 
  during the brief summers, and drop below freezing 
  for months at a time in most areas of the planet. As a 
  result life on Leng is strongly influenced by the 
  seasons, with the summer being a time of intensive 
  farming and trade between the scattered 
  clans, and the winter marking a time of long 
  isolation.  
  When humans first settled Leng, the planet had 
  nothing more than the most primitive of bacteria and 
  other micro-organisms. Most of these native species, 
  some of which were extremely harmful to humans, 
  were made extinct by the haphazard terraforming of 
  the 25th century. The ecosystem of Leng is now based 
  around the Shing Nags, a hardy low-lying tree with 
  distinctive black foliage. This plant was designed to 
  boost the levels of free oxygen in the atmosphere, 
  and now covers much of the world. It is 
  unfortunately poisonous to humans. As a result, 
  other species were introduced, and hardy variants of 
  rice and wheat are stable agricultural products. Leng 
  has only a small selection of animal species, most of 
  which are the descendants of spaceship vermin or 
  domesticated species. Brutes, goats and 
   
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  50 
  llamas are common in the valleys. Horses and the 
  bizarre, meat-eating Kyikra are the most common 
  riding animals. The one environment where animals 
  have truly thrived is the air. The high oxygen levels 
  make flight simple at even great altitudes. A 
  multitude of species from across the Known Worlds 
  fill the skies. The most spectacular of these is the 
  Winter Swan, which migrates from equator to pole 
  every year in flocks of hundreds of thousands. 
  People & Places 
  The Holy Land of the Swan King: The 
  Great Valley 
  “Hear, oh King. Hear the prayers of your people. 
  Hear the silent cries of the river for her son. Hear the 
  scream of the eagle and the lowing of the brute and 
  the whispers of the dead. All the world calls with one 
  voice, ‘Return to us, oh Gesar King’.” 
  The Swan King Legend, Stanza 1261 
  The Great Valley is one of the most densely 
  populated areas on Leng. Lying in the vast Brug Skad 
  Brgyab (Dragon’s Voice) mountain range on the 
  continent of Phnom, the Valley stretches for over 
  1650 miles in a roughly northwest to southeast 
  direction, along the course of the Moon River. At the 
  head of the Valley, which lies at a height of 5,000m 
  above sea level, the half-deserted remains of Bya 
  Lung Pa, Leng’s only major city, lies near the source 
  of the Moon River. The valley then slowly falls in 
  height, and is settled by several hundred small 
  farming towns and villages, about two thirds of 
  which owe fealty to the rulers of Bya Lung Pa. For 
  the past two centuries this has been the native Gnas 
  Ri Clan, thought to descend from minor householders 
  of the old Gesar rulers. With the arrival of the 
  Muster, the Gnas Ri have submitted much of their 
  sovereignty to the offworlders. They remain only as a 
  puppet regime, responsible for those matters of 
  administration that Solace does not wish to trouble 
  himself with, such as ensuring the cooperation and 
  food supplies owed to the city by the minor clans of 
  the Valley, delivered each year at the end of summer 
  in accordance with ancient treaties. 
  The people of the Valley, like those of much of Leng, 
  are divided into many small semi-nomadic clans. In 
  the north of the Valley, these clans have been largely 
  unaffected by the arrival of the Swan King, and some 
  still offer daily prayers in the direction of the capital. 
  The clans mainly subsist via brute, cow and 
  horse herding. The herds are wintered in small 
  settlements along the banks of the Moon River and 
  its larger tributaries, which are abandoned as the 
  clans move their animals into the foothills to pasture 
  during the short summer. Most clans live in this 
  manner, although some have permanently settled in 
  larger towns and live by growing maize, fishing the 
  rivers and hunting for fowl and rabbits. Clans tend to 
  be led by hereditary chieftains, who can be either 
  male or female. Only the barbaric High Clans 
  maintain any democratic traditions, although most 
  chieftains will retire if the clan turns against them. 
  Most of these chiefs claim descent from either the 
  Gesar or some local god, such as River Woman or 
  Fox.  It is these spirits, often associated with the 
  local landscape, that form the centre of most 
  religious practices. Wandering lamas from the 
  scattered monasteries are always welcome, as they 
  offer blessings and religious instruction in the higher 
  mysteries of the Gesar. 
  The Great Valley has always been the centre of 
  Lengese civilisation, as evidenced by the numerous 
  jade ruins that dot the land. Even after the collapse 
  of the 46th century, the Valley has remained home to 
  many diverse groups. The most influential peoples 
  and places are listed below. 
  The City of Bya Lung Pa 
  The city of Bya Lung Pa has been the capital of Leng 
  since the settlement by the Jinzi Kuangshan 
  corporation over 2500 years ago. The oldest 
  surviving area of the city lies about 2km outside of 
  the modern city, in the vast expanses of the old 
  shipyards. The shipyards lie on a smooth plain, 
  created by the levelling of a mountain at a height of 
  5500m above sea level. As a result, it looms above 
  the modern city, which lies around 500m below. The 
  shipyards had been abandoned for nearly 300 years, 
  and even with the arrival of the Muster, only a small 
  section of this great expanse has been reclaimed. 
  Much of the yards remain deserted, and local legend 
  holds that the ghosts of the Zaibatsu’s victims and 
  those killed during the fall of the Gesar haunt the 
  great warehouses and the frames that once were 
  used to construct spacecraft. Other rumours hold that 
  there are hoards of treasure and tech secreted away 
  by the Gesar when they fled.  Despite this, the Muster 
  are reluctant to explore beyond the borders they have 
  marked out. Those that do go wandering tend to 
  vanish. The Chainer leaders maintain that this is due 
  to accidents among the crumbling ruins, but the 
  
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  51 
  deckhands are beginning to share the superstitions 
  of the natives. 
  Massive cranes loom over the lip of the plateau, and 
  access is generally via crude elevators set up by the 
  Muster to transport their human cargoes. A single 
  jade staircase runs down into the city proper, 
  zigzagging back and forth along the cliff face, and is 
  the only surviving unpowered route to the yards. The 
  Muster discovered rotting explosives under the 
  supports for this bridge, which the inhabitants had 
  long since forgotten about. This route is guarded day 
  and night by Muster sentries, and defences have been 
  erected at the high end of the bridge, to which the 
  offworlders can retreat if a revolt were to break out. 
  The modern city of Bya Lung Pa is a mere 1500 
  years old. When it was constructed in the early years 
  of the Republic, it was considered one of the 
  architectural wonders of the Known Worlds. To this 
  day, despite the wear of the centuries and the lack of 
  repairs in recent years, the city remains a 
  breathtaking sight. The city itself is built in a tight 
  ravine formed by the fast-flowing waters of the Moon 
  River, which emerges from its source in the 
  mountains 50 miles to the north. Myriad waterfalls 
  run down the sides of the gully and between the 
  streets of the city itself. The streets run at steep 
  angles up the sides of the ravine, making travel on 
  foot or by mules and brutes the only practical 
  options. On the western cliffs, the old merchants 
  district in the shadow of the shipyards has become 
  the 
  centre 
  of 
  the 
  Muster 
  government, 
  and 
  warehouses that once held riches from across the 
  Known Worlds now house squalid slave pens. On the 
  eastern cliffs, the palaces of the Gesar stand, now 
  home to the Gnas Ri pretenders. The two walls of the 
  ravine are close enough to each other that vaulted 
  bridges stretch across the divide, soaring 100m above 
  the churning water. As the city descends, the 
  buildings become more squalid and abandoned. In 
  the base of the cleft, along the banks of the Moon 
  River, the Old City, with its tightly packed network of 
  streets and bridges, is practically deserted. The only 
  dwellers here are the workers in the great 
  hydroelectric plants that harness the power of the 
  Moon River and its myriad tributaries, and those 
  desperate souls who refused the rule of the Swan 
  King, and now cower in the shadows of the city’s 
  new rulers.  
  The architecture of the city, even in the slums, is 
  astounding. Like most Gesar constructions, the 
  primary building material is synthetic jade. Created 
  by esoteric Republican nanotechnology, these slabs 
  of unblemished stone are as strong as steel 
  and can support greater weights than concrete. 
  Nearly all surfaces are constructed of beautifully 
  carved sea-green and white stone. Surfaces have a 
  smooth, almost organic appearance, with intricate 
  carvings from Gesar legend, stretching back to the 
  dawn in the mountains of Old Urth, displayed on the 
  walls of even the lowliest dwellings. Despite the 
  beauty, the city is beginning to collapse in areas. The 
  jade is impossible to repair with the technology of the 
  natives, and when cracks start to appear, areas are 
  abandoned or broken down for the stone. Much of 
  the Old City is now treacherous, with collapses 
  common. Whole streets have been known to crumble 
  into the river, and one of the sky bridges gave way 
  suddenly three years ago, sending over a hundred 
  people to their deaths. The Gnas Ri make what 
  repairs they can, but focus exclusively on their own 
  estates. The Muster remain aloof of all such 
  concerns. 
  Despite this degradation, the citizens of Bya Lung 
  Pa enjoy a higher standard of living than most on 
  Leng. While the fusion reactors that once powered 
  much of the city have long since broken down, 
  electricity is still generated from the rushing waters 
  of the Moon River and the dozens of waterfalls that 
  race through the city. In the summer months, this is 
  sufficient to light the whole city, and allow citizens 
  to use basic electrical appliances. In winter, however, 
  all but the Moon River freeze, and while the frozen 
  waterfalls are a beautiful sight, they provide no 
  power to the generators. What power remains is 
  directed to the wealthy districts, and the commoners 
  must rely on brute dung fires for light and warmth. 
  Each spring, some families are found frozen in their 
  homes. 
  The Gnas Ri Clan 
  The Gnas Ri are the primary clan of the Great 
  Valley, ruling the whole region, in name at least. The 
  people of the Valley have united into many hundreds 
  of clans, build around extended families and 
  intermarriage. In turn, a crude form of feudal 
  relations has developed. While no clan adopts 
  pretensions of nobility (that right is restricted to the 
  Gesar alone), several have grown strong enough to 
  demand tribute from lesser clans. Of these, the Gnas 
  Ri are the greatest. The power of this clan was 
  secured just over a hundred years ago. They claim 
  descent from the household guard of the Gesar, left 
  with the task of acting as Lord Protectors of the city 
  of Bya Lung Pa when their masters fled to save the 
  world from bombardment. In the three 
  centuries since the flight of the Gesar, the 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  52 
  Gnas Ri slowly extended their power through trade, 
  and through the use of their better arms and 
  training, offering the agrarian clans protection from 
  the highland bandits. 
  When the first Muster ship descended through the 
  flocks of winter swans ten years ago, the Lord 
  Protector of the Great Valley sought to resist their 
  growing influence, only to be assassinated by 
  members of his own family who became swept up in 
  the religious hysteria of the return of the Swan King. 
  A bemused Simon Solace accepted the head of the 
  ‘traitor’, and assured the remaining clan members 
  that their position as rulers of the Great Valley was 
  assured, as long as his primacy as King of Leng was 
  recognised. Initially, the Muster did little to interfere 
  in the affairs of their servants, assisting them in the 
  subjugation of the revolt of the southern clans. Over 
  time, however, the power of the Gnas Ri has been 
  eroded. When the first Lord Protector under the new 
  regime, Panden the Old, forbade his subordinates to 
  sell non-criminals to the Muster in 4996, he died of 
  agonising stomach cramps that very night. His 
  successor, Panden the Younger, a famed warrior 
  against the rebels, lasted only three months before 
  falling from the walls of the Red Palace into the 
  Moon River. Now, the Lady Protector is one Jangmu, 
  a shrewd but paranoid woman in her late 50s. She 
  has become increasingly conciliatory to the Muster, 
  to the point where she accedes to their every demand. 
  While she makes her contempt for the Muster fully 
  known in private, the deaths of her grandfather and 
  uncle have filled her with fear of offending the Swan 
  King’s uncouth servants. 
  While the Gnas Ri are but one clan, they still 
  number in the hundreds. Despite the united front 
  they show to outsiders, they are divided into several 
  distinct factions. The supporters of the Muster are 
  the most powerful faction, even though the Lord 
  Protectors have never been in their number. Initially 
  wrapped up in the religious revival caused by the 
  arrival of the Swan King, the leaders of this faction 
  orchestrated a successful coup to ensure the 
  ascension of Solace to the throne. In reward, the 
  ringleaders 
  were 
  granted 
  high 
  positions 
  in 
  government, and have grown rich on the collection of 
  revenues from the Valley, and directly from acting as 
  middlemen in the slave trade. While some may now 
  doubt the divinity of their King, the financial 
  incentives have done enough to silence any concerns.  
  In opposition to this group, two loose factions have 
  severe doubts regarding the presence of the 
  offworlders. The larger of these resides in the 
  military. While initially glad to accept the 
  aid of Muster mercenaries in the crushing of the 
  revolt led by the Drisa monks, many Gnas Ri viewed 
  the corrosion of their clan’s influence and the sale of 
  honourable enemies into slavery with growing 
  distaste. There are persistent rumours that Panden 
  the Younger was conspiring with several of the 
  generals to overthrow the Swan King before his 
  bizarre death. Since then, the malcontents have kept 
  a low profile, but still plot against their rulers. The 
  smaller anti-offworlder faction has only appeared in 
  recent years, around the person of the Lady Protector 
  herself. Realising that they have been marginalised 
  by their own subordinates, they ineffectually scheme 
  to reassert the position of the Lord Protector. While 
  these two groups could benefit each other, they 
  remain suspicious of one another. The generals see 
  Jangmu as a spineless collaborator, and the Lady 
  Protector worries that the military may act rashly 
  and doom any coup before it can succeed. All three 
  factions circle each other in the corridors of the Red 
  Palace, and all have used blackmail, rumour and 
  poison to support their cause. 
  The Gnas Ri rule from the Red Palace, a fantastic 
  structure of burgundy coloured stone that projects 
  out above the eastern cliffs of the city. The Palace 
  has served as a centre of government, then as a 
  Nyima monastery, and then again as a noble 
  dwelling in its long history. It has thousands of 
  rooms, many of which lie in artificial caves in the 
  cliff face itself. The Gnas Ri occupy only a fraction of 
  the palace, and much is sealed or simply abandoned, 
  with dusty corridors full of treasure slowly rotting 
  away. Life in the Red Palace is constrained by 
  thousands of old laws and traditions. The Lady 
  Protector holds court in the Hall of Memories, seated 
  on a simple bench in front of a vast statue of Gesar 
  in his incarnation as the Liberator, the Bloody-
  Handed One (the symbolism of this choice is lost on 
  the Muster). From here, the Gnas Ri govern the city 
  and police the Great Valley. Ancient laws hold that 
  none other than the Gnas Ri can enter this chamber. 
  Indeed, the only region of the Red Palace open to 
  offworlders is the Hall of the King, where Solace 
  holds court on those rare occasions he is forced to 
  assume his role as the Swan King. Seated on the 
  ancient throne of the Gesar Kings, he gives his 
  proclamations to his servants, and bestows blessings 
  to the pilgrims that still come to see the prophesised 
  saviour (although the number of these has fallen 
  sharply in recent years). In general, Solace only holds 
  court four times a year, on the greatest holy days, 
  and even then with a growing expression of boredom 
  and exasperation. 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  53 
  The Gnas Ri officials and enforcers who govern 
  outside of the Red Palace can easily be identified by 
  the deep red gowns and yellow turbans that mark 
  their station. Those seen beyond the city tend to be 
  prefects sent to enforce the law and collect tribute 
  from the farming clans, or the soldiers that 
  accompany them. These latter are equipped with 
  studded leather armour, primitive bolt-action rifles, 
  and sabres. 
  The Muster Rulers 
  Although few Lengese outside of the capital have 
  ever seen the offworlder slavers, these men have 
  developed a stranglehold over the government of the 
  Great Valley and are slowly expanding there 
  influence across the face of the world. When Solace 
  first landed in the Great Valley, he and his men chose 
  to follow a cautious path. The natives were primitive 
  but numerous, and Solace’s strategy of co-opting the 
  local elite to act as intermediaries with the Valley’s 
  inhabitants has been largely successful. The last ten 
  years have proven to be extremely profitable for 
  Simon Solace and his men, and he intends to milk 
  ‘Swan’s Way’ for all it is worth. 
  Solace and most of his followers reside in the old 
  merchant’s quarter on Bya Lung Pa’s eastern cliffs, 
  across the ravine from the Red Palace. There are 
  perhaps two hundred Muster slavers, mercenaries 
  and accountants here at any given time, with 
  perhaps another fifty elsewhere in the Great Valley, 
  either overseeing Gnas Ri slave raids or helping in 
  the wars in the south and the Highlands. Solace has 
  taken every available precaution to keep his work 
  here a secret from the rest of the Empire, worried 
  that his guild or the Emperor might try to seize ‘his’ 
  world away. As a result, only guildsmen with direct 
  loyalty to himself have been chosen for this 
  operation. Only three non-Muster know of Leng. 
  These are two Charioteer pilots, both of whom have 
  been happy to hide the world from their fellow 
  guildsmen for large bribes, and Captain Sir Yussuf 
  Keddah, a spectacularly corrupt member of the Grail 
  Defence Fleet who makes sure Solace’s ships can slip 
  through the Grail jumpgate unmolested. Promises of 
  great wealth are enough to keep most of the Muster 
  workers loyal, although a few have been brutally 
  executed for ‘disloyalty’ as a warning to the others. A 
  small fleet of five vessels are kept in orbit just in case 
  someone from the Known Worlds were to enter the 
  system. The crews have standing orders to pretend to 
  be Charioteer scout vessels and visitors are invited to 
  board, only to be shot at when they lower 
  their shields. One Questing Knight has 
  already met his end this way. More alarmingly for 
  Solace, a ship of unknown design was encountered in 
  5003. The ship broadcasted a message in stilted 
  Urthish, claiming to be from a world called Byway 
  and to be carrying a message for the people of Leng 
  from their masters. When attacked, the vessel 
  somehow broke out of the trap and fled. Space 
  patrols have been doubled since the incident. 
  In general, the Muster remains secluded from the 
  natives as much as possible, staying within the 
  merchants’ quarter or within the barracks in the 
  shipyards. The soldiers are actively encouraged to 
  view the Lengese as subhuman chattel. A common 
  belief has developed that the natives are not human, 
  but rather Changed from some ancient experiment. 
  This is patently untrue, but the Muster leaders have 
  allowed the rumour to spread, aware that it feeds 
  into the soldiery’s religious prejudices and does much 
  to avert any sympathy for the slaves that are 
  crowded into pens once used for brutes and horses. 
  The Muster is very careful to restrict the knowledge 
  of the Lengese regarding their activities. No 
  explanation has been given for why the Swan King 
  wants slaves, and questions from Gnas Ri officials 
  are met first with gifts, then threats, then 
  assassination. In particular, Solace does everything 
  he can to prevent the Gnas Ri from knowing about 
  the Muster ships that have begun to explore Leng for 
  other ‘markets’. Already, they have made contact 
  with the Justinian rulers of Byzantion, and their 
  activities have sparked rumours of flying monsters in 
  clans across the world. Only Bód has been left alone, 
  as the Muster realise that Nagara has the capacity to 
  fight back. Solace is particularly careful about who 
  gets to go on these scouting expeditions since one 
  scout captain decided to go native and vanished into 
  the Broken Lands with half of his crew and a 
  gunship. There is a significant price on this man’s 
  head which most of the remaining captains hope to 
  collect. 
  Mt Gngas Monastery and the Nyima 
  School 
  Lying at the end of a treacherous mountain pass 
  high above the western edge of the Great Valley, the 
  ancient monastery on Mt Gngas has long been a 
  centre of learning and contemplation. According to 
  legend, the foundations of the Mt Gngas monastery 
  was placed by the First Gesar himself, standing on 
  the blackened ruins of the penal mining colony in 
  which he had slaved before he led the world into 
  rebellion. In the millennia since, each 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  54 
  successive incarnation of Gesar came here upon 
  reaching majority, to be blessed by the High Lamas 
  and to accept the mantle of kingship from their 
  regents. Tradition held that the first proclamation of 
  each Gesar King was to order an addition to the 
  monastery. As a result, the complex has grown to the 
  size of a small city. While much of it is now no more 
  than frozen ruins, myriad architectural styles 
  combine, 
  from 
  the 
  crude, 
  blocky 
  structures 
  supposedly built by the hand of the First Gesar 
  himself, to the grand synthetic jade halls, terraces 
  and arches ordered by the Kings during the Republic, 
  to the beautiful but modest structures added after the 
  Fall with their veneer of Universalist imagery. In all, 
  the monastery grounds cover an area as large as a 
  small city, but houses no more than a thousand 
  monks and their servants at any time. 
  Mt Gngas began as the centre of the Shepaskarma 
  Buddhist sect, but was usurped by the Universalist-
  influenced Nyima school in the aftermath of the Wars 
  of Religion in the 31st century. In turn, it became the 
  seat of the Orthodox bishop during the New Dark 
  Ages, only to return to the Old Ways after Chonden’s 
  Exile. Since then, Mt. Gngas has once again become 
  the most respected of the Nyima monasteries, leading 
  the new theology associated with the Swan King 
  Legend.  
  The tenants of the form of Nyimaism worshipped at 
  Mt. Gngas are both similar to and radically different 
  to the practices of the ancient Buddhists of Urth. The 
  lamas believe in a cycle of reincarnation, which can 
  only be broken by attaining a state of supreme 
  Enlightenment. This in turn is possible only over a 
  succession of lives, the nature of each being 
  determined by the deeds committed in the former. 
  The position of the Swan King is a messianic belief, 
  derived from the old worship of the First Gesar by the 
  Shepaskarma School. The Nyima lamas hold that the 
  return of the Swan King marks the end of an ancient 
  curse the First Gesar placed on himself for the bloody 
  war he waged to free Leng from the First Republic. 
  With the erasure of the blood debt, the Swan King 
  has reclaimed the Buddha nature that the First Gesar 
  rejected. So marks the beginning of a new epoch. 
  Nyima theology is deeper than just the Swan King 
  Legend. Lamas venerate all the previous incarnations 
  of Gesar, each of whom is attributed to different 
  virtues associated with his or her actions in life. In 
  addition, a host of Bodhisattvas, enlightened souls 
  like the First Gesar who refused Nirvana to help the 
  living, are still venerated. Some of these come from 
  Old Urth. Others, such as Zebulon, the Mother of 
  Mercy (Amalthea) and the Bird of Heaven 
  (Mihanoom), were adopted from different religions in 
  later times. Over the centuries Nyimaism has also 
  adapted to and absorbed the animist beliefs of the 
  surrounding clans. As a result, lamas fully accept the 
  existence of numerous spirits and little gods. These 
  are seen as good as long as they accept the teachings 
  of the Swan King. Some wandering lamas work as 
  exorcists to drive off evil spirits and the ghosts of the 
  dead, who are seen as malicious blood-drinking 
  horrors. 
  The Nyima have long embraced the existence of 
  psychic and theurgic powers. The latter are thought 
  to be possible via communing with higher orders of 
  beings such as the Bodhisattvas, and a few mystics 
  are said to know means of calling them down to 
  earth. Psychic powers are more common, and are 
  seen as a natural part of the growth of the human 
  mind as it comes closer to Enlightenment. As a 
  result, many lamas claim to be able to use such 
  powers (fewer really can, but the numbers still seem 
  to be higher than average), but strangely most refuse 
  to. Indeed, the use of such powers is seen as rash 
  and potentially dangerous, as by using his powers 
  the monk ties himself closer to the earth and away 
  from Nirvana. This in turn can lead to rashness and 
  spiritual corruption. Those monks that do use their 
  powers, such as those that fought in the Blood Water 
  Revolt, are viewed with suspicion and pity.  
  The Nyima monks have become increasingly divided 
  in recent years, particularly since the unexpected 
  return of the Swan King. The official line taken by 
  Mt. Gngas, and shared by most of the junior 
  monasteries, is that Solace is the returned Gesar, and 
  the commoners are encouraged to accept his 
  temporal power. In truth, many of the High Lamas 
  distrust him. Technically Solace is the leader of the 
  entire religion, but he seems unaware of his 
  theocratic position. Perhaps to keep things this way, 
  many lamas have gone into seclusion in the last five 
  years. Behind closed doors, debate rages over what is 
  to be done. Few at Mt. Gngas wish to speak out 
  against the messiah they have long preached about, 
  but other monasteries have been less cautious. Most 
  famously, the monks of Drisa Rock took up arms in 
  4995 and helped lead the Blood Water Revolt. Less 
  extreme voices call for a careful watch to be 
  maintained on Solace, lest his holy mask slips. 
  The Zla Ba, Children of the Moon 
  The one unifying feature of the Great Valley is the 
  mighty Moon River. From its source in the mountains 
  of the north, to the great waterfalls where it 
  
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  55 
  descends rapidly to sea level at the south-eastern end 
  of the Valley, the Moon River runs through the heart 
  of the farms and towns of dozens of clans. Once the 
  river leaves the highlands around Bya Lung Pa, it 
  becomes broad and slow moving, making it easily 
  navigable and only prone to freezing in the bitterest 
  of winters. The Moon River is perhaps the only 
  reason so many have survived in the Great Valley 
  since the collapse of the world government. The river 
  plays a central role in native religious practices, and 
  is said to be home to a great water spirit. This spirit, 
  depicted in statues as a great serpent-like dragon or 
  a beautiful young woman, is known as Chu 
  Skyesdman (River Woman). Each autumn, the herder 
  clans make sacrifices of brute milk and wreaths of 
  flowers to the River Woman when they return to their 
  winter lodgings on the river’s banks. The River 
  Woman appears in many folk tales as a protective 
  figure. In one of the most popular, the babe who was 
  to become King Chonden II, the 83rd incarnation of 
  Gesar, was found in a reed basket on the river, used 
  by his supporters in the Silent Insurrection to prove 
  his alleged divinity. Similarly, this story holds that 
  King Palden, the Sleeping King, was nearly drowned 
  in the river as a youth, and fled to Byzantium 
  Secundus to escape the wrath of the River Woman. 
  The Moon River has always been an important 
  waterway, as can be seen by the great system of 
  locks built during the Republic to facilitate travel. 
  Sited every fifty miles or so along the length of the 
  valley, the lock stations have become the focal points 
  for many of the Valley’s largest settlements. In the 
  years since the Fall, the river has also become home 
  to a unique culture. Known as the Zla Ba, or Moon 
  Children, this group is a closely knit alliance of clans, 
  who live nomadic lives travelling the length of the 
  river in fleets of houseboats. The Zla Ba are an 
  ancient people, thought to be descended from 
  Zuranist settlers who came to Leng during the 
  migrations to New Amhara in the Diaspora and chose 
  to stay. The Gesar always honoured the Zuranists as 
  fellow survivors of the horrors of the Zaibatsu work 
  camps. Over the centuries, these Zuranists slowly 
  assimilated with the mainstream religion of Leng (in 
  part to distance themselves from the atrocities being 
  committed by their co-religionists on New Amhara). 
  During the Fall they were amongst the first of Leng’s 
  people to return to a nomadic way of life, taking to 
  the waters of the Moon River. In time, their true 
  origin has become indistinct, but they still maintain 
  many elements of their old culture.  
  The brightly coloured vessels of the Zla Ba, with 
  intricately carved dragon-headed prows, are 
  a welcome sight for most of the valley-
  dwellers. Travelling from Bya Lung Pa to the far 
  south, and along numerous tributaries, the Zla Ba 
  are perhaps the only thread holding together all of 
  the Valley’s clans. They live as traders and 
  entertainers, selling produce from one settlement to 
  another, and performing elaborate dances and 
  operatic plays for their hosts. Many of these 
  performances have a strongly religious basis, and the 
  Zla Ba are known to have close links to many of the 
  oldest of the Nyima monasteries. Indeed, it was the 
  Zla Ba who first spread the tale of the Swan King 
  across the Valley and beyond. 
  The Zla Ba have traditionally enjoyed a great deal 
  of respect from nearly all the clans. Their ties to the 
  Moon River, and their role as storytellers, has given 
  them a certain mystical air in the eyes of many. 
  Numerous young people dream of deserting the brute 
  herds and corn fields to take to the river, although 
  the insular nature of the Zla Ba means that they will 
  only rarely permit outsiders to join them, and then 
  only through marriage. The Zla Ba have a huge level 
  of popular support, which easily eclipses that held by 
  the Gnas Ri. While the Gnas Ri can demand respect 
  due to their role as royal stewards, it is more often 
  than not the Zla Ba who have relieved famines and 
  saved villages by their timely arrival, travelling even 
  in the dead of winter. The Zla Ba and the various 
  monastic orders have long been held as the two 
  groups above the rivalry between the clans, and 
  attacks on either are unimaginable to most. 
  In the past two years, however, this security has 
  begun to erode. Treaties between the Gnas Ri and Zla 
  Ba demand that all of the river clans must travel to 
  Bya Lung Pa at least once a year to pay tariffs. 
  Recently, the Lady Protector has been demanding 
  greater tribute, ostensibly to pay for the ongoing 
  campaign against the High Clans. In addition, the 
  Gnas Ri have demanded that the nomads cease their 
  travels into the rebel-held lands in the west and 
  south. The Zla Ba have refused, holding to their 
  traditional neutrality. Many now have begun to 
  refuse their annual summons to the capital. In 
  addition, the tone of many of their plays has begun 
  to change. Now, more often than not, the plays 
  portray Gnas Ri prefects as tyrants or fools, and the 
  Swan King’s servants as stinking, idiotic giants.  
  The growing tensions between the stewards and the 
  nomads took a new and violent turn recently. The 
  Shan Gup, a small herder clan with their winter base 
  lying on a tributary around a weeks journey from the 
  contested lands in the south, have reported the 
  mysterious disappearance of an entire Zla Ba fleet. 
  They report that a fleet travelling north 
  
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  56 
  stopped for supplies, but departed in some haste just 
  before nightfall. That night, the villagers heard 
  ‘demons howling overhead’. At first light, charred 
  wreckage began to float down from the north, and 
  horsemen sent to investigate found the clan’s 
  houseboats burning and deserted. The Chief of the 
  Shan Gup has sent a delegation led by his son to the 
  capital to report the incident, but so far the Lady 
  Protector has refused to see them. They have been 
  kept waiting at the doors of the Red Palace for six 
  months, with the Gnas Ri claiming that they must 
  atone for a slip of the tongue during the ceremony of 
  introduction when they first arrived in the city. 
  Rumours of this and similar incidents are starting to 
  spread, despite the efforts of the Gnas Ri, and are 
  feeding the growing resentment in the Valley. Any 
  open hostilities against the Zla Ba could be enough 
  to drive much of the region into revolt. 
  The Contested South 
  The Gnas Ri stand at the apex of a complex pyramid 
  of feudal relationships, and their power radiates from 
  Bya Lung Pa southwards, covering roughly two 
  thirds of the Great Valley. South of here, control 
  becomes more fluid. While most of the remaining 
  clans technically owe fealty, the means to force them 
  into adhering to their feudal obligations has long 
  been absent. This has changed with the arrival of the 
  Muster slavers, who have been happy to encourage 
  the Gnas Ri to restore their control over these 
  ‘rebels’. This in turn sparked the first large scale war 
  in the Valley in over a century. Known as the Blood 
  Water Revolt, the uprising was sparked by the 
  massacre of a nomad clan who refused to pay tithes 
  to a Gnas Ri tax collector. Among the slain were a 
  lama and two apprentices from the monastery at 
  Drisa Rock. The murder of a holy man, who have for 
  millennia been considered above all clan feuding, led 
  to massive unrest. In late 4995, several tax collectors 
  were murdered and the Drisa monks denounced the 
  divinity of the Swan King. The Gnas Ri army, 
  bolstered by weapons and training from the Muster, 
  crushed the revolt in less than a year. Thousands 
  were slain and tens of thousands offered in payment 
  to the Muster for their continued support. Drisa Rock, 
  which acted as an impromptu bastion for the rebels, 
  was sacked and the entire population enslaved. They 
  were dragged through Bya Lung Pa in the dead of 
  night, as Solace feared the sight of monks in chains 
  would upset the natives.  
  As a consequence of this disastrous uprising, a 
  region of some 200 miles in the south of 
  the Valley has become dangerously under 
  populated. The few free clans that remain face an 
  annual struggle to amass the food to survive the 
  harsh winters. While the Gnas Ri are reluctant to 
  damage what they consider to be ‘their’ land, the 
  Muster have no such qualms. Farms and forests have 
  been set ablaze to drive the natives from the land. In 
  the past two years, many have sold themselves or 
  their children to the Muster to survive. Many more 
  have taken to the highlands, where they survive as 
  bandits and border reavers, preying on both the Gnas 
  Ri and each other. The Gnas Ri have offered land to 
  their loyal vassals to repopulate the region, but the 
  continued instability means most refuse. 
  Despite the overwhelming firepower of the Gnas Ri, 
  the revolt has never really ended, and pockets of 
  resistance still remain. The largest of these dwell in 
  the ruins of Drisa Rock, having diverted a nearby 
  river to form a vast bog around their camp. A 
  disorganised 
  rabble, 
  these 
  bandits 
  have 
  still 
  managed to be a persistent thorn in the Muster’s 
  side. They are led by Lu, a giant of a man who was 
  once a monk and is now a killer. He has trained 
  several of the bandits in the psychic arts he learnt 
  before the wars and once swore never to use. 
  The High Clans 
  While the vast majority of Leng’s population live in 
  the grasslands of the world’s great valleys, a few 
  hardy clans cling to a life in on the slopes of the 
  mountains and in the high passes that link the 
  valleys together. In the Dragon’s Voice range, many 
  of these mountain dwellers have congregated in the 
  foothills and passes on the western flank of the Great 
  Valley. Thought to be descended from those citizens 
  who sought to flee Gesar rule in the aftermath of the 
  Fall, the so called High Clans have been a constant 
  source of tension. Although they long ago submitted 
  to the authority of the Gesar Kings, after King 
  Wangchu defeated the Snow Tiger Alliance in 4253, 
  they have always been quarrelsome and hard to 
  control. To appease them, the High Clans were named 
  as guardians of the mountain passes, and permitted 
  by the Gesar to carry arms to protect travellers and 
  collect tribute for the service. When the Gesar fled in 
  4574, many of the High Clans refused the claims of 
  the Gnas Ri as their legal successors. Over time, the 
  High Clans and the bandit gangs they fought against 
  blended together, until by the end of the 46th century 
  travel to the eastern valleys was all but impossible. 
  The only groups that the High Clans would allow to 
  go unmolested were the Nyima monks, as even these 
  wild men respected the holy ones. 
  
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  57 
  There was little contact between the High Clans and 
  the Valley until the beginning of the 50th century. A 
  series of extremely harsh winters forced many of the 
  High Clans to migrate east into the Great Valley. 
  Initially they warred with the Valley clans and their 
  Gnas Ri masters, until a settlement was reached in 
  4912. The Gnas Ri ceded much of the Lha-mo 
  foothills to the High Clans, on the condition that they 
  recognised the Gnas Ri as their titular masters and 
  provided a unit of soldiers to serve in Bya Lung Pa. 
  Around two thirds of the High Clans accepted these 
  terms, seeing the benefits of trade with the people of 
  the Valley. The remainder returned to the mountain 
  passes. Although these holdouts still mounted raids, 
  especially after bad winters, the clans in the Lha-mo 
  now acted as a buffer state, guarding the Valley from 
  these bandits. 
  Despite this arrangement, the settled High Clans 
  were still a people apart. They accepted the Gnas Ri 
  as temporal rulers, but had no time for talk of a 
  prophesised god king. When the Muster appeared, 
  the clan chiefs sent tribute, but refused to abase 
  themselves before the so-called ‘Swan King’. This 
  was the start of an ongoing feud. This insult (which 
  mattered little to the Muster, but much to their new 
  vassals) was initially ignored. When the southern 
  clans revolted under the urgings of the Drisa 
  monastery, the High Clans remained aloof of the 
  ‘disagreements of lowlanders’. Once this revolt was 
  crushed in 4996, refugees from the rebels began to 
  flee east into the mountains. The High Clans, who 
  have never been politically united, took different 
  attitudes to these newcomers. Some drove them off 
  or passed them in chains to the Gnas Ri. Others 
  accepted tribute or offers of vassalage, and allowed 
  the refugees to settle in their lands. Demands for the 
  surrender of these groups by the capital were 
  rejected, and relations with the Gnas Ri began to 
  rapidly sour. 
  In part to break the power of the largely 
  autonomous High Clans, in part to provide more 
  slaves to their masters, and in part to reopen the 
  western passes, the Gnas Ri army began an invasion 
  of the Lha-mo foothills in 4998. High Clans who 
  agreed to help in the invasion were offered offworld 
  treasures in exchange for their support, and perhaps 
  a third of the clans sided with the Gnas Ri. The 
  remainder resisted. The resulting war, known in the 
  Valley as the High Revolt, has stretched on to the 
  present day, with no sign of victory for either side 
  looking likely. Gnas Ri troops, used to fighting poorly 
  equipped farmers and holy men, are not well suited 
  to suppressing a mounted, fast moving 
  enemy who have an expert understanding of 
  their native terrain. For their part, while the rebel 
  High Clans are fighting a successful guerrilla war, 
  they have lost many of their farming settlements to 
  slave raids, and a lack of supplies is becoming a 
  growing problem. 
  Although the High Clans look much like their 
  Valley-dwelling cousins, their culture has diverged 
  significantly since their ancestors took to the 
  mountains during the Fall. The High Clans tend to 
  dress in heavy wool and leather clothing, rejecting 
  the bright silks of the lowlanders. Men usually grow 
  full beards, and both men and women wear their hair 
  in long braids, reaching past their waists. The clans 
  speak a distinct dialect, and there are many subtle 
  cultural differences with the lowlanders. The High 
  Clans do not have a distinct feudal system, and the 
  various clans tend to be far more autonomous. All 
  adults are expected to be able to ride, hunt and 
  defend the clan if needed. Sickly or deformed children 
  are either handed over to the monasteries or 
  abandoned, with the clans who live near Etyri lands 
  leaving them as grizzly sacrifices to the Bird Demons. 
  Nearly all of the High Clans live as hunters or 
  herders, and a certain level of contempt is held for 
  the agriculturalists of the Valley. This has carried 
  over to the refugees, who are kept apart from the 
  clans and have few rights. 
  Each High Clan elects its own leaders, a practice 
  perhaps 
  originating 
  among 
  the 
  High 
  Clans’ 
  democratic ancestors. Currently, there are three 
  leading chiefs. Germi of the Srin Bia is the 
  commander of those forces who have sided with the 
  Gnas Ri. He is a giant by Lengese standards, 
  standing over 6 feet in height, and is growing rich 
  from his assistance to the slavers. The rebels have a 
  score of heroes and commanders in their number, but 
  two stand out as the leaders of the High Revolt. They 
  are Nolog the Hunter and Sengemo the Lioness. Both 
  have led great victories over the Gnas Ri, and attract 
  scores of rebels to their banners. The Gnas Ri have 
  placed huge bounties on their heads, and are trying 
  to use the famous rivalry between the two to drive a 
  wedge through the rebels’ ranks, but with no success 
  so far. 
  The High Clans follow a version of the Nyima faith, 
  but in a less refined and more animistic form than 
  that seen in the monasteries or the Valley. The High 
  Clans believe in hundreds of local spirits and 
  demons, and offer sacrifices to personal guardian 
  spirits. The Etyri in the high mountains are viewed 
  with superstitious dread, and those that stray into 
  their lands are sure to leave a portion of their hunt 
  as a blood offering. Psychics among the High 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  58 
  Clans are thought to be the chosen of the spirits, and 
  treated with respect and fear.  Displaying the favour 
  of the spirits is the only way a cripple or outsider can 
  gain a measure of respect in this harsh culture. 
  Currently, the most famed of these shamans (called 
  Gon Po) is Garkan the Dancer, a once great hunter 
  whose spine was crushed in a fall. He now rides 
  between the clans offering prophecies and healing in 
  return for shelter, strapped to the back of his giant 
  bull kyikra.  
  Beyond the Great Valley: the Free 
  Nations of Phnom 
  Although the vast grasslands of the Great Valley 
  have been the centre of Lengese civilisation for 
  millennia, it remains home to only perhaps a third of 
  the world’s population. While the sudden collapse of 
  world government 400 years ago doomed many of 
  the more remote settlements to starvation in the 
  harsh winters, the other valleys of the Dragon’s Voice 
  Mountains and the rocky coasts of the continent are 
  still home to many hundreds of small clans and 
  townships. Four centuries of isolation has led to 
  great changes in local customs and cultures. The 
  wanderings of the Nyima monks has kept alive the 
  legends of the Gesar and the practices of the Faith 
  over perhaps half of the continent, but in the far west 
  and north new ways are beginning to form.  
  The growing complexity and isolation of Leng’s 
  cultures means that covering more than a fraction of 
  them is far beyond the scope of a single tome, and 
  regardless 
  most 
  clans 
  and 
  nations 
  have 
  no 
  interaction with the offworlders who have visited 
  their world in the past decade. Still, it is worth 
  exploring the nations of southern Phnom, with whom 
  offworlders may interact, particularly as the Musters’ 
  vassals push to reopen the High Passes and claim 
  new slaves for their masters. 
  The Broken Lands 
  West of the Great Valley, beyond the contentious 
  lands of the High Clans, the Dragon’s Voice 
  Mountains rise to heights of over 8000m above sea 
  level. Even in summer, these lands are covered in 
  snow, and humanity can only survive in the small 
  valleys formed by mountain lakes and ancient 
  mining operations. The region known as the Broken 
  Lands covers a region nearly 1000 miles across, and 
  is sparsely populated at best. Its name comes from 
  the stark, barren stone and ice that covers much of 
  the region, but also for the uniquely 
  ravaged state of the land, torn asunder by 
  the great mining engines of Leng’s Zaibatsu masters 
  thousands of years ago. 
  When the Jinzi Kuangshan consortium claimed 
  control of the barren world, they initially saw it as 
  nothing more than a source of raw materials to be 
  plundered. While the Great Valley was chosen to 
  house the indentured mining population, and thus 
  kept relatively pristine and even subjected to crude 
  terraforming efforts, the mountain heights that 
  contained vast seams of iron, uranium and precious 
  metals were not so lucky. Huge demolition charges 
  were used to destroy entire peaks, while in other 
  places vast open mineshafts were dug to depths of 
  several thousand metres. In only fifty years, the 
  heart of the Dragon’s Voice Mountains were stripped 
  nearly bare and left entirely uninhabitable. When the 
  First Gesar mounted his revolt, the miners in the 
  region were brought back to the lowlands, and the 
  Broken Lands were abandoned for centuries. 
  During the height of Gesar power in the Diaspora, 
  roads of compacted rubble were constructed through 
  the Broken Lands to the valleys to the west and 
  north-west. These motorways became known as the 
  High Passes. During the time of the world 
  government, seasonal crews of workers were housed 
  in settlements along the length of these roads, tasked 
  with keeping them clear of snow and ice. When the 
  Gesar returned to power after the Fall, democrats 
  who refused to accept their authority were pushed 
  out of the Great Valley and found shelter in these old 
  road warden settlements, surviving on the robbery of 
  travellers on the passes. The High Clans were 
  founded by those bandit clans who agreed to police 
  the High Passes on behalf of the Gesar. They still 
  hold perhaps a third of the Broken Lands, but with 
  the desertion of the Gesar, many have reneged on 
  their old oaths. Now, a combination of neglect, 
  encroaching ice and banditry has closed all but two 
  of the High Passes. Even these are only navigable for 
  a few months in the height of summer, and only 
  caravans containing Nyima monks can be sure of 
  passing unmolested. Only a few hardy clans of 
  merchants, with old blood ties to the High Clans, 
  make the arduous journey to the western valleys 
  each year, and with the wars in the eastern foothills 
  even this trickle of trade is dying away. 
  The two surviving High Passes are the Rygyab Lam 
  Khag (the Spine Road), which wends roughly 
  westwards from the Lha-mo foothills to the coastal 
  valleys near the Gate to the West, and the Goba Lam 
  (the Path of Eagles), which bends north and west, 
  leading through the dark lands of the Bird Demons 
  and the vast forests of the equator to the 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  59 
  coastal settlements of the Sea Peoples. Both take 
  several weeks to traverse, and both carry great 
  dangers to travellers.  
  The Spine Road is the more widely travelled of the 
  two, and is in the best condition. Still, it is home to 
  at least three large bandit clans, each of which has 
  outposts in some of the blocky, fortified settlements 
  once held by the King’s road wardens, from which 
  they mount raids on caravans. The Gyi Na clan of the 
  Valley of Foxes are the first to be met. They are 
  descended from a High Clan forced west during a 
  civil war over a century ago, and can be bribed with 
  food or silks. The Tonte (Ghost Men) hold the middle 
  stretch of the pass, dwelling in a network of caves in 
  the face of a vast open mine shaft. While they rarely 
  venture aboveground, they cannot be bribed and will 
  attack any caravan that does not display the silk 
  banners denoting the presence of Nyima monks. To 
  these, they can be friendly, and will come to trade 
  fungus and lumps of unrefined ore for sermons and 
  blessings for their children. They are a short, pale-
  skinned people, and most lowlanders consider them 
  to be vile and filthy savages.  
  The final group to be encountered are the most 
  dangerous. The Golden Wolves are not one clan, but 
  a growing army of mountain peoples. They have 
  recently united behind a single leader, known as the 
  King of Wolves. No merchant from the Great Valley 
  has ever met this man and returned to tell the tale. 
  He is said to be the son of demons, stands over 7 
  feet, and has a wolf’s head. His followers wear wolf 
  pelts as cloaks, and fight with swords, spears and 
  recurved bows of rare quality. It is whispered that 
  even the ancient holy status of the Nyima is not 
  respected by this warlord, and caravans that do not 
  agree to pay harsh tolls are harried and eventually 
  destroyed by raiding parties that dog them for miles 
  through the Wolf King’s lands. The colourful stories 
  and superstitions make it hard to determine many 
  hard facts about the Golden Wolves, but it seems 
  likely from their well-forged weapons and numbers 
  that they are being supported by one or more of the 
  merchant kings of the western valleys. Why they 
  would wish to harm traders on the Spine Road 
  remains a mystery, although perhaps they are 
  attempting to pre-empt any expansion by the Gnas Ri 
  by seizing the Broken Lands for themselves. 
  The Bird Demons 
  “We found ‘em a day’s ride east of the trail. There 
  weren’t much left, just bodies all tore up and half 
  ate. The captain, Prophet save him, was up in one o’ 
  them black trees. They’d rammed a branch 
  through his belly and left him to die. It were like the 
  natives said, no earthly creature could o’ done this.” 
  Report to Major Solace by Sergeant Anders Joran, 
  5002. 
  The Path of Eagles is by far the lesser travelled of 
  the High Passes. Beginning in the north of the 
  territory held by the high clans, in the shadow of Mt 
  Gngas itself, the Path stretches northwest through 
  the heart of the Broken Lands, before coming to an 
  end on the coast of the Inner Sea. The Path of Eagles 
  is a treacherous road, winding through mountains of 
  broken rock and along the edge of dizzying cliffs. 
  Unlike the Spine Road to the south, travellers of this 
  pass need not fear human bandits once they stray 
  beyond the lands of the High Clans. However, if 
  legend is to be believed, far greater supernatural 
  dangers haunt the region. 
  The Path of Eagles gets its name from the Etyri 
  tribes that dwell in the high mountains it passes 
  through. Little is known about these aliens prior to 
  the Fall, although it is likely that they came from a 
  sizeable population living in the Great Valley and the 
  northern Shing Nags forests during the height of the 
  Republic. When the Republic collapsed and House 
  Gesar seized the world in a swift coup, many of the 
  Etyri refused to accept the new government. Records 
  in the archives of the Red Palace suggest that a 
  guerrilla war raged between several Etyri settlements 
  and the Gesar authorities in the north for the first 
  half of the 41st century, although little mention of 
  this is made in the official histories of the House’s 
  rise to power (suggesting that the handover of 
  authority from the Planetary Senate was not as 
  peaceful as most Nyima historians claim). In the 
  aftermath of this feud, many Etyri fled to the Broken 
  Lands, settling in the high mountain peaks where the 
  terrain and the lack of oxygen made it impossible for 
  humans to follow them. A small community of Etyri 
  is known to have dwelt in Bya Lung Pa until the 
  closure of the gate. The Swan King Legend contains 
  the last reference to Etyri living among men in the 
  following passage: 
  “And the Boy King, with tears in his eyes, begged 
  the Clan of the Bird to stay with him, and guide him 
  with the wisdom of the Mother of Mercy. But the One-
  Eyed Carrion Queen cried ‘Nay! You seal the Eye of 
  Heaven for naught. In the time before time I plucked 
  out my eye for knowledge, but you tear yours out for 
  pride. Take your family into exile, but know that you 
  go to oblivion. As do I, to the dead home for my dead 
  people.” 
  Perhaps angered by the closure of the gate 
  to their homeworld of Grail, the last Etyri 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  60 
  joined their brethren in the Broken Lands. In the 400 
  years since the Exile, the humans of Leng have come 
  to view the Etyri as fell supernatural beings. They are 
  said to feast on human flesh, and bring plague and 
  ice storms in their wake. Called Bird Demons, none 
  other than the High Clans dare come near their lands. 
  Even the hardy mountain folk fear them. A High Clan 
  hunter who blunders into Etyri lands (which are 
  usually bordered by Spirit Trees, old Shing Nags 
  hung with bones and carcasses) will always leave a 
  blood offering to appease the Bird Demons. Indeed, 
  among the more remote clans, leaving sickly or 
  deformed infants as sacrifices is a common practice. 
  For their part, the Lengese Etyri do nothing to 
  dispel the fears of their human neighbours. Their 
  isolation makes it difficult to determine more than 
  the most general aspects of their culture, but the 
  manuscripts of Lama Srinpa, a Nyima monk who 
  spent several years among the Etyri tribes at the 
  beginning of the 50th  century, gives some indications 
  of the reality behind the myths. With the absence of 
  reliable technology or trade, the Etyri have returned 
  to an iron age, tribal way of life. Living in extended 
  families of several dozen members, they dwell in 
  remote cave networks and wooded valleys in the 
  northern Broken Lands.  
  Even by the standards of their dour race, the Etyri 
  of Leng are a fatalistic lot. The shaman caste which 
  forms a loose form of de facto government between 
  the tribes follows an odd derivation of the ancestral 
  Etyri religion. The central tenant holds that Leng is 
  itself a kind of netherworld, inhabited by the shades 
  of sinners, both Etyri and human. They hold that the 
  Etyri of Leng committed some great crime against 
  ‘the White Mother’ (almost certainly a euphemism for 
  St Amalthea. A similar deity is recognised among the 
  Nyima as the Bodhisattva of Mercy and the mother of 
  the First Gesar), and were thus banished to the 
  barren lands of Leng upon death, rather than 
  permitted into the paradise of the ‘Sky Beyond the 
  Sky’. They hold to the belief that they must atone for 
  their great, un-named sins through a series of lives. 
  If each is in turn virtuous, the soul rises through a 
  series of forms. The Etyri hold that they are the 
  closest to release from the netherworld, with non-
  sentient birds beneath them, then humans, then 
  land-based animals, then formless ‘hungry ghosts’, 
  then the unrepentant demons who dwell in the vast 
  caverns formed by the ancient mines.  
  Shing Nags (Ghost Trees) 
  These twisted, ebony-coloured trees are present 
  across most of the globe, with small thickets 
  growing throughout the highlands and giving 
  way to vast forests in the foothills. The most 
  notable property of the Shing Nags tree is the 
  poisonous cocktail of chemicals that fill its sap, 
  drawn from the atmosphere as the trees give out 
  the oxygen that has made Leng suitable for 
  human life. If a PC drinks water contaminated by 
  Shing Nags sap, they must roll End+Vigor. A 
  success means the victim experiences violent 
  vomiting, leading to a -6 to all rolls for the next 
  span. If the roll is failed, the character will suffer 
  from auditory and visual hallucinations and 
  acute paranoia, leading to -4 to Wits, Perception 
  and Calm for a span. On a fumble, the poisoning 
  causes permanent brain damage, and the 
  hallucinations may resurface in times of stress. 
  Players 
  should 
  roll 
  Calm+Vigor 
  in 
  these 
  circumstances or suffer the above penalties again 
  for 1d6 rounds. 
  The tribes of the Ghost Forest are known to use 
  Shing Nags sap on blowgun darts. Anyone 
  wounded by such a dart must roll as above. 
  Needless to say, this belief permeates the culture of 
  the Etyri with a vast melancholy. The mournful 
  songs sung on holy days, lamenting their lost home 
  of Grail and their lives in purgatory, are heart-
  breaking even to dull human ears. The Etyri have no 
  love of humanity and little respect for sentient life. 
  Still, they are not quite the murderous savages the 
  people of the valleys imagine them to be. Tribes will 
  attack travellers on the Path of Eagles in times of 
  famine and winter, eating both the humans and their 
  mounts. They have also been known to carry off 
  corpses from the sky burials of the High Clans. In 
  summer, however, they are more approachable. The 
  shamans seem to have a small amount of respect for 
  the Nyima, but will curse loudly at the name of the 
  Gesar. They are also known to trade with the sickly, 
  subterranean clans known to the valley-dwellers as 
  the Tonte. They have a vast knowledge of the 
  geography of Phnom, travelling over huge areas in 
  search of game to return to their mountain nests, and 
  will trade it in return for food or metal goods. They 
  are aware of the rise of the Swan King, but have 
  shunned all contact with him or his representatives. 
  One bizarre practice of the Etyri should be 
  mentioned. Despite the beliefs of the High Clans, the 
  Etyri do not consume the crippled infants left for 
  them. Instead, they are taken and raised in their 
  villages. Those that survive to adulthood are treated 
  with respect, trained as shamans or tasked with 
  exploring the vast tunnel networks that 
  riddle the Broken Lands. What the Etyri 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  61 
  hope their human servants will discover is unknown, 
  but Lama Srinpa described a number of strange 
  artefacts, constructed from what appeared to be 
  brightly coloured coral, which the Etyri claim their 
  scouts found miles beneath the surface.  
  The Ghost Forest  
  North of the Broken Lands, the Dragon’s Voice 
  Mountains slowly peter out towards the equator. 
  Between the mountains and the coast, the foothills 
  (which still average a height of over 1000m above 
  sea level) are blanketed by a vast, undisturbed 
  swathe of forest. Composed mainly of the black-
  leaved Shing Nags tree, created by the early 
  terraformers of the First Republic, this forest has a 
  fell reputation among the people of the mountains 
  and the Inner Sea alike. The trees, while short and 
  stunted, form an almost unbroken canopy, plunging 
  vast areas in an almost constant twilight. The forests 
  are eerily silent, home only to wild brute herds, 
  kyikra and hordes of blood-drinking amenta. The rare 
  traders who come here from the Path of Eagles hurry 
  through on ancient trails. Old tales hold that hungry 
  ghosts wait to seize travellers who stray from the 
  path.The Shing Nags forests are not entirely devoid 
  of human life. A few isolated forest clans eke out an 
  existence as hunters and craftsmen. However, the 
  Shing Nags are poisonous to humans and the thick 
  canopy prevents all but strange fungi and ghostly 
  corpse flowers from growing in the undergrowth. In 
  addition, the sap of the trees sometimes pollutes 
  standing water. Although only fatal in large doses, 
  this tainted water causes sickness, vomiting and 
  frightful hallucinations in any who drink it. These 
  factors combine to explain why outsiders see the 
  forests as a cursed and haunted land. The native 
  clans survive thanks to their vast knowledge of their 
  strange environment, and through the careful 
  collection of rain water. Their lack of contact with the 
  rest of the world has caused their way of life to 
  stagnate to a stone age, hunter-gatherer level. They 
  are often mistaken for blood-drinking ghosts by 
  travellers, and violent encounters with terrified, 
  hallucinating outsiders have persuaded the forest 
  clans to keep to themselves. Despite their isolation, 
  they have maintained a vibrant culture, producing 
  exquisite carved artwork from the unique black wood 
  of the trees. Many of Leng’s surviving Obun 
  population dwell in the forests, living intermingled 
  with their human neighbours. Obun religion and 
  culture has fused with that of the humans, and the 
  unique blend is very different from the society of the 
  mountain folk. 
  The forests of the equatorial region of Phnom are an 
  artificial phenomenon, originally planted by the 
  corporate masters of Leng in the 25th century. 
  Although only a few Nyima scholars are aware of 
  their significance, the Shing Nags still play a vital 
  part in the maintenance of Leng’s atmosphere. 
  Without the forests, the oxygen level of Leng would 
  fall dramatically, making life in the mountains 
  impossible within a century. Luckily, since the Fall 
  the forests have actually grown, covering a vast area 
  both here and in the equatorial regions of the 
  western continent. The trees have expanded over the 
  abandoned ruins of more than one city, and tales of 
  vast treasures guarded by the forest ghosts are told 
  among the Sea Peoples of the coast.  
  In the past few years, a worrying rumour has begun 
  to spread among the coastal towns. Groups of 
  savages from the Ghost Forest have begun appearing 
  in remote villages, begging for steel tools and oil. 
  They claim that swathes of the forest have begun to 
  mysteriously sicken and die, infected by a previously 
  unknown fungus that rapidly kills even healthy 
  trees. The forest dwellers claim that the fungus is 
  being spread by ‘the demons under the earth’, and 
  infected trees must be burned to prevent the 
  contagion from spreading. Most of these attempts to 
  gain aid have been met with suspicion and 
  superstitious dread, with terrified villagers firing at 
  the pale, fur-covered ‘ghosts’. Still, some of the 
  monastic rulers of the coast have taken an interest in 
  the tales, and are considering investigating for 
  themselves. 
  The Coastlands of the Inner Sea 
  As the land slowly falls towards the west coast of 
  Phnom, high mountains and dense forests give way 
  to a land of rolling hills and vast, slow-moving 
  rivers. This region, which stretches from the great 
  land-bridge to the western continent to the broken 
  peninsula that marks the northern tip of the 
  continent of Phnom, is home to many hundreds of 
  small towns and settlements that run along the coast 
  and the banks of the great waterways. The people of 
  this region are known as the Mi Gtsang Po (the 
  People of the Sea) by the mountain folk, who 
  occasionally brave the dangers of the Broken Lands 
  and the Ghost Forest to trade with some of the 
  towns. There is no centralised government here; 
  instead there is a chaotic tapestry of petty city-states 
  and nomadic herders. It is hard to make any 
  generalisations about the diffuse cultures that dwell 
  here, but a few states stand out as the most 
  influential. 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  62 
  The city-state of Nya Rgyal Sa, which lies on the 
  bank of the huge and sluggish River of Dreams, has 
  the most contact with the people of the Great Valley. 
  The city is build around the ruins of an old Gesar 
  palace, and the broken jade towers on the Hill of 
  Kings can still be seen in the heart of the settlement. 
  The city was, like others like it all over the world, 
  abandoned by its governors during the Exile over 
  four centuries ago. Nya Rgyal Sa went through 
  almost two centuries of anarchy, beset by internal 
  revolts and raids by the corsairs that once controlled 
  the mouth of the river. Order was finally restored by 
  the monks of Rmi Lam Island, an ancient monastery 
  that lies on an island in the river, several miles east 
  of the city. The monks gathered an army of farming 
  peasants and river bandits in 4812 and ousted the 
  dynasty of tyrants who then controlled the city. Since 
  then, the High Lama of the monastery has also 
  served as the governor of the city. It was the 
  influence of the monks that led to the resumption of 
  trade along the Path of Eagles, and they have grown 
  to become one of the leading factions among the Sea 
  Peoples. 
  The monks of Nya Rgyal Sa differ significantly from 
  their more conservative cousins in the mountains. 
  The tradition of isolation in remote monasteries has 
  slowly eroded over the past two hundred years, and 
  most now reside in the city. Many now marry and 
  raise children, engage in trade, and even lead the 
  city’s small but well-maintained army. The ancient 
  practices of seclusion and rejection of the mundane 
  world are given little more than lip-service. The Rmi 
  Lam School is growing in popularity along the 
  eastern coast of the Inner Sea, and has far more 
  influence in the coastlands than the conservatives of 
  the Gngas-affiliated monasteries. Relations between 
  the two schools have been cordial but distant for 
  several decades, but the past ten years have seen a 
  growth in tensions. High Lama Chogyal Wangdak, 
  governor of Nya Rgyal Sa, did nothing to help 
  matters when he had a party of Gnas Ri diplomats 
  whipped and driven from the city in 5002. What 
  provoked this violent reaction is unclear, but the 
  High Lama has sent monks to Mt. Gngas making it 
  clear that while he recognises the theological 
  seniority of the most ancient of temples, he will 
  permit none of the monastery’s noble masters to 
  enter his lands. Trade with the Great Valley is still 
  being carried out, but that too could be cut off at any 
  time. 
  Beyond Nya Rgyal Sa, the coastal lands on the east 
  coast of the Inner Sea are characterised by rolling 
  hills and many rivers. The clans of this 
  region have adopted a nomadic existence 
  as herders. Clans follow the vast reindeer and brute 
  herds, only settling in winter in the coastal towns. 
  They are led by local chiefs, called noyans, some of 
  whom claim descent from the Gesar (a belief not 
  shared by outsiders). The reindeer clans (who are 
  known to their neighbours simply as khampa, or 
  nomads) have adapted well to a nomadic life, 
  travelling with their herds into the interior during the 
  brief summer and to the coasts during the winter, 
  where their brightly coloured tent villages form on 
  the outskirts of the permanent fishing towns of the 
  Inner Sea. The nomads are a superstitious lot, and 
  consider spiritual purity to be of utmost importance. 
  They live by hundreds of strictures and taboos. 
  Breach of many of these, such as killing a horse 
  without then eating it, or conversing with the ghosts 
  of the Shing Nags forests, leads to expulsion from 
  the clan. Such wretches are known as Dmarpo 
  Rkangpa (lit. ‘bloody feet’), after the practice of 
  slicing open the soles of the exile’s feet upon his 
  expulsion from the clan. Many of these Bloody Feet 
  have congregated in the coastal cities or in Nya Rgyal 
  Sa, where they live as manual labourers or beggars. 
  More than a few have also ended up among the 
  pirates of the River of Dreams and the eastern coast 
  of the Inner Sea. The infamous corsair Mal Galme is 
  one such exile turned pirate king. He united many of 
  the bandit clans of the River of Dreams into a 
  coalition that attacked the walls of Nya Rgyal Sa 
  itself in 4998, but was broken and driven out of the 
  river. Now Galme has resurfaced in the north, having 
  seized control of a string of fishing villages. Bloody 
  Feet are flocking once more to his banner, and he is 
  expected to try to settle old scores soon. 
  The Western Valleys 
  At the western end of the Spine Road, the high 
  mountain pass descends into a rugged and chaotic 
  land of small valleys and steep cliffs. The altitude of 
  these mountains averages around 2000m above sea 
  level. The lower altitude leads to a balmier climate 
  and less harsh winters than is experienced in the 
  heart of the Dragon’s Voice Range. Tundra and bare 
  rock gives way to flowering meadows and small 
  forests of pine, Shing Nags and oak. The land here 
  was once home to the rural estates of the minor 
  nobility. These were largely Gesar barons and landed 
  knights, but by old treaty Houses Keddah and 
  Justinian also held land here. When the Gesar 
  deserted the world and contact with the Great Valley 
  slowed to a trickle, the remaining nobles of these 
  other houses began to consolidate their control over 
  the abandoned villages and manors. The 47th century 
  was a time of war in this region, as Sheik 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  63 
  Kamila Keddah and Baron Horatio Justinian battled 
  for control of the best farmland and mines. This 
  conflict 
  dragged 
  on 
  for 
  decades, 
  and 
  did 
  irreconcilable damage to the local infrastructure. In 
  the end, both sides settled into a sullen peace that 
  has remained to the present day. 
  The people of the Western Valleys are much like 
  those of the high mountains, but elements of the 
  culture of their noble masters have become engrained 
  over the years. In the lands of the Justinian, who 
  hold the north-western area of the region, the Nyima 
  sect is still persecuted as if Chonden’s insurrection 
  had never occurred. The Justinian endeavour to 
  maintain Orthodox Universalism, and it is one of the 
  few regions on Leng where Nyima monks are not 
  treated with respect. Indeed, only two years ago a 
  wandering lama and his apprentice were hanged for 
  attempting to spread ‘heresy’ among the peasantry. 
  The rural serfs still keep to some neo-Buddhist 
  beliefs in their folk rites, but the nobility harshly 
  punish any found to possess statues or holy texts to 
  Gesar or the little gods. Great bonfires of such 
  wooden carvings are burnt on the anniversary of the 
  Exile in the capital of Byzantion, to which all the 
  town’s citizens are forced to attend. 
  To the south and east, at the terminus of the Spine 
  Road, the Keddah hold power. This minor house had 
  maintained a history of good relations with the Gesar 
  throughout the New Dark Ages. Over time, they came 
  to hold a large number of small estates through 
  diplomatic exchange or intermarriage. With the 
  sealing of the gate and the desertion of the Gesar, the 
  Keddah of Leng mounted a failed attempt to unite the 
  world under their control, proclaiming themselves as 
  royal ‘cousins’ to the absent house, and thus 
  legitimate 
  stewards 
  of 
  their 
  subjects. 
  These 
  pretensions went nowhere, as the self-declared Sheik 
  of Leng was unable to master her own estates, let 
  alone the distant lands of the Great Valley or the 
  Inner Sea. Now, Sheik Kamila’s descendants still 
  hold to their old claim, but have sensibly put it aside 
  in favour of more pressing concerns. The Keddah rule 
  from The Lion’s Maw, a vast compound built to mark 
  the western end of the Spine Road. This is the final 
  destination of merchant caravans, who sell silks, 
  barley and brute flesh from the Great Valley and ore 
  bartered from the Ghost Men for timber, tea and rice 
  (the staple crops of this region). The Keddah are 
  wealthy, and have become more of a successful 
  merchant house than a traditional noble family. 
  Rank is determined in part by merit, and they are 
  open to allowing commoners into the ranks of the 
  House if they prove useful. In this way, they 
  have become influenced by many native 
  ways. Although technically Universalist, the Keddah 
  allow the Nyima (based in the monastery of Lingqua, 
  which lies on a series of islands in Kuiro Lake) to 
  operate openly. Around two thirds of the Keddah’s 
  subjects are followers of the neo-Buddhists, and the 
  current Sheik, Amar the Wise, is known to have a 
  personal interest in the more esoteric aspects of the 
  faith. The Keddah have also maintained a higher 
  than average tech base, by patronising and 
  occasionally inter-marrying with traditional clans of 
  craftsmen and engineers (called Lag Shes Pa by the 
  native Lengese). 
  The feud between the Keddah and Justinian has 
  been quiet for nearly a century, when a neutral 
  region of independent valleys was established to act 
  as buffer zone between the major powers of the 
  region. Despite this, tensions have begun to grow 
  again in recent years. Keddah astronomers have 
  reported an unusual number of ‘shooting stars’ 
  above the Justinian estates. The Justinian diplomats 
  vociferously deny any contact with these unidentified 
  aerial craft, but this combined with the rumours of 
  offworlders coming from traders from the Great 
  Valley has led to growing paranoia among the 
  Keddah elite. The Keddah began funding the Golden 
  Wolves bandits in the lands to the east to guard their 
  borders from a possible attack from the Great Valley. 
  Unfortunately, the bandits have grown out of control, 
  and now demand tribute and weaponry to stop them 
  attacking the Lion’s Maw itself. The Keddah are 
  trapped between an old foe and a new one of their 
  own creation, and are desperate for assistance, 
  regardless of the source. 
  The Far West: The Lands of Bód 
  The western continent of Bód, named after the 
  ancient homeland of Leng’s original settlers, has 
  always been a sparsely populated land. Slightly 
  larger than Phnom, Bód forms a great crescent, 
  stretching around the massive bay known as the Sea 
  of Mists. 
  The Empire of Nagara and the Sea of Mists 
  “We bled for him, we died for him, and this is how 
  we are repaid! Never again shall I bow to a king who 
  rewards loyalty with betrayal and honour with 
  cowardice. A curse on the line of Gesar, and death to 
  all who would grovel before him.” 
  Lord Commander Khadan of Nagara, 4574 
  The heart of the continent of Bód is dominated by a 
  large, shallow sea, enclosed to east and west 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  64 
  by the arms of the Shadow Mountains and only 
  opening to the larger ocean through a narrow strait 
  to the north. The Sea of Mists is well named, as 
  much of the coastline lies shrouded in thick fogs, 
  particularly in summer. The water itself is eerily calm 
  and clear, giving observers a magnificent view of one 
  of Leng’s greatest spectacles. The bed of the Sea of 
  Mists, which lies only a few hundred feet below the 
  surface, is crisscrossed by a breathtaking series of 
  coral formations. In many places, these ridges of 
  brilliant orange and scarlet coral break the surface, 
  forming jagged spires and minarets that can stretch 
  dozens of metres into the air. These reefs, formed by 
  a number of coral-like micro-organisms native to 
  Leng, are now deserted of life. The changes in the 
  world’s atmosphere after the settlement of the world 
  poisoned the reefs’ creators, which were declared 
  extinct by the late Diaspora. Thought to be the most 
  advanced of Leng’s native species, the reefs remain 
  as a silent monument to a vanished order of life. 
  During the long reign of the Gesar, the reefs of the 
  Sea of Mists made the region a popular destination 
  for tourists and nobles seeking to retreat from the 
  rigours of governance. The Gesar long ago forbade 
  any interference in the reefs, despite the discovery of 
  large hydrocarbon deposits (formed by aeons of dead 
  polyps) 
  beneath 
  the 
  sea. 
  This 
  environmental 
  restriction was honoured by the Planetary Senate 
  during the Republican era, who invested heavily in 
  the region to encourage interstellar tourism from the 
  rich worlds in the Republic’s core. At this time, the 
  city of Nagara was founded on the southern coast as 
  a discrete, tasteful and above all secure retreat for 
  the Republic’s political and economic elite. When the 
  Fall came, Nagara was targeted by democratic 
  militants, and only the carefully disguised defences 
  and a small group of loyal soldiers prevented a 
  massacre of noble residents. In honour of the 
  defenders, the restored Gesar gifted them with titles 
  and command of the city. The semi-autonomous city 
  became the base for the Green Banner, House Gesar’s 
  elite military regiment and the planet of Leng’s last 
  line of defence. 
  In the chaos of the 46th century, Nagara tried to 
  steer a neutral course between the House leadership 
  on Byzantium Secundus and the fanatics that seized 
  control of Phnom. The Green Banner generals had 
  little love for ‘King’ Chonden, and the religious 
  revival of the Nyima found little support in the 
  region. Despite this tension, the hand of the Green 
  Banner was forced when Nagara was targeted by the 
  invading Li Halan fleet in 4574. Repeated attempts to 
  mount a landing assault were repulsed 
  with heavy casualties on both sides. In the 
  end, the Li Halan resorted to orbital bombardment, 
  having received dispensation from the Patriarch to 
  resort to such extreme measures in the face of global 
  heresy. None of the asteroids dropped on Bód scored 
  a direct hit on Nagara, but the surrounding 
  countryside was devastated. The bombardment was 
  cut short by a desperate counter-attack by the 
  surviving system defence fleet, and the Li Halan were 
  expelled from the system. In the chaos of the 
  aftermath, the leadership of the Green Banner found 
  themselves cut off from their Gesar masters. By the 
  time communications were restored, they found both 
  their attackers and superiors gone, left with only a 
  cryptic 
  message 
  from 
  King 
  Chonden 
  Gesar. 
  Unimpressed by the holy king’s humble abdication of 
  power, the Lord Commander of Nagara repudiated his 
  oath of fealty to House Gesar and began the process 
  of establishing himself as dictator of the surviving 
  communities around the Sea of Mists (Lord 
  Commander 
  Khadan’s 
  speech 
  announcing 
  his 
  intentions was recorded and is played to crowds each 
  year on Betrayal Day. It has lost none of its anger 
  and vitriol over the centuries, and never fails to whip 
  up the Nagarans into a patriotic fury). 
  The Green Banner’s early plans of conquering the 
  continent were foiled by the end of the 46th century, 
  mainly due to the lack of infrastructure caused by the 
  collapse of world government and the devastation of 
  the local agricultural lands. Khadan himself died in 
  4618, assassinated by one his own aides in a coup 
  attempt. Much of the 47th century was dominated by 
  feuds between the officer corp, which only served to 
  further damage Nagara’s infrastructure. It was not 
  until 4665 that the collapse was halted. Angered by 
  the in-fighting and poor governance of their officers, 
  a popular movement began to grow among the Green 
  Banner’s 
  common 
  soldiery 
  and 
  the 
  civilian 
  population of Nagara. The movement, known to 
  history as the Sword and Hammer Revolt, culminated 
  in the expulsion of all military forces from the city of 
  Nagara itself. A civilian government, known as the 
  High Council, was established along nominal 
  democratic lines, although in reality it consisted of 
  an oligarchy formed from the city’s upper classes. 
  The military was violently purged of officers who 
  were unwilling to release the reins of power, and 
  restructured into fifteen ‘banners’, or regiments. 
  Twelve of these were granted lands outside of Nagara 
  to govern as semi-independent satrapies, on the 
  condition that they swore loyalty to Nagara and 
  remained outside of the borders of the city itself. The 
  remaining banners, consisting of the Three Eye 
  Banner (intelligence agents) and the Steel Gate 
  Banner (the High Councils personal guard) 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  65 
  are the only legions permitted within the walls of the 
  city. 
  Bizarrely, this system worked, mainly as the Banner 
  Generals competed among themselves and ensured 
  no single member of their ranks grew too powerful. 
  Nagara itself went through a period of massive 
  growth throughout the 49th and 50th centuries. A 
  concerted 
  effort 
  was 
  made 
  to 
  rebuild 
  the 
  technological 
  infrastructure 
  lost 
  during 
  the 
  bombardment. The major breakthrough came from 
  the exploitation of the untouched reserves of oil and 
  natural gas beneath the coral beds of the Sea of 
  Mists. By the 4850s, rail lines linked the scattered 
  settlements of the coast, flying over the ravaged 
  countryside between. While some peoples resisted, 
  they were quickly crushed by the Banners, who 
  seized the taken lands for themselves. By the end of 
  the 50th century, the growing Empire of Nagara is 
  poised to expand across Bód and beyond. Mighty 
  airships are braving the heights of the Seguder 
  Mountains that encircle the Nagaran plains, and a 
  fleet of vast dreadnoughts is being prepared to set 
  sail for the Inner Sea and beyond. If it was not for 
  the unexpected attacks of the Seguder Cerig hillfolk 
  of the mountains, Nagara would have already begun 
  the exploration and eventual conquest of Phnom. 
  This new threat is causing tensions between the 
  Banner Generals and the High Council to resurface, 
  and the politics of the Empire are a minefield at 
  present. 
  The city of Nagara has grown from a small resort 
  town to a bustling industrial city with a population 
  of over five million. The skyline is scarred with rows 
  of smokestacks and chimneys, and a permanent haze 
  of smoke hangs over the city from the vast factories, 
  which churn out munitions, vehicles and other goods 
  24 hours a day. The streets are bedecked in bright 
  pennants and political posters, urging the workforce 
  to strive for the Freedom of Leng. With the new war 
  and the tensions with the military, the democratic 
  practices of the city have begun to slip. Secret police 
  from the Three Eye Banner are everywhere, and laws 
  restricting freedom of speech and movement are 
  rigorously 
  enforced. 
  The 
  power 
  of 
  Nagaran 
  nationalism is still strong, but growing voices in the 
  slums and gin houses mutter against the Council 
  which turns a blind eye to the deaths in the factories 
  and suppresses any form of civil protest. 
  The Nagaran culture is one built on a violent 
  rejection of Leng’s past. Despite the failure of the 
  Green Banner to secure control of the city they once 
  guarded, the impotent rage that struck the soldiery 
  after the desertion of their noble masters 
  remains. Chonden Gesar is a figure of hate, the 
  basest of traitors, and the Nyima and their religion 
  are dismissed as weak-willed cowards. Nagarans (at 
  least in the upper classes) pride themselves as 
  forward-thinking and aggressively progressive. As 
  the once venerated fire coral is smashed to fuel 
  Nagara’s engines of expansion, the nation hopes to 
  smash the old ways they feel have calcified the 
  people of Leng into numb inactivity.  
  The Seguder Cerig (Shadow Soldiers) 
  Even during the height of the Second Republic, the 
  Seguder Mountains that dominate the southern half 
  of Bód were sparsely populated. Unlike the Dragon’s 
  Voice range, the Seguders lacked a region like the 
  Great Valley where settlements could be based. 
  Instead, the population became congregated along 
  the coasts of the Inner Sea and the Sea of Mists. The 
  mountains, with their poor soil and lack of 
  vegetation, were home to only a scattering of mining 
  colonies and meteorological stations. When the Fall 
  came, the new Gesar rulers evacuated those miners 
  who could be traced, and abandoned the rest. From 
  the 41st century onwards, the Seguder Mountains 
  became essentially lawless. 
  A small number of people were either missed by the 
  Gesar or refused their offers of resettlement, living 
  out a miserable life as hunters and scavengers in the 
  mountains. These hillfolk were hated by the people of 
  the coasts, and the soldiers of Nagara were often 
  tasked with driving them from the farmlands around 
  the Sea of Mists. Ironically, many of these very 
  farmers fled into the mountains when their lands 
  were bombarded by the Li Halan in 4574. When 
  Nagara fell into internal feuding after the desertion 
  of the Gesar, most of these refugees chose to stay 
  with the hillfolk, swelling their numbers greatly. 
  Since then, an ongoing brush war has raged between 
  the hillfolk, who regularly sneak into the surviving 
  farmlands to steal food and livestock, and the 
  Nagarans who seek to drive them further into the 
  mountains to increase their borders. 
  This conflict would have been settled in Nagara’s 
  favour but for the actions of a mysterious group of 
  monks. Around thirty years ago a number of the 
  mountain clans were approached by strangers in 
  white robes. The monks claimed to come from a lost 
  kingdom high in the mountains, which they obliquely 
  referred to as the Luminous Temple. They told the 
  startled savages that they were the last survivors of 
  an ancient civilisation, which fell hundreds of years 
  ago. The monks were from a holy order which was 
  tasked with keeping alive the knowledge of 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  6
  the past in secret, but that studies of the stars had 
  informed them that the time was right to return to 
  the world and prepare the way for a great change 
  described in ancient prophecies. 
  Much of this talk went above the heads of the 
  Seguder tribesmen, but the rifles that shot bolts of 
  fire and food that could keep a man alive for a week 
  with a single bite bought the support of many 
  chieftains. By 4990, an alliance of several hundred 
  clans began mounting organised raids against 
  Nagaran military outposts and oil refineries. This 
  new army is currently led by Noyan Jida Twice-Born, 
  a fanatical follower of the Luminous Philosophy. He 
  is the only known man to have travelled to the 
  Luminous Temple, where he claims he was brought 
  back to life by the magic of the monks after being 
  slain in a failed raid against a Nagaran oil refinery. 
  He described the Temple as a giant white egg, half 
  buried by rocks at the end of a steep-sided valley 
  deep in the mountains. Jida has become the core of a 
  new religious sect, which worships the monks as 
  angelic messengers (a practice the monks neither 
  condone nor oppose) which is spreading rapidly 
  through the ranks of the hill tribes. 
  The Nagaran army has quickly come to fear the so-
  called Seguder Cerig (Shadow Warriors), both for 
  their uncanny knack for slipping through gaps in the 
  Nagaran defences and for the strange armour they 
  wear which distorts the air around them, making 
  them hard to target. The High Council is also alarmed 
  by the nature of the raids. In a matter of a few years 
  the hillmen had gone from cattle rustling to stealing 
  arms and raw materials. More than once a new 
  prototype weapon has been stolen, and within weeks 
  replicated and used against its inventors. 
  In the past five years, the Nagarans have been 
  constructing an increasingly complex string of walls 
  and watchtowers along the edge of their lands, to 
  little appreciable effect. Seguder Cerig raids are 
  growing bolder, although they have still been 
  defeated in those rare occasions the Nagarans have 
  managed to corner them into a pitched battle. Last 
  year, one such victory was won at Five Crater Field. 
  The Ivory Talon Banner defeated a numerically 
  superior Seguder Cerig force and took nearly 3000 
  men as slaves back to Nagara. Among them was one 
  of the mysterious monks that lead the Cerig, who has 
  been subjected to interrogation, medical 
  investigation and torture since his capture. 
   
  © Jack Oldham, 2005 
  6 
  
  Lost World: Leng 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  67 
  The military authorities have released some details to 
  the public regarding their prisoner. They say he is 
  hairless and devoid of any physical marks or 
  blemishes, able to survive for weeks without food or 
  sleep, and is in excellent physical condition. More 
  bizarrely, he claims to be over 1000 years old, but 
  maintains he cannot remember anything clearly 
  before the 4950s. In regard to his mission, he merely 
  maintains that he and his fellows are preparing for 
  ‘the Great Change’. Official government statements 
  maintain that the monk is clearly some kind of Gesar 
  agent, although he has never mentioned the House 
  himself and seems to know nothing of the Swan King 
  legend. Among the populace, the common and more 
  pragmatic belief is that the man is a demon, and that 
  he and his wicked allies seek to feed on the blood of 
  loyal Nagaran citizens. Either way, the Nagarans are 
  preparing to take the war to the Seguder Cerig, and 
  are gearing up for a major offensive into the 
  mountains in the coming summer. 
  Game Rules 
  Lengese Language 
  Leng is an ancient world, and even in the height of 
  the Second Republic it clung to its unique history and 
  culture. As a result, Urthish has never been the 
  dominant language on Leng, only spoken by the 
  minor nobility in places such as the Western Valleys. 
  Lengese itself is derived from ancient Chinese, 
  Tibetan and Mongolian dialects and shares no more 
  than a handful of loan words with the language of 
  the Empire. As a result, Lengese should be treated as 
  a separate language, taken by characters from Leng 
  in place of Urthish. 
   
   
   
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  68 
  Lost World: New Amhara 
  By Chris Hogan 
   
  From the Office of the Speaker of the Planetary 
  Senate of New Amhara 
  On behalf of the people of New Amhara it is my 
  pleasure to offer greetings and salutations to our 
  brothers in liberty among the stars. Although long 
  isolated from our fellow republics it is the avowed 
  wish of our government, supported wholeheartedly by 
  our electors, that the interrupted relations between 
  our world and the greater commonwealth of sentient 
  beings be renewed at the earliest opportunity.  
  It is with great pleasure that we invite to visit our 
  world appointed representatives of all stellar 
  alliances, 
  planetary 
  governments 
  and 
  private 
  corporate entities who may wish to engage in a 
  peaceful and mutually advantageous exchange of 
  goods, services and cultural ideas. 
  May the blessing of the Creator be upon you. 
  Nesta Dinagde, Protector of the People and 134th 
  Speaker of the Senate 
  History 
  New Amhara was discovered during the Diasporan 
  period known to later historians as the Age of 
  Miracles. In 2758 a team of entrepreneurial 
  exploratory scientists known as Dawntreader Survey 
  working on the Swan’s Way system jumpgate 
  deciphered an unknown jumpcode. Robotic survey 
  probes revealed a solar system of seven planets with 
  a human-habitable planet second from the sun. Due 
  to its erratic and highly eccentric orbit Moishe, the 
  eighth planet of the system, was not discovered until 
  almost a decade after initial survey. 
  The scientists had intended to sell the system’s 
  jumpcode to the highest bidder but a member of their 
  own research team thwarted their plans. This man, a 
  Zuranist whose name has been lost in passage of 
  centuries but still revered by New Amharans, leaked 
  the information to his compatriots on Swan’s Way, 
  and via them, to Zuranist communities in the core 
  worlds 
  of 
  humanspace. 
  Dawntreader 
  Survey’s 
  security teams rapidly exposed and executed the 
  traitor in their ranks and did their best to bring to 
  book those who they saw as profiting from data 
  piracy. Although their harsh campaign 
  against “Zuranist pirates and data thieves” was 
  applauded on Grail the laissez faire government of 
  Swans Way, itself seeking to profit from the new 
  world, refused to assist their efforts. A Dawntreader 
  blockade of Zuranist refugee caravans arriving in the 
  Swan’s Way system rapidly fell apart when the local 
  government passed legislation declaring any attack 
  on the caravans to be a criminal act.  
  First landfall was made on the new world in 2763. 
  The pilots’ preference for landing on the barren (but 
  conveniently equatorial) plains of New Darfur in 
  preference to the rich (but orbitally awkward) prairies 
  of coastal Amharia led to a deal of resentment among 
  the first colonists. Many rapidly departed from the 
  initial colonies, rebelling against what they saw as a 
  Swans Way-dominated effort to turn them back into 
  the kind of bondservants their TUW ancestors had 
  once been. Despite the demands of their backers that 
  the new world by called Cygnet a quick piece of 
  sleight of hand by some Zuranist malcontents at the 
  official planetary naming ceremony in 2765 resulted 
  in the world being named “Home”. The folktale of 
  “How Saint Coyote gave the world its name” is still 
  popular even among Orthodox Amharans. 
  Due to its late settlement and relatively isolated 
  position two jumps nightside of Grail the inhabitants 
  of Home remained largely unaffected by the spate of 
  anti-Zuranist persecutions led by the early Patriarchs 
  of the Universal Church. Home became known as 
  something of a haven for Zuranists and other pre-
  reflective believers during the years of strife that 
  followed the Age of Miracles. Although a few later 
  colonists heeded the call to arms in the Consolidation 
  Wars against the aliens menaces of the Ukari and 
  Vau star empires the vast majority of the population 
  shrugged their collective shoulders and got on with 
  the work of taming the planet. Would-be imperialists 
  from Swan’s Way occasionally raided Home during 
  the early years of the Consolidation (3100-3500). 
  These invaders were either bought off, or found 
  occupation of an entire world of wilful individualists 
  so difficult and expensive that they gave up the 
  pretence of being rulers and either returned home or 
  settled down to raise families themselves. Over the 
  centuries the diverse peoples of Home developed a 
  reputation as an insular and backward people among 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  69 
  the more politically advanced worlds at the core of 
  humanspace. 
  By the 3500s an almost universal trend towards 
  unification was spreading across humanspace. As so 
  often however Home was an exception to the rule. 
  Due to a policy of open immigration that the 
  fractious and loosely organised planetary governing 
  council instituted in the 3300s by 3500 the 
  descendents of the original Zuranist inhabitants of 
  Home (the self-styled Firstcomers) were an 
  absolute 
  minority 
  on 
  what 
  they 
  still 
  considered ‘their’ world. Under pressure from these 
  influential citizens the governing council instituted a 
  series of punitive taxes against the supposedly ‘non-
  Zuranist’ industrial and mercantile interests of the 
  more recent Universalist colonists (stigmatised as 
  Latecomers). 
  Although 
  popular 
  among 
  the 
  Firstcomers these taxes bred resentment both among 
  the Latecomer elements of the population, and, more 
  importantly, within the rising power of the Second 
  Republic. 
  Amhara Traits 
  Ruler: Holy Speaker (Prince) Nesta III Dinagde 
  (Amharia), Zomma (Duke) Ishmael Zhenawi 
  (Zalkhi) 
  Cathedral: Temple of the Golden Testament, 
  Ghonda-I-Aga, Amharia (Amharan Orthodoxy) 
  Agora: Edul-I-Aga (New Amhara), Toadeni Oasis 
  (Zalkhi) 
  Garrison: 4 
  Capital: Ghonda-I-Aga (New Amhara), Mokum 
  (Zalkhi) 
  Jumps: 4 
  Adjacent Worlds: Swan’s Way (dayside) 
  Solar System: Sun, Malhee (0.6AU), New Amhara 
  (1.1AU; Selash), Manlek (2.3AU), Shao (3.9AU), 
  Moishe (6.4AU), Iyasu (11AU; 12 moons, rings), 
  Yohan (18.1AU; 4 moons), Yafeed (29.7AU), 
  Jumpgate (48.4AU) 
  During the early years of the 36th century a series of 
  appeals for aid made by the leading families among 
  the Latecomers, who through their controlling 
  interests in the vineyards, gika-silk farms and rich 
  mines of the New Amharan plateau controlled most 
  of the liquid wealth of the world, were eventually 
  heard by the slowly coalescing Second Republic. 
  Sensing the opportunity to show their support for an 
  unfairly disenfranchised majority population, and to 
  make a fast buck out of an almost unspoiled world, 
  the mercantile alliances at the heart of the Republic 
  threw their support behind the Latecomers. A few 
  years of preferential trade agreements, heavy 
  propaganda broadcasts, and the covert introduction 
  of off-world fabricated drugs among Zuranist youth 
  saw the Zuranist governing council discredited 
  among the populace. With their erstwhile persecutors 
  dismissed as a corrupt feudal relic the Latecomer 
  faction, with great fanfare, was acknowledged as the 
  legitimate majority government of their world. 
  Tech: 3-4, up to 6 in Zalkhi and Amharia 
  Population: 700 million, 20 million aliens (12 
  million Obun, 7 million Ukari, 500,000 Gannok) 
  Resources:  
  Exotic woods, lacquer, natural dyes, perfumes, 
  hydrocarbons 
  Metals (iron, chromium, gold, tin, nickel, copper, 
  uranium, other exotics) 
  Minerals (fossil fuels, salts and alkalis) 
  Foods (vegetables, grain crops, fruit, fish, lamb, 
  beef) 
  Natural produce (exotic woods, lacquer, natural 
  dyes) 
  Finished 
  woods 
  (optical 
  shields, 
  furniture, 
  weaponry) 
  Luxury goods (fine wines, jewellery, gika-silk, 
  decorated/fancy goods, Objects d'art) 
  Archaeotech (starships especially) 
  Exports: None. Any of the above if contact with 
  the Known Worlds or other stellar nation is re-
  established 
  The Latecomers, who preferred to style themselves 
  the 
  Democratists 
  during 
  their 
  campaign 
  for 
  admission to the Republic, proudly re-christened 
  their planet after their own continent. With much 
  fanfare, New Amhara became a member in good 
  standing of the Second Republic in 3541. In 
  commemoration 
  of 
  the 
  landmark 
  event 
  New 
  Amhara’s Planetary Constitution and Charter of 
  Membership in the Second Republic were engraved 
  onto a tablet of gold mined from the rich veins of the 
  Amharan Massif. This document, informally known 
  as the Planetary Charter, became an integral part of 
  the ceremonial inauguration of each successive 
  Speaker of the Democratist-dominated Amharan 
  Senate. 
  During the centuries of membership in the Republic 
  the Democratist rulers of the world repaid their 
  earlier persecutions tenfold. Although religious 
  freedom was a founding tenet of the Republic a 
  vigorous 
  Universalist 
  evangelical 
  mission 
  was 
  established among the pre-reflective population. The 
  public relations arm of this “mission to the 
  benighted” 
  made 
  particular 
  play 
  of 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  70 
  elaborating on the more scandalous aspects of the 
  ever more clannish and exclusive behaviour of the 
  largely Zuranist Firstcomers. Through a combination 
  of 
  electoral 
  gerrymandering 
  and 
  preferential 
  employment policies the Amharan Senate pursued 
  their efforts to establish Universalism as an 
  unofficial state religion. Despite an outcry raised by 
  Zuranists, Gjartins and several small pre-reflective 
  churches Amharan domination of the media meant 
  that this policy remained a dirty secret on New 
  Amhara. It seemed that so long as taxes stayed low 
  and exports remained steady the Republic remained 
  well pleased with the status quo. 
  It was during the Republic that New Amhara gained 
  its 
  non-human 
  population. 
  Mining 
  companies 
  working both the vast Amharan Massif and New 
  Darfur’s Mountains of the Stars imported Ukari 
  workers. Obun pilgrims and teachers settled the 
  world, some seeking to study the extensive or 
  evangelise the scattered non-Universalist population, 
  others to study at the famous Ghonda University. 
  Even the curious Gannok of Bannockburn found a 
  home on New Amhara, serving aboard ocean-going 
  vessels, in the fruit-farming and construction trades, 
  and working in the extensive orbital colonies that 
  were built around New Amhara and the gas giant 
  Iyasu. The vast majority of Amharans saw the 
  presence of aliens on their world as a mark of their 
  new-found cosmopolitanism, especially after the 
  Zion’s Crown orbiting starport, a large repair and 
  refitting facility for the Republican Navy, opened in 
  3761.  
  Despite the generally non-hostile atmosphere of the 
  world some ugly incidents did occur. More than once 
  aliens, a highly visible element among the immigrant 
  population and thus easy targets for hatred, were 
  lynched or burned in their homes by groups claiming 
  to represent the Firstcomers. Rather than dying down 
  as New Amhara increased in wealth and prosperity, 
  these attacks increased in frequency and vehemence 
  as economic disparities grew. It was in 3930 that the 
  worst of these anti-alien killing sprees erupted. New 
  Calabar, the island continent in New Amhara’s 
  eastern hemisphere, had long been a stronghold of 
  Zuranism 
  on 
  the 
  planet 
  and, 
  perhaps 
  not 
  coincidentally, a centre for Firstcomer activities. 
  During the annual midsummer Landfall celebrations 
  a drunken mob set upon and beat a group of Obun 
  monks worshipping in the small Bintaru temple in 
  the city of Loango. The pacifistic monks tried to 
  plead for their lives, but to no avail. Seven Obun died 
  in the attack, their bodies beaten with sticks and 
  hacked apart by machetes before being immolated in 
  the arson of their desecrated temple.  
  Widely and rapidly publicised, the Landfall Night 
  Massacre in Loango acted as the signal for a month 
  of 
  anti-alien 
  activity 
  across 
  New 
  Amhara. 
  Overstretched local gendarmes, despite their best 
  efforts, were unable to protect a scattered non-
  human population. Some alien militants, resentful of 
  the inability of the gendarmerie to protect them, took 
  up arms in their own right, leading to gradually 
  escalating urban unrest in the cities. Eventually the 
  planetary senate was forced to send the planetary 
  militia to the worst affected trouble spots in New 
  Calabar and New Darfur. A harsh regime of local 
  segregation, weapons seizures, curfews and even 
  shoot-to-kill policing gradually stemmed the violence 
  that had plagued the summer of 3930. But such a 
  high visibility, high force response only kept a lid on 
  a constantly roiling social pressure cooker of 
  resentment and hatred. There was no denying the 
  hostility that was slowly building against both the 
  alien minority, and against the government in 
  Ghonda. 
  The first serious presaging of the Fall to manifest 
  itself on New Amhara, other than the race-hatred of 
  the Firstcomers, was a catastrophic recession that hit 
  the world in the late 3900s. Although advances in 
  technology had made Amharan mining, farming, 
  fishing and industry more efficient, the advent of 
  cheap, 
  programmable 
  nanotechnology 
  caused 
  catastrophic upheavals in the existing economic 
  structure. Primary industries, always a big employer 
  on New Amhara, were hit first as the core worlds of 
  the Republic; now able to extract and refine resources 
  at almost zero cost, cut their orders for imported 
  goods. New Amharan industries, even with local raw 
  materials prices slashed, were unable to compete 
  with the vast manufactories of Criticorum or Liberty. 
  Although some local prestige and luxury goods 
  remained in production neither this field nor the 
  service and entertainment industries were able to 
  absorb the vast excess labour pool created by the 
  recession.  
  The government of New Amhara did its best to cope 
  with the discontents of its people, but there was little 
  they could do. The impersonal economic forces that 
  had suddenly impoverished the world could not be 
  legislated against. Although the Senate banned 
  nanotechnological research on New Amhara their 
  measures had no effect on other worlds. Inspired by 
  the resurgent church a substantial ‘back to the land’ 
  movement 
  arose, 
  leading 
  to 
  calls 
  for 
  the 
  nationalisation of land and its distribution 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  71 
  to the unemployed. Taking a leaf from the book of 
  the resurgent noble houses, which were gradually 
  replacing Republican democracy and bureaucracy 
  with a personal, charismatic style of leadership, the 
  Speaker of the New Amharan Senate pronounced 
  himself President for Life and Protector of the People 
  in 3990. Although the next decade saw some 
  progress 
  in 
  the 
  fight 
  against 
  mounting 
  unemployment 
  and 
  economic 
  dislocation 
  the 
  Protector was able to do little to save his alien 
  constituents from a resurgence of murderous 
  Firstcomer aggression. 
  The Fall of the Republic in 4000AD exacerbated the 
  pressures under which New Amhara was already 
  labouring. With the chaos of the core worlds 
  crippling both its tourist industry and export trades 
  New Amhara sank deeper into depression. An 
  attempt by the New Amharan government to 
  nationalise the military-run Zion’s Crown starport in 
  4002 was violently opposed by those elements of the 
  Republican Space Navy still present in the system. 
  The re-armed civilian craft of the Amharans were 
  shot from orbit in a matter of minutes and, pausing 
  only to set the space station’s point defences to 
  automatic, the navy withdrew from what Admiral 
  Mehmet Burns Keddah now deemed “the hostile, 
  insurrectionist territory of Amharan space”. Although 
  a number of attempts to occupy Zion’s Crown were 
  made by the Amharans during the early years of the 
  post-Fall era all were unsuccessful. 
  Thrown unequivocally onto their own resources by 
  events the Planetary Senate decided eventually to put 
  their house in order. Freed from a system of 
  interplanetary trade which had ultimately proved 
  detrimental to the best interests of their people the 
  Senate began the long, hard process of rebuilding the 
  prosperity of New Amhara. Rejecting the apparent 
  failure of the laissez faire Republic the Senate rapidly 
  nationalised a number of key industries and slowly 
  transformed New Amhara society into a command 
  economy. The best efforts at reform were continually 
  hampered both by a lack of offworld resources vital 
  to an advanced technological economy, and by a 
  resurgent Firstcomer movement, which sabotaged 
  several high profile government projects in a 
  sustained campaign of terrorism. Perhaps the most 
  infamous of these attacks was the one on the 
  Nakanda Gorge Dam in the summer of 4117. This 
  Dam, which would have brought both electrical 
  power and a controlled water supply to the isolated 
  but fertile north-western parts of the Amharan 
  Massif, was destroyed by a fusion-warhead missile 
  only weeks after opening. The resulting 
  floods, local famine and dust borne radiation 
  are estimated to have killed tens of thousands of 
  people. Although the Amharan government did their 
  best to root out the Firstcomers after this atrocity 
  subsequent events which affected all Amharans 
  would make this seen like nothing but a minor tiff. 
  Around 4115 Amharan astronomers had noted a 
  marked increase in sunspots on Amhara’s sun. 
  Although it caused something of a stir in academic 
  circles, it was not until the 4120s that the 
  implications of this change in solar activity first 
  became clear. Although the sun burned no less 
  brightly, it had begun to pour out high levels of UV 
  radiation, levels against which even New Amhara’s 
  thick atmosphere could not protect. During the first 
  half of the 42nd century, spectacular auroral storms 
  lit up the skies of New Amhara. In the wake of these 
  marvellous displays instances of skin cancer in the 
  population skyrocketed and, by the middle of the 
  century, the event known as the Blinding was 
  underway.  
  The Blinding was initially thought to be little more 
  than a predictable side effect of increased UV 
  radiation on the delicate tissues of people’s eyes. 
  Although the government began a programme of 
  optical protection cases continued to increase in spite 
  of all best efforts. It was not until people began to go 
  blind en masse and the matter became the top 
  research priority that the real cause of the horrific 
  increase in blindness was discovered. A previously 
  benign Amharan bacterium, present in all life forms 
  on the world, had been mutated by increased 
  ultraviolet radiation into a more malignant form. 
  This mutant bound itself to the pore of the optic 
  nerve’s ion channel in those infected, effectively 
  causing neural blindness in sufferers. 
  Amharans reacted to their gradual loss of sight with 
  resignation and despair in the beginning. Sorrow 
  quickly turned to outrage and xenophobia when it 
  was discovered that the aliens of New Amhara were 
  unaffected by the new affliction visited upon their 
  human neighbours. The all-black eyes of the Obun 
  and Ukar were immune to the aboriginal Amharan 
  pathogen, while the prodigious immune system of 
  the Gannok shrugged off its effects with an almost 
  casual ease. Although many aliens volunteered their 
  services or samples of tissue to the desperate 
  scientists nonhumans once again became scapegoats 
  for the suffering of humans. As the light dimmed in 
  the eyes of Amhara’s human majority another wave 
  of pogroms wracked the cities. Within a few years of 
  the initial outbreak of Blinding Sickness 90% of the 
  human population of New Amhara population were 
  blind, and the majority of the alien 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  72 
  population were either dead, enslaved or outcasts. 
  Although scientists did their best to treat the disease 
  the data purges and waves of anti-nano hysteria 
  during the Divestiture and the Fall meant that vital 
  research was now irrevocably lost 
  The terrible years of the Blinding Sickness probably 
  caused more damage to the Amharan economy and 
  social structure than had the Fall itself.  Planetary 
  government, itself affected by mass blindness, all but 
  collapsed. Mass hysteria and rioting soon gave way 
  to paralysis and the eventual collapse of advanced 
  society. Entire communities starved in the midst of a 
  plenty they were unable to find. Those few humans 
  and aliens still able to see were either drafted as 
  communal eyes, or set themselves up as petty 
  despots. Packs of nomadic aliens took their chance to 
  avenge the repeated indignities heaped upon them, 
  preying on the blinded and all-but-helpless humans. 
  For several decades New Amhara became a 
  nightmarish proof of the old axiom that in the land 
  of the blind, the one eyed man was king.  
  After a period of chaos in the late 42nd century 
  Amharan society slowly began to stumble back to 
  some 
  semblance 
  of 
  order. 
  Widespread 
  mass 
  education collapsed and, driven by harsh necessity, 
  children were now taught about the absolute primacy 
  of cautious collective action within trusted groups 
  over individual initiative and free association. Only 
  by working together and knowing one another’s 
  business, Amharan children heard, could people hope 
  to survive in a dangerous world. Religious rhetoric 
  among all the faiths of the world became much 
  darker in tone. The Blinding was deemed a judgment 
  upon sinful humanity. Any numbers of wild and 
  outlandish reasons for this dire punishment were 
  dreamt up. The presence of aliens on the world, the 
  power of rogue psychics, an excessive love for visual 
  beauty, or a lack of respect for the same were all 
  cited 
  as 
  causes 
  This 
  puritanical 
  ethic 
  was 
  complemented by a rise in eremitic socio-religious 
  movements, which sought to withdraw utterly from 
  interaction 
  with 
  a 
  dangerous, 
  chaotic 
  and 
  unpredictable world. 
  The surviving humans of New Amhara slowly 
  adapted to their new condition. As the desolated 
  survivors gradually rebuilt their lives in a new form, 
  a new aesthetic emerged.  Under the harsh impetus 
  of need, oral history and mnemonic practises 
  underwent a renaissance. Choral and solo music, 
  now a necessity for locating people over a distance 
  outside familiar territories, became a rich and rapidly 
  evolving tradition, particularly among the Zalkhite 
  tribes 
  of 
  New 
  Darfur. 
  Architecture, 
  furnishing and domestic goods all developed padded 
  or rounded surfaces, safer for sightless users than 
  sharp, angular edges. Perfumery, long an Amharian 
  speciality, gradually transformed into an elite art 
  form. It is noteworthy but perhaps unsurprising that 
  what little plastic art survives from the period of the 
  Blinding is almost unique in Amharan history in its 
  total disregard for colour, instead emphasizing 
  texture as the primary medium of sensation. 
  Eventually, after years of painstaking research by 
  the few scientists at Ghonda University able to 
  continue their studies, a potential cure for the 
  Blinding Sickness was discovered. Unfortunately this 
  cure was ineffective against an advanced case of the 
  disease and was proven to only be efficacious if 
  administered in utero to an as-yet-unborn foetus. 
  Despite the pain, danger and emotional strain 
  involved in the inoculation process the vast majority 
  of Ghondaris who were offered the serum accepted. 
  Although Ghonda University originally distributed 
  the serum on a pro bonum basis, the scientists’ 
  paymasters in the rump of the Planetary Senate 
  realised the promise and threat inherent in control of 
  the serum. This power over the sight of a rising 
  generation could easily be parleyed into political 
  influence over previously intransigent regional 
  opposition. Although some few hold-outs refused 
  what they saw as a poisoned chalice of the serum, 
  over the next century the major part of the world of 
  New Amhara accepted the Mephistophelian deal on 
  offer; their children’s sight in exchange for their own 
  liberty. 
  Despite the protests of some scientists - and of a 
  few high-minded politicians - the members of the 
  Senate were rapidly corrupted by the newfound 
  power they wielded. Although the head of the Senate 
  still retained the historic titles of Lord Protector and 
  Speaker, and regular elections were held for various 
  offices of state, only a fool would believe that New 
  Amhara was still ruled democratically. It might 
  proclaim itself the “…restorer of civilisation and 
  reviver of Republican glories…” but by the beginning 
  of the 43rd century, the Senate was republican in 
  name only. Looked at objectively the body was little 
  more than an aristocratic oligarchy headed by a 
  hereditary despot. Even the time-honoured tradition 
  of swearing in a Speaker using the golden tablet of 
  the Planetary Charter became little more than a 
  triumphalist monarchic ritual.  
  The one body that might have stood against the 
  rapid corruption of the Senate, the Universal Church 
  of the Celestial Sun, instead chose to share in the 
  exploitation of the so-called Elixir of Clear 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  73 
  Vision. The rising popular cult of the Holy Speaker, 
  lauded as the Lion of Zebulon and Defender of the 
  Republic, was led by the planetary archbishop of the 
  Amharan Church, long known by the honorific of 
  Abou-Salama (“Father of Peace”). In return for their 
  unquestioning support of the status quo the priests 
  of the Amharan Church were given not only the 
  exclusive right to minister the Elixir of Clear Vision 
  to expectant mothers, but also the right to preach the 
  Omega Gospels to their captive audience. Before too 
  long only those of provably Universalist religious 
  convictions were deemed ‘worthy’ of this dreadfully 
  necessary treatment. Backsliders and heathens were 
  ruthlessly condemned by the church to dwell in the 
  physical darkness to which their spiritual blindness 
  had condemned them. 
  For nearly five centuries the Holy Speakers reigned 
  over all the world worth ruling from the great and 
  ancient city of Ghonda. The nomads of New Darfur, 
  the city-states of Calabar, even the tribes of the 
  Vogandi jungles all bent the knee to the Amharian 
  Ras (dukes) appointed by the Holy Speaker, and to 
  the Amharan Orthodox church. The power of this 
  semi-theocratic empire was based on a rigid control 
  of the vital Elixir of Clear Vision, bolstered by the 
  technical achievements of Ghonda University, a 
  paranoid and powerful secret police which attempted 
  to exert a monopoly on psychic power, and by the 
  raw military power needed to suppress local 
  insurrections. At the height of the Speakers’ power 
  such was the wealth that flowed into his coffers from 
  tributary areas that Holy Speaker Memelik XIII 
  Dinagde declared that all those able to prove the 
  Democratist and Universalist credentials of their 
  ancestors during the 3500s would be free of any tax 
  obligations in perpetuity. This elite of Amharan 
  society, many of who had mortgaged all they owned 
  to local landowners and forgers to secure true or 
  ‘reproduction’ documents, became known as the 
  ‘Agas’, or freemen. The Agas rapidly grew to form a 
  body of privileged gentry under the Ras (dukes) and 
  Dejazmatches (counts) of the Amharan Empire. 
  All the wealth of the Holy Speakers was unable to 
  prevent a slow decay at the heart of Amharan society 
  however. Forced into a rigid feudal structure and 
  constrained by a code of risk-aversion bordering on 
  taboo in its intensity, both social mobility and 
  technical innovation languished during the empire. 
  Advanced zero-maintenance machinery from the days 
  of the Republic began to decay, while the complex 
  and top-heavy command economy led to a gradual 
  degeneration of industrial production. It was a 
  professor of Ghonda University who in 4438 
  first dared to declare before the Holy Speaker 
  what all already knew in their hearts: New Amhara 
  was gradually losing its technology. What could be 
  done though? The decay seemed inexorable; the 
  faulty machines were irreplaceable, their inner 
  workings barely understood. After deep though the 
  Speaker of the day, long remembered as Thanis the 
  Wise, declared that the thinkers of Ghonda 
  University must discover ways that the lost 
  technology could be replaced by manpower, ingenuity 
  and skill. He decreed the establishment of a new 
  Academy of Substitute Technologies, an institution 
  devoted to maintaining the Amharan Empire’s social 
  and technical supremacy in the face of inexorable 
  decay. 
  The Amharian Empire continued its course of slow 
  political and cultural sclerosis until the late 48th 
  century. It was during this time that a new 
  phenomenon was reported in the jungles of New 
  Calabar: sighted children were being born to the blind 
  underclass of people who had rejected outright any 
  compromise with the Amharan Orthodox Church and 
  its’ fabulous Elixir of Clear Vision. The Amharan 
  hierarchy first suspected a mole within the tightly 
  controlled and church-run Elixir production facility. 
  It soon became apparent that there was a more 
  profound and, at least to the ruling classes, 
  threatening cause for these seemingly miraculous 
  births. Over the centuries the optic nerves of the 
  human inhabitants of New Amhara had begun to 
  adapt to the bacterium that caused the Blinding 
  Sickness. Although the eyes of the new generation of 
  naturally sighted children were still more vulnerable 
  to ultraviolet light than those of either the uninfected 
  or those treated with the Elixir, these humans were 
  the first in several generations of New Amharans 
  able to see for themselves. 
  In a panic the Amharian Empire launched a killing 
  spree in Loango and the other cities of New Calabar. 
  Although 
  hundreds 
  of 
  sighted 
  children, 
  and 
  thousands still blind, were murdered by the spears of 
  Amharian Agas word soon spread through the 
  populace of New Calabar that the vaunted elixir with 
  which they were blackmailed into obedience and 
  religious servitude was nothing but a sham! 
  Although not strictly true this rumour, along with the 
  ever-heavier exactions of the empire and decades of 
  accumulated resentment, caused the Calabaris to 
  recant their enforced conversions and rebel against 
  Ghonda’s rule.  
  For a time it seemed that the Amharians, with their 
  superior vision and higher technology, might hold 
  New Calabar in subjugation but news of the revolt, 
  and the reasons behind it, spread across 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  74 
  Amharia and New Darfur like wildfire. Within a year 
  the entire planet outside of the Amharan Highlands 
  was in chaos, the Universal Church deemed a fraud, 
  and the Holy Speaker’s rule was shaken to its very 
  foundations. Although the Senate and their legions 
  fought against the rebellions there was little that the 
  Amharian Agas, outnumbered, outfought, under-
  equipped and enervated by decades of no missions 
  more strenuous than picking off Obun nomads from 
  the comfort of skimmers and aircraft, could 
  ultimately do to restore their fortunes. By the early 
  49th century, the once world-spanning writ of the 
  Holy Speaker was confined to the Amharan 
  Highlands. 
  Within a generation of the Calabari revolt a seeming 
  miracle had occurred. All over New Amhara an ever-
  greater proportion of children each year were being 
  born sighted and free of foreign oppression. In a 
  frenzy of celebration the Zuranist tribes living in the 
  vast Zalkhi Plains of New Darfur declared themselves 
  a free kingdom under the rule of their prophet-
  revolutionist leader Shkelgim Zhenawi. This man, an 
  astronomer and mystic in the days before he had lead 
  his people in revolt, was acclaimed the first Zomma 
  of All Zalkhi. The title of Zomma was an ancient one 
  particular to the pre-diasporan ancestors of many 
  Darfurans. Its’ ancient connotations of holy kingship 
  had long ago been banalised by the early Zuranist 
  settlers of Home to indicate any leader of an 
  autonomous Zuranist tribe, but by quirk of fate this 
  time-hallowed honorific once again came to represent 
  a sole and undisputed ruler in special communion 
  with the divine. Amid rapturous celebrations Zomma 
  Shkelgim declared his homeland the true repository 
  of republican ideals on New Amhara. A messianic 
  cult rapidly evolved from a syncretic mix of existing 
  Zuranist and imported Amharian beliefs. This cult 
  prophesied a time when the Hidden President, 
  successor to the last unjustly overthrown true 
  Speaker of pre-Republican Home, would reveal 
  himself and lead his chosen people to the fabled land 
  of Majid, a realm among the stars.  
  Fired with zeal the previously unremarked and 
  despised Zalkhites swept out across New Darfur, 
  conquering all in their path in the name of their 
  Zuranist priest-king. Although in some disarray 
  following the loss of their empire the Amharians 
  looked on the rise of Zalkhi with alarm. An 
  attempted invasion of New Darfur during a dynastic 
  squabble within the Zhenawi clan managed to 
  temporarily stall the Zalkhites’ triumphant progress. 
  Within a year however year the under-armed, badly 
  led, and sometimes-starving legions of 
  Amharia were forced to sue for peace by the 
  armies of Zomma Talpa. In celebration of the 
  Amharian retreat from New Darfur the Zalkhites built 
  a great stellar observatory at the order of their 
  seemingly infallible king, victor over both heretic 
  rebels and Amharian heathens.  
  It was astronomers at the Mokum observatory who, 
  in the year 4935, made a fateful discovery. It seemed 
  that the strange star that had flown across New 
  Amhara’s night sky in patterns of its own since time 
  out of mind was no natural celestial wanderer, but a 
  construct, a thing made by men. This was news to 
  the ears of the Zalkhite people, who considered the 
  discovery yet more proof of the divine nature of their 
  beloved Zomma’s wisdom. Overnight Zalkhi was 
  seemingly transformed. From the militaristic terror of 
  the continent the nation suddenly changed into a 
  society obsessed with flight. Strange experimental 
  aircraft, cannons and rockets sprouted in the fields 
  around Mokum. Airborne disasters rent the skies and 
  exploding 
  visitations 
  from 
  above 
  became 
  an 
  occupational hazard for local farmers.  
  Within a decade Zomma Mihai, son and heir to 
  Tapla the Victorious, was able to declare that 
  Zalkhite science had produced the first voidsailer 
  built on New Amhara for a thousand years. After 
  delays and complications which somewhat took the 
  lustre off the initial announcement the Zomma 
  finally 
  declared 
  the 
  voidsailer, 
  named 
  the 
  Dawntreader after a great explorer and founder figure 
  of Zalkhite legend, ready in 4947. On the anniversary 
  of Landfall that year the people of Maydin turned out 
  in celebration to wish their leader well on his 
  glorious journey into the outer void. 
  From the beginnings the Zalkhite quest for the stars 
  was fraught with troubles. The half-understood, 
  barely controlled technologies of their voidsailer 
  blasted the launch area clear of crowds and broke the 
  bones of the hapless crew labouring under immense 
  and unaccustomed strains of acceleration. Gasping 
  and bleeding from their injuries the crew watched 
  their home world fall behind them and gradually felt 
  weight and solidity departing from their bodies. 
  Certain they were dying many of the crew wept, 
  prayed and vomited in fear and sickness. Within a 
  few hours however the hysteria of those who 
  survived their internal injuries had turned to wonder 
  as their ship, guided by the mathematical engines 
  built into it, swung into a close orbit around their 
  goal: the vast, long-deserted Zion’s Crown starport, a 
  mighty fortress of the stars, ringed about with sleek 
  void-going ships.  
  Impatient to enter what he was certain 
  was the palace of the long-anticipated 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  75 
  Hidden 
  President 
  Zomma 
  Mihai 
  ordered 
  an 
  immediate docking with the station. Against the 
  advice of his engineers the holy king of Zalkhi and 
  his bodyguard floated down the Dawntreader’s 
  docking umbilicus and, after ineffective entreaties to 
  the station, finally dynamited open the exterior 
  airlock. Unfortunately for Mihai and his men their 
  ignorance of explosive expansion in a low pressure, 
  0-gravity environment blew their docking tube to 
  ribbons and themselves out into the void of space. 
  The crew on the Dawntreader, after patching the 
  holes blown in their own hull, decided that a more 
  modest target than the starport itself befitted their 
  abilities. 
  It was a chastened Zalkhite expedition that 
  descended to the Zalkhi Plains on a blaze of meteoric 
  fire five days later. Although they had brought with 
  them a wonderful voidsailer of the ancients, both the 
  Dawntreader and their beloved lord and master had 
  been lost to the coldness of space: the former to 
  cannibalisation for parts, the latter to explosive 
  decompression. It was to his amazement and dismay 
  that Senior Voidsailor Rajmono Zhenawi, a distant 
  cousin of dead Mihai, found himself raised to the 
  Zommate by popular acclaim. The new Zomma made 
  a series of portentous speeches lauding their great 
  discovery as the beginning of Zalkhi’s inevitable 
  ascent as the premier power on New Amhara. Despite 
  this public bravado it was a more cautious Zalkhi 
  that returned to the marvellous starcastle some years 
  later… 
  Solar System 
  Sun: New Amhara’s sun is a main sequence star, 
  similar to Sol. In the early centuries of the New Dark 
  Ages the sun began to fluctuate in output, causing 
  coronal storms of terrific intensity. These sun storms, 
  which produced amazing aurora displays on New 
  Amhara, largely precluded human activity beyond the 
  protective 
  influence 
  of 
  New 
  Amhara’s 
  strong 
  magnetic field. In the last century the intensity of 
  solar activity in the New Amharan system has abated 
  somewhat, but any unshielded human venturing 
  beyond the atmosphere has only a very limited safe 
  exposure time. 
  Malhee: This small, tidally locked mercurian world 
  close to the sun has developed an eccentricity in its 
  orbit in the years of New Amhara’s isolation. 
  Astronomers of the Amharan Academy of Substitute 
  Technologies have recently reached the disturbing 
  conclusion that Malhee’s ever more elliptical orbit 
  will cause the world to either crash into the 
  sun, or be slung out of its orbit within the next 
  century. 
  New Amhara: The only habitable world in the New 
  Amharan system is a world not dissimilar to Earth, 
  although somewhat warmer on average. New 
  Amhara is closely orbited by a single moon 
  substantially smaller than Earth’s Luna, which is 
  variously known to the inhabitants of New Amhara 
  as Selash, Pan Vadhra, or simply “the moon”. The 
  influence of Selash (the name use by the Amharan 
  Academy of Substitute Technologies) causes some 
  minor tidal effects on the planet. Of greater interest 
  to the inhabitants of New Amhara is the recent 
  discovery of an extensive ring of deserted orbital 
  facilities left over from the Republican era. These 
  play host to a starship graveyard of apparently 
  operable craft. 
  Manlek: A singularly uninspiring lump of cold rock 
  pocked with the craters of asteroid impacts, Manlek 
  provided little interest to the astronomers of New 
  Amhara. Ancient, partially decayed records preserved 
  in the Amharan Academy of Substitute Technologies 
  talk about a remarkable pattern of regularity to the 
  craters on the far side of Manlek. No one with access 
  to these records has been able to visit the world to 
  verify the startling conclusions reached by the long-
  dead crank authors. 
  Shoa: The small world of Shoa is a darkly glittering 
  place (other than its flickering reflective patches the 
  albedo of Shoa is almost 0) that seems to almost 
  sparkle from orbit. The surface of the world is 
  composed largely of electro-active salts, which 
  interfered with the telemetry of several remote 
  landings during the Second Republic. Despite the 
  nine-day wonder caused by orbital satellite footage of 
  apparent movement in the midst of the surface salts 
  of this windless world the republic vetoed any 
  manned landing on this dangerous planet. 
  Moishe: 
  This 
  strange 
  little 
  world 
  orbits 
  perpendicular to the other worlds of the New Amhara 
  system, crossing the plane of the ecliptic only twice 
  during its 23 year orbit. Remarkably the plane of 
  Moishe’s own, highly eccentric orbit always seems to 
  be parallel to the position of the slowly orbiting 
  jumpgate at the edge of the solar system. Moishe was 
  noted during the initial Republican survey of the New 
  Amhara system for its remarkably high albedo, 
  around 95%. 
  Iyasu: The major gas giant of the solar system, 
  muddy, dun Iyasu was a centre of orbital industry 
  during the Republican era. During the Fall of the 
  Republic the majority of the orbital facilities 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  76 
  scattered around the planet’s 12 moons and thin 
  planetary ring were evacuated. The die-hards who 
  chose to remain in the Iyesu orbital stations when 
  their compatriots were relocated to New Amhara 
  doubtless died in the solar storms that wracked the 
  system not long after. Deserted orbital factories and 
  habitats continue to silently orbit the sullen planet. 
  Yohann: This large chlorine/ammonia gas giant is 
  similar to Sol system’s Neptune. During the 
  Republican period Yohann was the outermost planet 
  in the New Amhara system with a permanent human 
  presence. The single research facility in orbit around 
  Yohann was deserted and sealed even before the Fall 
  of the Republic. To the present a recorded message in 
  a now archaic form of Amharan Urthish warns 
  spaceships not to approach the orbital. 
  Yafeed: Yafeed is a rocky world covered in a thick 
  ammonia/methane ocean. As the New Amharans 
  were able to obtain all the resources they needed 
  nearer to their sun this outermost planet in the solar 
  system was little explored even prior to the Fall. 
  Landscape 
  The world of New Amhara was found to be almost 
  ideally suited to human habitation by its initial 
  Diaspora-era surveyors. The two major and one 
  minor continents and the extensive archipelagos of 
  large islands gave the world substantial settlement 
  room, while the deep oceans provided both a 
  moderating effect on the climate and almost limitless 
  reserves of both food and energy. The oxygen content 
  of the atmosphere, slightly higher than that of Earth, 
  ensured that even at the higher altitudes early 
  colonists noted that they felt refreshingly energised. 
  Despite this seemingly ideal environment native flora 
  and fauna never evolved beyond the complexity of 
  gymnosperms (ferns) or primitive pre-social insects. 
  The native wildlife offered little opposition to either 
  the planned release of tailored crops and genetically 
  immunised animals by human colonists, or to the 
  accidental introduction of migrant life forms during 
  the Republican era. 
  Such was the natural bounty of New Amhara that, 
  even at the height of the Republican fad for ’fixing’ 
  worlds with terraforming, the planetary senate 
  limited alterations on their world to some minor 
  weather control modifications. These were designed 
  largely to ameliorate the annual hurricane season 
  that plagued lands bordering the Tempestuous Sea 
  between the two major continental landmasses. In 
  the centuries since the Fall of the Republic 
  these weather control systems have fallen 
  into total disrepair, a change due in no small part to 
  the increased solar activity in the system after 
  4000AD. 
  Human settlement on New Amhara was first 
  established on the dry central plains of the New 
  Darfur continent, a landmass sprawling across 
  almost 110° of longitude in the substantial western 
  hemisphere tropics of the planet. Several ranges of 
  geologically active mountains less than 50 million 
  years old isolate the central plains of New Darfur 
  from the seasonal monsoon rains, which affect the 
  more verdant eastern and western reaches of the 
  continent. Settlement on New Darfur is concentrated 
  along the northern and western coasts, although a 
  number of human and Ukari communities live an 
  autarchic life in the mountainous south. 
  Settlement rapidly expanded to the continent of 
  Amharia (from whence – much the chagrin of 
  Darfurans - the world later took its general name) 
  east over the Tempestuous Sea. The continent of 
  Amharia is a large landmass lying in the eastern 
  hemisphere of the world and extending from South 
  Pole to 20° N latitude. This continent is more 
  ecologically diverse than its neighbour, with biomes 
  ranging from ice cap and tundra in the extreme 
  south, through sub-arctic and temperate uplands in 
  the middle latitudes, through to areas of desert and 
  rain forest coastward of the colossal Amharan Massif 
  range which divides the continent into two unequal 
  halves. To the east of the Amharan Massif lies the 
  vast, gently sloping highland plateau that forms the 
  heartlands of the Amharan state and the breadbasket 
  of the entire planet. 
  The minor continent lying to the east of Amharia is 
  relatively low-lying when compared to the cloud-
  piercing Mountains of the Stars on New Darfur, or to 
  the Amharan Massif. The broad plains and thick rain 
  forests of this island continent of New Calabar are 
  home to the majority of the planet’s Obun 
  communities, many of who have sought to maintain 
  the Bintaru religion of their ancestors. 
  Despite its high oxygen content and thick layer of 
  atmospheric ozone New Amhara has, since the Fall, 
  been subject to dangerously high levels of UV 
  radiation and to regular aurora storms. Natives living 
  in the equatorial regions do their best to shield their 
  eyes from UV radiation and have evolved surprisingly 
  sophisticated optical protection systems. Despite this 
  achievement superstition about the sun is rife, and 
  folk treatments such as veiling the eyes, herbal eye 
  drops or shading facial make-up sometimes do the 
  user more harm than good. The inhabitant 
  of the southern reaches of the Amharia 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  77 
  continent, although apparently more protected from 
  UV radiation by cloud cover, have a body of legend 
  holding that the regular lights in the sky are the 
  ghosts of ancestors that will curse those impious 
  enough to look at them with blindness. 
  People & Places 
  Amharia, Federated States of 
  The heartland of the Amharan Empire has 
  undergone substantial changes since the fall of that 
  once planet wide domain. In the wake of the Calabari 
  and Darfuran revolts in the 48th century the nobility 
  of the Amharian kollas, the coastal lowlands to the 
  east of the Amharan Highlands, broke away from 
  what they saw as the ineffectual rule of Ghonda. 
  Although the dejazmatches of this hot, dry and 
  relatively infertile region acknowledged the dominion 
  of the Holy Speaker, they insisted that the threat 
  posed by vengeful Calabari privateers meant that 
  they were unable to countenance or support the 
  adventuristic foreign policy of the chaotic 49th 
  century. Apparent acceptence of this defection by the 
  Holy Speaker resulted in a crisis of confidence in the 
  Amharian voina-dega (midland), long the bastion of 
  Ghonda’s strength. 
  Protesting their loyalty to the person of the Holy 
  Speaker, and their regret at the poor advice tendered 
  by the Senate in the late summer of 4870 the 
  dejazmatches 
  of 
  the 
  prosperous 
  voina-dega 
  summoned their feudal levies and marched on the 
  great city of Ghonda. Herds of llama, sheep, cattle 
  and brutes were stampeded or slaughtered, members 
  of the Ukari minority were beaten or killed, while 
  rich crops of vines, olives and grain were looted or 
  crushed underfoot by the tread of marching feet and 
  the tracks of great siege engines. Despite broadcast 
  assurances that the great magnates marched only to 
  free the Holy Speaker from the influence of wicked 
  advisors the fearful citizens of Ghonda rioted, 
  burning part of the ancient University in their panic. 
  As chaotic mobs swept the city the iron noose around 
  the neck of Speaker Nesta I slowly and gradually 
  tightened all through that hot, fateful summer.  
  As the rebel armies drew up before the walls of 
  Ghonda and the Senatorial Guard readied themselves 
  to fire on their own countrymen dreadful news came 
  to the ears of the besieged loyalists. The Holy 
  Speaker, Favoured of the Pancreator and fount of all 
  legal and moral authority in Amharia, had been 
  captured by the rebels while trying to flee his 
  own capital. For several days wild rumours circulated 
  that the Chamber of Eyes (the Amharian secret 
  police) had betrayed the Speaker into the hands of 
  the rebels. As word of the betrayal spread known or 
  suspected informants were lynched, and the great 
  archives of the secret police were scattered and 
  burned 
  A week after the siege had begun, the Holy Speaker 
  reappeared at the head of a rebel deputation. Closely 
  escorted by the rebel dejazmatches and their 
  substantial honour guard, this heir to centuries of 
  imperial rule re-entered his city and was escorted to 
  the Grand Palace of Tewedros the Glorious, a prisoner 
  in all but name. Tabot of Destiny in hand, the Holy 
  Speaker proclaimed the end of the great and glorious 
  Amharian Empire. Instead of a unitary empire 
  Amharia would be ruled as a federated kingdom, an 
  alliance of states united in amity by their common 
  Universalist heritage. With the assistance of his loyal 
  and honoured dejazmatches the Holy Speaker 
  promised to oversee personally the first open 
  elections to the Senate for several centuries. The 
  Speaker’s words would not have rung so hollow had 
  the spears of the rebel armies not been so clearly in 
  evidence at both the audience and during the later 
  electoral meetings. 
  Appeased by the recognition of their autonomy the 
  dejazmatches of the kollas returned to the Amharian 
  fold. Their renewed tribute of cottons, sweetmeats, 
  feathered cloaks and crystal bowls were within a 
  generation supplemented by the slaves, treasure and 
  technology their great fleets of sea-raiders looted 
  from the Calabari ports of Loango and Klova. It was 
  partially this sudden influx of unearned wealth that 
  paid for renewed Amharian adventurism against 
  Zalkhi in the early 50th century. Despite its initial 
  fury, and the use of ancient weapons stored unused 
  in the vaults of Ghonda for centuries, the assault on 
  New Darfur was ultimately an unsustainable effort. 
  Despite the apparent pomp and grandeur of the 
  enterprise it was no more than the last gasp of a 
  dying imperial revival movement, headed by a Holy 
  Speaker desperate to recover the standing and 
  authority lost by his father. 
  The political compromise established in 4870 
  endures unto the present. The Holy Speaker is 
  honoured as the Conquering Lion of Zebulon and 
  Defender of the Republic, but his true power extends 
  only so far as the great factions of the Planetary 
  Senate permit. Three major factions endure in the 
  constant political flux that reflects in microcosm the 
  ever-shifting balance of power in Amharia. The 
  Custodians are a faction of spoilers who use 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  78 
  filibuster 
  and 
  veto 
  to 
  ensure 
  the 
  continued 
  dominance of great voina-dega magnates. The 
  Revivalists draw their power from the minor gentry 
  of Amharia and seek to restore the Holy Speaker to 
  his lost position of pre-eminence. The Dispersalists, 
  although originally the mouthpiece of the overseas 
  Amharians, are now dominated by what many 
  dismiss as the ‘new money’ of Edul and the eastern 
  kollas. Around these cliques orbit a multitude of 
  clients, mavericks and political bottom feeders who 
  never manage to control their opportunism long 
  enough to bring their numerical majority into play. 
  The customary fifth of all crops and minerals 
  harvested in Amharia are still sent to Ghonda for the 
  support of the Senate, the Church and the Academy 
  of Substitute Technologies, but it is the Amharian 
  nobility who assess their own harvests. It is the 
  nobility who collate and count the ballots cast in the 
  regular senatorial elections, ballots cast in the main 
  by their own tenants and dependents. Combined with 
  the established custom that no Aga of Amharian 
  blood, although legally required to provide military 
  service to the state at need, be required to pay taxes 
  the dejazmatches have ensured that the Holy Speaker 
  remains an honoured symbol of the nation, but one 
  lacking the power to become a threat to their own 
  prosperity. 
  Ghonda-I-Aga, Jewel of Amharia 
  For centuries the seat of the Planetary Senate and of 
  the Holy Speaker the marble colonnades and golden 
  roofs of Ghonda are fabled in song and story across 
  New Amhara. Although situated in the tropics the 
  high elevation (9,000ft above sea level) and 
  mountainous environs of Ghonda give it a balmy, 
  rather than a stifling, climate. The air, although 
  thinner than the lowlands of the Amharian kollas, is 
  rich with the scent of flowers and the song of both 
  birds and humans. 
  The city of Ghonda is only home to about half of the 
  six million people than its gleaming habitation spires 
  were originally intended to house, yet there is still a 
  daily flow of food into the city from the fertile 
  Ghonda Valley, and rich tribute from the lands 
  beyond its ringing mountain walls. Despite the great 
  antiquity and craftsmanship of the architecture it 
  rapidly becomes clear to the alert observer that 
  Ghonda in 5000AD is not all that it once was. Many 
  of the great buildings of state, erected from 
  perdurable terracite and faced with exotic luminite 
  and alien refractor crystal, have cracked and 
  crumbling facades. The advanced urban 
  monorail system created during the great days of the 
  Republic is now traversed by nothing more advanced 
  than primitive steam engines. The airport has been 
  closed for several years since the destruction of the 
  main runways and traffic control systems by a 
  mysterious meteor shower the long moribund orbital 
  defence lasers were unable to defend against. 
  Potholed roads and derelict, half-deserted buildings 
  are found in the poorer parts of the city, and 
  Ghonda’s once model energy supply and sanitation 
  system now operate sporadically at best. 
  Although the gradual decay of the city is apparent 
  to outsiders the Agas of Ghonda remain inordinately 
  proud, some might say arrogant, of their place at the 
  heart of Amharian history. What outsiders see as 
  decomposition, the Ghondari regard as a venerable 
  patina of antiquity. Where ignorant foreigners might 
  see improvised ‘make-do-and-mend’ adaptation, the 
  silk-swathed inhabitants of Ghonda see evidence of 
  their own unmatched adaptability. It is a common 
  jibe throughout the Amharian voina-dega that a 
  Ghondari will happily brag about his own cleverness 
  and the deeds of his glorious ancestry right up until 
  the point he is killed by a chunk of falling masonry. 
  Local pride aside, it is a sad and unavoidable truth 
  that, despite the ingenious low-tech modifications 
  pioneered at the Saint Kismiw campus of the famous 
  Academy of Substitute Technologies, the people of 
  Ghonda live in the faded ruins of their past. The 
  ancient streetlights of Ghonda, their everlights long 
  since commandeered for other purposes, now flare 
  with gas fires or tar-soaked straw. The daily 
  transcription of ancient and largely useless computer 
  records recovered from provinces of an empire long 
  since lost occupy the daily labour of hundreds of 
  scribes and illuminators, and of thousands of tanners 
  and paper-makers. Only a room away from the 
  hunched and silent labour of the scriveners’ ancient 
  hardcopy may be left to moulder away under leaking 
  and unrepaired roofs.  
  More than anywhere else, it is in the Senatorial 
  Palace that the Ghondari reverence for the ancient 
  past finds expression. Every artefact of the pre-
  Blinding days preserved in the palace, even the most 
  mundane of things, is treated with the reverence due 
  a saint’s relic. Proud nobles of Amharia plot and 
  scheme for the honour of being allowed to carry the 
  Holy Speaker’s ancient and baroquely decorated 
  duelling spear, or of carrying the synthsilk cushion 
  on which is placed the golden orb representing his 
  universal rule. The humble wooden pipe of Speaker 
  Thanis the Wise is kept under glass and guarded 
  around the clock. When used at all the 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  79 
  millennium-old ceramic drinking vessel once owned 
  by Admiral Mehmet Keddah the Terrible, decorated 
  with the fading Urthish epitaph of “World’s Best 
  Dad”, is handled with silken gloves and solemn 
  gravity. Even the ancient plastic beakers used by the 
  Holy Speaker’s children are chased with silver and 
  costly enamel. 
  Although he is at all times surrounded by 
  stupendous wealth and an entourage of hundreds it 
  is a tragic irony that the writ of the Holy Speaker 
  runs no further than the reach of his Senatorial 
  Guard. When not on duty in the palace or curbing the 
  crimes of neighbourhood gangs, this picked body of 
  men, clad in elaborately decorated heirloom armours 
  passed down from the Republican past, spend their 
  time in fruitless duels with the household troops of 
  the great Amharian nobles. The Holy Speaker is 
  never bothered by word of the brawling beyond his 
  golden gates. Nothing unseemly must be allowed to 
  disturb the tranquil deliberations of the Father of the 
  People. With the Holy Speaker thus isolated the legal 
  decisions of the wise deftaras (judges) of the 
  Amharan Church are openly flouted by rich and poor 
  alike. 
  Despite the inertia in its halls and the chaos in its 
  streets 
  all 
  the 
  inhabitants 
  of 
  Ghonda 
  pride 
  themselves on their unwavering loyalty to the Holy 
  Speaker. Claiming a dynastic line unbroken for 
  centuries, and revered as the deputy of the 
  Pancreator in the world by millions of devout 
  Amharan Orthodox, the Holy Speaker is honoured in 
  an almost pharaonic manner. Although the religious 
  hierarchy 
  boast 
  that 
  Amharian 
  Orthodoxy 
  is 
  unchanged in liturgy or ritual since the long-lost 
  days of the Republic, the manner in which the person 
  of the Holy Speaker is associated the Prophet 
  Zebulon in public prayers tends to conflate the two in 
  the minds of the laity. An Urthish Orthodox observer 
  would deem the Amharian rite scrupulously Orthodox 
  in manner of ritual practise, but obnoxiously 
  heterodox, if not blasphemous, in intent. 
  The annual midsummer procession from the 
  Senatorial Palace to the great Temple of the Golden 
  Testament is considered one of the high points of the 
  Ghondari social and liturgical calendar. It is on this 
  one occasion that the Speaker, clad in raiment of 
  gold, preceded by chanting priests and servants 
  scattering golden leu (the coin of the realm), 
  perfumed by half a hundred fuming censers and 
  shaded by silken canopies, parades through the city 
  in a self-powered levitating throne. The purpose of 
  this procession is to display to the cheering, flower-
  throwing people both the Speaker himself 
  and the famous Tabot of Destiny, symbol of 
  Amharia’s unbroken dominion.  
  On arriving at the Temple of the Golden Testament 
  the Speaker hands the Tabot to the senior deftara of 
  Amharia, who places it inside a casket of brassbound 
  acacia wood. Two Agas, chosen by random lot from 
  the people of Ghonda, then divest the Speaker of his 
  golden robes. Wearing no more than a simple cotton 
  under-robe, the Speaker kneels before the statue of 
  the first Speaker of New Amhara in Victory Square. 
  After silent prayer the Speaker, eyes covered by an 
  opaque cloth, then knee-walks away from the statue, 
  up the 95 steps of the Sacred Ascent and in through 
  the decorated doors of the Temple, pausing a dozen 
  times in his course to make additional prayers. 
  Once within the Temple, crowded since sunrise by 
  the elite of Amharian society, the Speaker crawls the 
  length of the nave to the high altar, where the 
  waiting Abou-Salama holds aloft the Tabot of 
  Destiny. The Speaker then recites his lineage, 
  beginning with the first speaker of the Planetary 
  Senate and proceeding without fail to his own father, 
  before repeating and affirming the promises made 
  during his own coronation. Still blindfolded the 
  Speaker then receives the Tabot from the hands of 
  the Abou-Salama while a favoured dejazmatch unties 
  his blindfold. Amharian legend has it that this ritual 
  has remained unchanged since the days of the Great 
  Blinding and that a calamity, exceeding even the 
  travails of that terrible time, will fall upon the people 
  of Amharia should ever their master fail to renew his 
  oath to people and Pancreator. 
  Although none will admit it in recent months a 
  terrible rumour has swept the mansions and slums of 
  Ghonda. Despite all the security in which it is held 
  the Tabot of Destiny has disappeared from its 
  canopied pedestal in the great audience hall of the 
  Senatorial Palace. People whisper that such a threat 
  to the timeless traditions of Amharia has not been 
  heard of since the days of the Calabari Revolt. Many 
  wonder what this ill omen might mean for the future 
  stability of the Senate and the person of the Holy 
  Speaker. 
  Edul-I-Aga  
  If Ghonda is emblematic of the lost glories of 
  Amharia’s imperial past then the coastal city of Edul-
  I-Aga is the very archetype of the emerging kolla 
  (lowland) states. Situated on the equatorial west coat 
  of Amharia hot and humid Edul-I-Aga is the 
  crossroads of the eastern Mare Tempustum. 
  Seaborne trade flows into this vibrant and 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  80 
  cosmopolitan city from the Vogandi jungle, the 
  overseas Hebesh nations, and the Manshi Reaches. 
  Here it meets and mixes with the wealth of the fertile 
  Amharian uplands which flow down to the great 
  entrepot along the course of the wide, slow-flowing 
  Akobo River. On the bustling dock front tall and 
  stately Agas of Ghonda jostle for position with fast-
  talking Gannok craftsmen from Jhanbar, sullen 
  Vogand 
  tribesmen, 
  painted 
  Khasaleite 
  pirate 
  chieftains, clear-eyed Zalkhite philosophers, silent 
  Obun of the Manshi Reaches, and even a few rare 
  masked pilgrims of mysterious Mokad-nar. 
   Unlike centuried Ghonda, or the various regional 
  centres of the voina-dega that seek to emulate it, 
  Edul is regarded by many Amharians as something of 
  a half-breed and philistine city, a place where the leu 
  is honoured above personal honour, kin-bonds, or the 
  great achievements of the past. Although prejudiced, 
  in many respects this assessment is accurate. Given 
  their mercantile heritage, and the fact that their city 
  has been sacked and burnt by raiders twice in the 
  last century, the Edulians like to envisage themselves 
  as the pragmatists of Amharia. Edulians dismiss 
  voina-dega Amharians as nothing more than bitter 
  and vicious old turtles that bite any who impinge on 
  their nests and who are eventually destined to 
  collapse under their weight of their own shells, while 
  likening themselves to the migratory gulls that fly 
  back and forth across the Tempestuous Sea, seeking 
  food and mates wherever they will. 
  Of course, despite the mercantile prosperity the 
  city’s location and low taxes bring, all is not well in 
  fair Edul-I-Aga. During the late summer months, 
  after the weeklong rains of the sweltering high 
  summer have finally abated, the bright banners on 
  the roofs of the maxicrete-walled merchant houses 
  may begin to wave fitfully back and forth. At this 
  time the ever-present gulls, pelicans and mantabirds 
  will desert the city, and the heavens will begin to 
  lower. This is Edul’s infamous storm season, when 
  all wise men desert the city, returning to their homes 
  only 
  when 
  the 
  dreadful 
  hurricanes 
  of 
  the 
  Tempestuous Sea have abated. The storm season 
  sees a remarkable change come over Edulians. The 
  kin-bonds that they affect to despise during normal 
  times come to the fore in a manner rarely seen since 
  the days of the Blinding. People fleeing the city will 
  find the homes of locals they have no prior call on 
  thrown open to them as if they were old friends. 
  Total strangers will share their last crusts of bread. 
  For a month or more Edulians become one extended 
  family, knowing the good they do another during the 
  hardships this year will inevitably be repaid the next.  
  The traditional end of the hurricane season, the 
  festival of Mortos Diablos, is a major festival in Edul. 
  The last day of October (the Edulian church retains 
  the archaic Republican calendar long since discarded 
  by more purely Amharian organisations) often sees 
  an influx of subdued and bedraggled natives 
  returning to survey the damage nature has wreaked 
  on their homes. With such a potent reminder of 
  human fallibility and the transience of things the 
  festival typically starts out as a sombre rite of 
  mourning for the dead, a memorial for all that has 
  been lost. The bells of the great Saint Marcius 
  Neptuno Cathedral ring the tocsin over a silent city 
  year after year. Inevitably however the irrepressible 
  optimism and opportunism of the Edulians lowers 
  the tone, and the solemn ritual of recovering the 
  dead and disposing of the wreckage rapidly turns 
  into a drunken, riotous revel as the Edulians loot the 
  ruins of their own wrecked lives. 
  Summer and autumn in Edul hold the ever-present 
  threat of piratical raids, summer pestilence or 
  destruction by storm, so the winter and spring are 
  the seasons at which the city is seen at its best. 
  Although its equatorial location means that the 
  daytime temperature is rarely less than 30°c even in 
  the winter months, the otherwise lackadaisical 
  Edulian church, the only corporate body to take 
  responsibility for the city as a whole, lays on great 
  religious festivities for the inhabitants and visitors 
  during the summer. Even the haughtiest nobility of 
  the Amharian Massif deign to visit Edul during the 
  festivities of Cosmos Carnival. During this week of 
  celebration choral and solo recitations in the oft-
  repaired Great Opera (a refurbished Republican 
  sports arena towering over the squat, thick-walled 
  houses of the New Town which have grown up 
  around it) recount the great legends of the Universal 
  Church, while storytellers in the cantinas of the 
  waterfront Old Town hypnotise native and visitor 
  alike with dark tales of the Great Blinding, the 
  Calabari Wars, the Time of Pirates, and infamous 
  storm seasons of the past. 
  Despite the friendly ‘easy come, easy go’ air that 
  Edulians affect, visitors are warned to be constantly 
  on their guard. As with any port city Edul attracts its 
  share of confidence tricksters, cutpurses and press 
  gangers, not to mention smugglers, fugitives and 
  hired thugs. Although frowned upon severely by the 
  church an active slave and mercenary market can be 
  found operating on the extensive waterfront. The 
  centre of these illicit trades are the built-over, rusting 
  hulks of the ancient loading cranes that 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  81 
  hunch vulture-like over the silted-up Republican port 
  at the mouth of the Akobo. Although the church may 
  occasionally 
  preach 
  against 
  the 
  activities 
  of 
  Akoboport press gangers, or deputize some unlucky 
  priest to ransom a captured brother from Zuranist or 
  pagan slavers, any more forceful move against what 
  the deftara have repeatedly denounced as “…that 
  festering pockmark on the fair face of our city.” is 
  met with vigorous force. 
  In recent years long-time habitués of the city have 
  begun to notice a change. Although too gradual for 
  the residents themselves to notice, it seems to many 
  visitors that the legendary, freewheeling hospitality 
  of Edul has taken on a strained air in recent years. 
  Some attribute this to nothing more than the rising 
  political and mercantile tensions among the states of 
  the Mare Temptestum. Others, more astute or more 
  paranoid, wonder about the remarkable number of 
  tall, spear-wielding ‘personal bodyguards’ hired by 
  certain trading houses with known interests in the 
  voina-dega… 
  Plains of Ravenous Dust 
  Far to the south of the Amharian voina-dega, in the 
  altitude-chilled southwest of Amharia, lies an ill-
  reputed locale shunned by all but the greediest and 
  most reckless. Stories tell of a great swathe of land 
  below the 60th parallel where the ground itself, 
  although honeycombed by ancient mine workings 
  loaded with wealth beyond the dreams of a 
  dejazmatch, devours the flesh of those who dare to 
  unearth its treasures. Amharian folklore is rich in 
  stories of men who journeyed to the south seeking 
  wealth who, if they returned at all, regained their 
  homelands sickly and withered before their time. The 
  backwards and insular peoples of the southern 
  highlands supposedly know the location of this dread 
  land, and also the secrets of entering it and returning 
  alive with wealth fit for the Speaker himself. 
  Stories of the fearsome Plains of Ravenous Dust are, 
  by and large, true even in their most grotesque 
  manifestations. The dark legends surrounding the 
  Plains are told to this day in the secret lodges of the 
  tribes still resident in the southern dega (highlands). 
  Although hedged about with superstitious legends 
  about arrogant ancestors conjuring uncontrollable 
  devils these stories retain the essence of truth. The 
  Plains of Ravenous Dust have their origin in the 
  economic dislocations that darkened the last century 
  of the Second Republic. By 3900 it was clear to even 
  the dullest mind that, as efficient as they were, New 
  Amhara’s mining industries were slowly 
  losing their competitive edge. Cheap programmable 
  nanotechnology devised by the core worlds of the 
  Republic was slowly ruining the export industries 
  upon which scores of periphery worlds depended.  
  The owners of Makuria Extractive Solutions, an 
  Amharan mining combine, managed to obtain 
  government backing for a bid to secure the services 
  of 
  some 
  nanotechnological 
  engineers. 
  Perhaps 
  inevitably those engineers willing to make the trip 
  away from the constant intellectual ferment of the 
  great nanotech revolution of the core worlds were not 
  of the highest calibre. Although keen and dedicated 
  to their work the combination of limited experience, 
  intellectual arrogance, and pressure to comply with 
  deadlines led to hurried testing and poor internal 
  communication 
  in 
  the 
  staff 
  of 
  MES’s 
  “New 
  Technology Mining Initiative”. Limited field tests 
  were a success and, feeling the pressure from both 
  creditors and competitors, MES ordered that the 
  NTMI was to go live on their holdings in southern 
  Amharia immediately. 
  It was not until after the specialist miner nanosites 
  had been manufactured, programmed and set 
  running that those involved realised just how 
  catastrophically they had erred. The miner nanosites 
  functioned as planned, seeking out, extracting and 
  collecting various minerals for collection and further 
  reprocessing. Within a few weeks bizarre quasi-
  organic stalagmites of malachite, chromium ores and 
  even gold dotted the surface around the mine 
  workings. Unfortunately the support nanosites, 
  designed to extract energy and raw materials for 
  replacement nanosites for those that might be 
  destroyed or run out of power during mining, worked 
  entirely too well. An accumulation of minute errors 
  and seemingly insignificant oversights in the coding 
  of their materials recognition software meant that 
  the support nanosites saw living things, including 
  humans, as a perfect source of organic compounds, 
  calcium and water. 
  Within days of the nanosites’ release the first 
  reports of nanosite infestation were coming in from 
  local settlements. MES medical teams watched in 
  horror as overenthusiastic nanosites rendered the 
  infected down for raw materials in a slow horror of 
  desiccation and decomposition. MES attempted to 
  control news of the accident but reports began to 
  come in of similar infestations over an ever-wider 
  area. Within less than a month of the initial outbreak 
  an area of several thousand square miles around the 
  release site was devoid of all human life. All who had 
  not fled had been transformed into raw material for 
  the tiny, insatiable mining robots. In panic at 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  82 
  the public outcry against the disaster the Planetary 
  Senate – in fear of their own careers and lives – 
  prosecuted the executives of MES, arrested the NTMI 
  engineers as terrorists, cordoned off the affected 
  areas, and passed laws against “…any and all use of 
  untested nanotechnology on the planet of New 
  Amhara”. 
  The quarantine of the now unusable MES lands was 
  maintained for the next two centuries. Even after the 
  Fall of the Second Republic the Planetary Senate 
  funded regular patrols and scientific testing of the 
  affected area. During the Fall people fleeing urban 
  unrest gravitated to the southern degas, attracted by 
  rumours of a land where gold grew from the ground. 
  They were either turned back by patrols, or, where 
  too numerous or determined to cow, left to find their 
  own doom. It was not until the almost total collapse 
  of Amharan society during the Blinding early in the 
  42nd century that this deathwatch over an afflicted 
  and barren land was discontinued. 
  During the following centuries the Plains of 
  Ravenous Dust became the stuff of folklore in the 
  Amharian Empire. The southern degas became a 
  refuge of last resort for those Amharians too 
  desperate, hunted or greedy to find satisfaction or 
  sanctuary 
  within 
  the 
  Empire. 
  This 
  shifting 
  population eked out a marginal existence at the very 
  edges of the dusty, wind-blown Plains, evolving an 
  elaborate superstitious system of purgative hygiene 
  and cleanliness taboos to ensure their survival and 
  that of their cankered crops and livestock. Over time 
  they learnt the complex seasonal patterns of the 
  plains, those times at which it was safe to scavenge, 
  and those terrible months when the very dust would 
  attempt to devour fortune hunters. Periodically the 
  Agas of Amharia would travel south, bringing goods, 
  food and the all-important Elixir of Clear Vision in 
  exchange 
  for 
  the 
  bizarre, 
  twisted 
  mineral 
  agglomerations the wretches of the devouring lands 
  scrounged. 
  Even in the present the inhabitants of the Plains of 
  Devouring Dust retain their own bizarre subculture. 
  Although ostensibly a part of the Holy Speaker’s 
  realms, they owe fealty to no dejazmatch. Tales are 
  still told of the strange curse that ate away the bones 
  of the last lord of the voina-dega who attempted to 
  force the people sneeringly named “dustlanders” into 
  fealty. At present the natives of this land are tied to 
  the mainstream of Amharian culture by little more 
  then their lip service obedience of the Amharan 
  Orthodox Church. Appointment to the position of 
  Bishop of Dust is considered a sign that one has 
  displeased the Abou-Salama greatly. 
  Manshi Reaches 
  The Manshi Reaches are large coastal plains in the 
  temperate 
  and 
  subtropical 
  southwest 
  of 
  the 
  Amharian continent. Much like the kolla lands of 
  eastern Amharia in their climate the Reaches differ in 
  their 
  inhabitants. 
  These 
  isolated 
  and 
  largely 
  overlooked lands have long the home of a culture of 
  semi-nomadic Obun herdsmen and hunters who call 
  themselves the Dhiya’Manshi (trans: “spouses/kin of 
  Manshi” – an ancestor figure of their culture). In 
  contrast to the Obun of the Phoenix Empire the 
  Dhiya’Manshi 
  are 
  semi-nomadic 
  pastoralists 
  descended from a sect of Bintaru worshippers who 
  emigrated to New Amhara early in the Republican 
  days. These followers of the native Obun religion saw 
  New Amhara as the perfect place to explore their 
  philosophy of union with the universal kelanti (the 
  Obun metaphysics of universal correspondences) 
  through a ‘natural’ existence.  
  Isolated from the mainstream of Republican culture 
  or New Amharan social upheaval by culture, 
  philosophy and sheer physical distance, this quietist 
  sect passed through the Fall, the solar storms of the 
  42nd century, and the subsequent events of the 
  Blinding with little change to their lives. Although 
  the Dhiya’Manshi did their best to help the few 
  humans who lived among them the harsh necessities 
  of nomadic life meant that most humans of the 
  plains died during the dreadful days of the 42nd 
  century. It was not until the Amharian Empire 
  extended its reach across New Amhara that the Obun 
  of the Manshi Reaches were forced to pay attention 
  to something other than the eternal recurrence of 
  nature’s cycles. 
  The 44th century saw the Manshi Reaches become a 
  fashionable exotic locale among Amharian nobles 
  replete with unearned wealth and hungry for new 
  experiences. Spurred by the tales of an idyllic 
  ‘natural’ life on the plains spread by Edulian 
  merchants and tale spinners, the more avant garde 
  among the Amharian hierarchy took to the idea of 
  extended holidays on the plains. Over the decades 
  places like Port Venlosch, Three Gazelle Lick, and 
  Flickersky Lodge on the banks of southerly Lake 
  Kyoga became first fashionable, and later traditional, 
  hunting resorts for the Amharian ruling class. 
  Although the Obun at first welcomed these periodic 
  visits, over time the arrogance and ecologically 
  inharmonious lifestyles of the human interlopers led 
  to friction between the two cultures.  
  In 4721 the resentment of the Dhiya’Manshi, which 
  had festered for decades at the decimation 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  83 
  of their cattle and gazelle herds by Amharian safari 
  hunters, finally exploded in violence. The catalytic 
  event was the rumoured rape of yet another Obun 
  servant girl by drunken Amharian nobles. An act so 
  heinous was the last straw for a generation of 
  embittered Obun hunters, who used their unmatched 
  knowledge of the plains to harry the Amharian 
  cuckoo in their nest. Unbeknownst to the Amharian 
  nobles, a council of tribes planned a series of co-
  ordinated assaults on the palatial and woefully 
  underprotected hunting lodges scattered across the 
  plains. Guards were drugged, murdered or compelled 
  to rebellion by Obun psychic powers, and in one 
  night of blood and madness, decades of insult and 
  outrage to the Dhiya’Manshi were repaid. 
  Amharian retribution for the Manshi Massacres was 
  swift and merciless. Within weeks of the massacres 
  squads of Amharian Agas swept across the plains in 
  flitters and aeroskiffs, seeking out and butchering 
  the widely scattered Obun. Although they fought a 
  prolonged guerrilla war the Dhiya’Manshi sustained 
  horrific losses, slowly being forced from the wide 
  spaces of the plains. Driven by the goad of the 
  Amharian legions the decimated Dhiya-Manshi 
  retreated into the rugged foothills of the Amharan 
  Massif and the inhospitable tundra of the sub-arctic 
  south. Thousands died on these treks, harried as they 
  were by Amharian Agas based out of the rebuilt and 
  fortified hunting lodges of the plains. Thousands 
  more died of hunger and exposure during the first 
  harsh winters in their unwelcoming new homelands. 
  For over half a century the exiled Dhiya’Manshi 
  raided into lands that were once theirs by right. 
  Reluctant levies of Amharian soldiery chased after 
  murderous shadows. No quarter was given or 
  expected in this ongoing war of hate and revenge. 
  What saved the scattered Obun from final extinction 
  was ultimately not their own strength, but the 
  unforeseen rebellion of the conquered peoples of New 
  Amhara against their despotic overlords in the late 
  48th century. As the Planetary Senate withdrew ever 
  more troops from the Manshi Plains the remaining 
  garrisons first curtailed their punitive raids, then 
  withdrew entirely into the defence of their supply 
  lines. In the early 50th century a hardened and 
  embittered minority of Dhiya’Manshi Obun returned 
  to their ancestral lands, vowing never to be driven 
  from them again.  
  Circumstances over the next century and more 
  favoured the hard-pressed Obun of the plains. 
  Amharia’s aeroskiff fleets were largely destroyed in 
  the fighting between the human nations, and only a 
  bloody-minded insistence on the cultural 
  importance of the traditional safaris prevented the 
  Amharians from withdrawing from the hostile plains 
  entirely. Into the present wary sentries in isolated 
  observation 
  posts 
  scattered 
  around 
  the 
  few 
  remaining lodges watch the horizon for the dust 
  clouds foretelling the approach of the great beast 
  herds and their black-eyed, murderous masters. Even 
  the coastal city of Port Venlosch is not entirely safe.  
  Port Venlosch 
  Still nominally ruled by a dejazmatch of noble 
  ancestry once-wealthy Port Venlosch is little more 
  than a shadow of its ancient self. Where once pillared 
  arcades and elegant mansions lay scattered around 
  Venlosch Bay little more than rubble and slums now 
  remain. Decades of guerrilla fighting have driven 
  away all but the most adventurous devotees of the 
  safari and tourist trades, leaving the city as little 
  more than a garrison clinging desperately to the end 
  of a long sea-borne supply line. The casinos are 
  bankrupt, the cantinas filthy, and the theatres and 
  magic lantern palaces survive only by catering to the 
  lowest common denominator. Even the formerly 
  prosperous meat-processing industry, which once 
  dominated the northern half of the Manshi Plains, 
  has suffered greatly from prolonged Dhiya’Manshi 
  raiding. Whereas Port Venlosch was once the 
  middleman of the Manshi Plains traders from Edul 
  and Jhanbar now trade with the Dhiya’Manshi 
  directly in secluded coves far from the acquisitive 
  customs officers of the city. 
  The people of Port Venlosch are, by and large, as 
  poor and ugly as their city. Only a small percentage 
  of the populace can claim the coveted status of 
  Amharian Aga, and even the poorest Venloschi Aga 
  will wear his elaborately embroidered crimson gika-
  silk Voter’s Sash with as much pride as if he were the 
  Holy Speaker himself. The remainder of the populace 
  are heavily taxed and conscripted by an oligarchic 
  government determined to wring as much from the 
  impoverished city as possible. Almost invariably 
  angry and violently bitter against their Obun 
  neighbours, the typical Venloschan takes a malicious 
  glee in the suffering of any captives brought back to 
  their city by punitive raids into the interior.  
  The lot of captured Obun in Port Venlosch is not a 
  happy one. Although some might be sold to 
  Khasaleite or Edulian slave traders, most are fated to 
  end their lives in a welter of blood and pain at the 
  Grand Venlosch Casino. Reputedly founded during 
  the long-lost days of the Second Republic, the 
  formerly gloriously appointed and world-
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  84 
  famous casino now hosts squalid pit fights between 
  local thugs and captured Dhiya’Manshi tribesmen. 
  Where once the laughter and lamentation of the 
  Amharian (and even off-world) elites at play lifted to 
  the ancient trompe l’oeil ceilings now echo the 
  screams of the wounded and the bawling of barkers, 
  odds makers and bloodthirsty spectators. Even the 
  highest in Venloschi society frequent this abominable 
  circus of blood, where, at the end of each night’s 
  fighting, members of the audience who have bid for 
  the privilege beat to death any Obun who have 
  survived the rigged fights. 
  The Amharian Church is a willing participant in the 
  worst atrocities perpetrated in the city. It is the 
  Episcopal Urban Office of the bishop of Port Venlosch 
  that is responsible for regulation of the local slave 
  trade. Both captive Obun and human paupers are 
  regularly sold into bonded servitude overseas by an 
  institution which, although supposedly the “ethical 
  and moral lodestone of the citizens”, is also the 
  major backer of the gladiatorial fights and the largest 
  single landlord of slum property in the city. The 
  Abou-Salama regularly writes to the Venloschi 
  church decrying the harm done to “the moral fibre 
  and spiritual well-being of the populace” by the 
  bloody ritual fights held in the Grand Casino, but the 
  jingling sacks of leu sent to Ghonda in tithe by the 
  otherwise impoverished city serve to drown out these 
  heartfelt admonitions. 
  The Zommate of Zalkhi 
  The Zommate (Holy Kingdom) of Zalkhi is a realm 
  very different from its’ former colonial master 
  Amharia. Where as the heart of Amharian strength 
  lays in their unassailable mountainous highlands, 
  the strength of Zalkhi lays in the wide expanses of 
  the plains of New Darfur. While the Amharians pride 
  themselves on their allegiance to the Universal 
  Church of the Celestial Sun the Zalkhites have long 
  maintained their own pre-Reflective traditions. And, 
  while the Holy Speaker of Amharia presides over the 
  slow degeneration of the kingdom bequeathed by his 
  ancestors, the Zomma of Zalkhi appears to lead his 
  people from triumph to triumph. Of course, the truth 
  of things in Zalkhi is more complex and nuanced 
  than the twin national stereotypes of foaming 
  Zuranist zealots and dreamy-eyed astrologers. 
  The independent Zommate is a relatively recent 
  innovation. Although the Zalkhites (rightfully) claim 
  to be the original inhabitants of New Amhara, which 
  they still name Shiyagner (Home) among themselves, 
  they have long been a persecuted race. 
  During the centuries of the Second Republic the 
  Zuranist tribes formed an oppressed and second-
  class citizenry. The anti-immigrant measures passed 
  by their pre-Republican governing council were 
  repealed and a countervailing – and equally unjust – 
  system of anti-Zuranist policies was instituted. 
  Decades of legislation by the Universalist-dominated 
  Planetary Senate gradually eroded the cultural 
  traditions 
  of 
  New 
  Darfur. 
  Landholding 
  laws, 
  traditions 
  of 
  inheritance, 
  inter-tribal 
  trade 
  agreements, the practise of Zuranist communal 
  marriage, and even the use of the traditional Zalkhite 
  language, were all called into question. In the name 
  of ‘progress’ all these traditions were replaced with 
  cultural and legal structures that favoured the 
  Universalist social mores of the new Amharian ruling 
  class. These laws were used time and again to evict 
  longstanding 
  Zalkhite 
  pamintean 
  (customary 
  freeholders) from both the fertile coastal areas of 
  New Darfur, and from the mineral-rich uplands of the 
  continent-spanning Mountains of the Stars. 
  The departure of the Republican Fleet from 
  Amharan space in 4002AD brought no relief to the 
  Zalkhites. For another century and more they were 
  forced to labour in the factories and fields of 
  absentee molocki (a word which originally meant 
  ‘landlord’, but later came to be an epithet for any 
  foreigner). Even the chaos of the Great Blinding 
  brought no relief to the largely Zuranist populace of 
  New Darfur. Despite the exhortations of their Angelos 
  (civic leaders) the Zalkhites fell prey to the universal 
  panicked chaos of those dreadful days. Always 
  family-oriented, 
  the 
  wider 
  Zalkhite 
  society 
  fragmented almost entirely; anyone beyond the 
  family group became a target for fearful, desperate 
  theft. Hundreds of Zalkhite caravans were raided and 
  burned by those tribes lucky enough to hire or 
  capture sighted – usually non-human – guides. This 
  time of fear lasted more than a generation and, along 
  with the return of the molocki, forms the basis for a 
  great cycle of Zalkhite swatur (legendary tales, often 
  macabre in tone and cautionary in nature). 
  In the wake of the Great Blinding it was the 
  Amharian monopoly on the all-important Elixir of 
  Clear Vision, rather than any code of law, which lay 
  at the heart of the subjugation of Zalkhi. The 
  sedentary gadji (peasant) tribes of the coast were 
  compelled to endure a lip-service conversion to 
  Amharan Orthodoxy and a return to the bondage 
  endured by their ancestors in return for the Elixir. 
  The Zuranist traditions that had survived the Great 
  Blinding 
  were 
  forced 
  underground, 
  and 
  the 
  traditional lunar calendar of the Zalkhite 
  people was all but forgotten. The nomads of 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  85 
  the inland plains were able to retain their freedom of 
  movement and of belief, but it was only humiliating 
  annual rites of submission to the Ras of New Darfur 
  – and crippling payments of tribute to his treasury at 
  Nefur – that ensured their unborn children would 
  receive the Elixir in the womb. 
  A few of the more isolated Zuranist tribes made the 
  hard choice to forgo submission to the Amharians, 
  preferring to suffer the effects of the Blinding 
  Sickness than compromise their freedom and 
  religious purity. This minority, who forewent all the 
  advantages of a technological society and trained 
  hunting dogs, hawks or monkeys to act as their eyes, 
  became known as the vujo (“pure ones”). During the 
  Amharian dominion it was the universally admired 
  vujo who became the keepers of Zuranist lore in 
  Zalkhi, their oral traditions acting as a cultural 
  touchstone for the less rigorously isolationist 
  vurmapan (nomadic) tribes. The vujo refusal to eat, 
  drink, pray or perform any other intimate act in the 
  presence of outsiders became a norm that all 
  Zalkhites secretly admired and yearned to emulate. 
  As the decades and centuries of Amharian rule in 
  New Darfur passed there grew up a cultural divide 
  among the Zuranists. Although most retained the 
  religion of their ancestors the faith of the gadji of the 
  coasts began to be coloured by the Universalist rites 
  of their occupiers. As they grew apart the nomads of 
  the plains and their cousins in the alpine valleys of 
  the Mountains of the Stars, began to refer to their 
  coastal brethren as marhime (impure). Those named 
  marhime were deemed to be beyond the bounds of 
  Zuranist pralipe (brotherhood) and little better than 
  the 
  despised 
  molocki. 
  An 
  elaborate 
  code 
  of 
  permissible and taboo degrees of contact between the 
  impure coastal Zalkhites and their vurmapan 
  cousins, the famous mageriphen code, evolved as 
  early as the 44th century. As their cultures diverged 
  the very concept of money eventually became taboo 
  among a select minority of the Zalkhite tribes. In part 
  this was due to the largely barter-based economy of 
  the plains, this simple necessity being reinforced by 
  the desire to avoid the Amharan Orthodox Church’s 
  tithes in cash and kind on expectant mothers. 
  Much though the natural distaste of the nomad for 
  the sedentary farmer might colour their perceptions 
  of one another there was still some limited cultural 
  intercourse between the gadji and the vurmapan. It 
  was among the Amharian-influenced gadji that tales 
  of a Zuranist messiah first emerged. The shadowy 
  figure of the Hidden President was at first little more 
  than a conflation of the legendary figure of Manuel 
  Zuran. With the Holy Speaker of Amharia, he 
  gained in stature when the myth leapt the cultural 
  gap to the vurmapan Zalkhites. During the long 
  centuries of foreign misrule the Zalkhite peoples, 
  nomadic and settled, comforted themselves with the 
  promise that their semi-divine founder would emerge 
  at the appointed time and lead his chosen people to 
  glory in the blessed realm of Mejid where all would 
  be equal and no man a slave. 
  It was during the last years of the 48th century by 
  the Amharian calendar that it seemed that the time 
  might be ripe for the coming of the Hidden President. 
  For several years a group of Zuranist mystics 
  announcing divine inspiration had traversed the 
  Zalkhi Plains, preaching that soon all men would be 
  free of the need to pay blood money to the molocki. 
  Led by a gadji scholar by the name of Shkelgim 
  Zhenawi, who had in his youth rejected the 
  submissive prosperity of his sedentary forefathers 
  and fled to live among the vujo, this sect was well 
  placed to capitalise on the Calabari revolt. As word 
  spread of the apparent miracle of recovered sight 
  happening in the Calabari lands Zhenawi and his 
  followers made their move. Proclaiming the imminent 
  manifestation 
  of 
  the 
  Hidden 
  President 
  they 
  unleashed a vast horde of vurmapan zealots on the 
  fat, long-idle Amharians of the coast. In a single 
  headlong rush, which saw the butchery of those gadji 
  who lacked the wit to convert to the plainsmens’ 
  fanatic creed, the hated city of Nefur was occupied, 
  razed and the ground sown with salt. 
  Exulting in victory, intoxicated by freedom, the 
  Zalkhites could see only one possible explanation for 
  their victory. Shkelgim Zhenawi, the inspirer of their 
  great victory, must be the long-hoped-for Hidden 
  President! 
  Although 
  he 
  rejected 
  any 
  such 
  identification to his dying day the peasant mystic 
  accepted elevation to the position of Zomma (priest-
  king) of All Zalkhi in anticipation of the Hidden 
  President’s appearance. Although the Zommate was 
  first passed among the hierarchy of Zhenawi’s 
  messianic cult, after the dynastic infighting that 
  aided the Amharian invasion of the 4930s, the title 
  became 
  quasi-hereditary. 
  It 
  was 
  already 
  an 
  established custom that only a personal friend, or 
  blood descendent, of the first Zomma was familiar 
  enough with his wisdom to lead the nation. As all 
  Shklegim’s personal friends had been killed during 
  the ascension of Zomma Tapla (soon surnamed the 
  Victorious) it came to pass that the title was awarded 
  – by a process of carefully stage-managed popular 
  acclaim – to the closest surviving male relation of the 
  previous Zomma. 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  86 
  In recent times the Zalkhites have grown militarily 
  ever stronger, and evermore confident in their 
  manifest destiny as the heralds of the Hidden 
  President. Although at first content to labour on their 
  quixotic space programme, which was deemed a 
  major element of national identity after it claimed the 
  life of Zomma Mihai in 4947, the Zalkhites have 
  lately grown ever more arrogant and overbearing in 
  their attitudes towards molocki. Once the Zomma and 
  his astrologers preached the brotherhood of Zalkhites 
  with any who stood against Amharian despotism. 
  Lately they have taken a more hard-line approach: 
  any who are not Zalkhite are no better than the 
  Amharians themselves. The Hebesh nations of the 
  Tempestuous Sea have begun to note the way in 
  which those states that draw the ire of the Zomma 
  seem to be afflicted soon after by mysterious meteor 
  strikes. Although some ascribe this to a mere 
  technological trick, other less advanced societies 
  have come to regard the Zalkhites as the special 
  favourites of the heavens. 
  Mokum, Holy City of the Stars 
  This sprawling city in the heart of a fertile plain is 
  reputedly the oldest settlement on New Amhara. 
  Although the scholars of Ghonda’s Academy of 
  Substitute Technologies scoff at the claim natives of 
  Mokum proudly laud their city as the site of the 
  famous First Landing. Indeed, the very name Mokum 
  means simply “the place” in one of the ancient 
  forerunner languages of the Zalkhite tongue. From 
  humble beginnings as a mere agricultural produce 
  store during the Amharian occupation Mokum has 
  seen remarkable transformations during the reign of 
  the Zommas. What was once a scruffy little garrison 
  town had been transformed by the skill, dedication 
  and wealth of a century of government-mandated 
  beautification. Grain silos have made way for 
  glittering palaces, while verdant parks of elegantly 
  landscaped water features, exotic flowerbeds and 
  shade trees now sprawl where once the herdbeasts 
  exacted by molocki tithes were corralled. 
  Mokum is no mere show city, despite the lavish care 
  and enormous expense that has gone into making it 
  the fitting centre from a large and wealthy state. The 
  same zeal to built and make orderly which has made 
  the public areas of the city such a showcase has also 
  been expended on the houses of the inhabitants. 
  Although, in keeping with their nomadic or servile 
  ancestries, the inhabitants of Mokum may own little 
  enough in material goods, their houses are always 
  colourfully decorated, the paint is always 
  bright, the multi-coloured windows sparkle 
  in the sun, and lavish carved woodwork and small 
  statues of favoured Zuranist saints surround the 
  doorways. 
  The city of Mokum is also the test-bed for radical 
  experiments 
  in 
  urban 
  planning 
  and 
  social 
  engineering by the municipal government, who work 
  with the full blessing of the Zomma. While vurmapan 
  Zalkhites are rigorous in their separation of the 
  public and private spheres of life many inhabitants of 
  Mokum, rich and poor, live, eat and worship 
  communally. This remarkable inversion of Zuranist 
  mageriphen was the result of a realisation among the 
  Angelos of Mokum that urban living tended to 
  dissolve the bonds of family that many Zalkhites saw 
  as their proudest inheritance. This realisation was 
  nothing new to the gadji inhabitants of the rapidly 
  expanding city – used as they were to Amharian 
  control of their lives – but the vurmapan immigrants 
  who formed the new social and political elite initially 
  saw it as a potential destabilising influence on 
  Zalkhi’s newfound state of unity. 
  Soon after his elevation to the Zommate in the early 
  49th century the third Zomma of All Zalkhi, 
  Shkelgim’s foster son and acolyte Kolev publicly 
  pronounced the need to extend the bounds of 
  Zuranist pralipe (a concept variously translated as 
  ‘brotherhood’, ‘amity’ or ‘fellow feeling’) beyond the 
  traditional vurmapan  tribal groups. The Angelos of 
  the various nomadic septs resident in Mokum were 
  summoned before their lord and ordered to cross 
  foster their children with the gadji, to intermarry 
  with them, and to share in one another’s celebrations 
  and sorrows. Although this profound social upheaval 
  initially led to friction and unrest it was the personal 
  example of the third Zomma that swayed public 
  opinion. Of impeccable vurmapan credentials himself 
  Kolev 
  shocked 
  and 
  scandalised 
  the 
  Zuranist 
  traditionalists by not only taking a gadji bride, but 
  also by welcoming all and sundry to stay at his 
  compound in the Blessed Hall of Divining Truth in 
  the Heavens. When, much the chagrin of the 
  naysayers, Kolev was miraculously not afflicted with 
  the predicted ill fortune, impotence, hauntings, or 
  slow and horrible death for his breach with tradition, 
  his example became positively fashionable among 
  the more prosperous and progressive of Mokum’s 
  inhabitants. 
  As visitors spread stories about the Zomma’s 
  spectacular reversal of Zuranist norms the previously 
  rather anonymous Kolev grew into the status of a 
  minor folk hero among the gadji. Zomma Kolev 
  became famous in story and song for his gregarious 
  nature and open-handed generosity to all. 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  87 
  The thousands of lowe (the Zalkhite version of 
  Amharia’s leu currency) that he gave away to what 
  most traditionalist chiefs saw as no more than 
  opportunistic leeches, beggars and hangers-on repaid 
  themselves a thousand fold in the esteem in which 
  Kolev was held by his people. During his long reign 
  during the 49th century it was said that no man, 
  Zuranist or Orthodox, spoke ill of him, and that even 
  the fearsomely traditionalist vujo deemed him a 
  worthy guest at their private meals. To the present 
  the name of Zomma Kolev is a byword for “hail 
  fellow, well met” sociability among the inhabitants 
  of Mokum, among whom the judgement “He has the 
  heart of another Kolev” is high praise indeed. 
  Almost since its’ founding the heart and focus of 
  Mokum has been the Blessed Hall of Divining Truth 
  in the Heavens, which looms in the centre of the city 
  like a triumphalist architect’s fever dream made real. 
  The entire vast complex of offices, suites, audience 
  chambers, shrines, laboratories, mausoleums and 
  gardens is deemed too holy for any non-Zuranist to 
  enter. The forbidden always being more enticing the 
  Blessed Hall remains a source of scurrilous 
  speculation among the inhabitants of the Foreign 
  Quarter of Mokum. Despite numerous attempts to 
  gain entry (all unsuccessful to date) and constant 
  rumours of strange alien discoveries, tunnels in the 
  cellars leading to the core of the world, or bizarre and 
  bloody rites practised within its walls there is little 
  enough secret about the Blessed Hall to the Zalkhite 
  visitor.  
  To those able to pass the hawk-eyed vurmapan 
  guards, and who do not betray themselves as 
  heathens by failing to perform the correct rites at the 
  statue of the first Zomma that stands in the grand 
  entrance hall, the truth about the nigh-legendary 
  Blessed Hall is revealed. The complex is, in reality, 
  the seat of government, scientific learning and 
  religious faith for the Zalkhites, among whom the 
  lines between government, science and faith are more 
  blurred than in hidebound Amharia. Visitors are free 
  to wander the courtyards, shrines, lecture halls and 
  elaborately decorated colonnades practically at will, 
  guests of the Zomma by virtue of their common faith 
  and culture. In this vast palace, thousands of 
  pilgrims and supplicants are daily served the same 
  food as the Zomma eats, passing the time gainfully 
  while their holy priest-king and his court preside over 
  learned disputation, new astronomical findings, 
  Mokum’s constant backlog of legal cases, and 
  performances of Zalkhite song, poetry and dance. 
  Removed some distance from the heart of the city, 
  wisely sited downwind and screened by trees 
  and landscaped hills, squat the famous factories and 
  workshops of Mokum. The skilled gadji craftsmen, 
  along with a small community of immigrant Gannok 
  craftsman who fled the Khalasei Isles, are famous for 
  being able to reproduce almost any item brought to 
  them. Although the Gannock are treated with 
  superstitious distaste by the Zuranist workers the 
  similarity of the little aliens’ extended families to 
  traditional Zuranist tribes means they do not garner 
  the hostility and random violence that someone 
  overheard 
  speaking 
  Amharian 
  does. 
  The 
  metallurgists and technicians of Mokum find their 
  ingenuity constantly challenged by the objects that 
  the vurmapan gravediggers and scavengers discover 
  in the old, half-buried Republican ruins scattered 
  across the wide Zalkhi Plains. These mysterious 
  artefacts are kept under lock and key at the Zomma 
  Mahai airport, the unacknowledged home of Zalkhi’s 
  short endurance voidsailer ships. 
  Nefur Armayad (Nefur the Accursed)  
  If Mokum is the bright face of a hopeful new Zalkhi, 
  the ruins of the old Amharian city of Nefur are the 
  scars of a dark and violent past. For centuries the 
  northeast coast of New Darfur was dominated by this 
  dour maxicrete and steel city, originally built to 
  house resettled Zalkhites during the Republican 
  period. During the economic collapse of the 39th 
  century 
  the 
  elaborate 
  infrastructure 
  of 
  this 
  essentially parasitical city built, as if by some 
  perverse miracle, equally far from the rich forests of 
  the east coast and the fertile north-central regions, 
  began to decay. As New Amhara grew poorer 
  replacement parts, materials, even labour became 
  harder and harder to come by for a city that had for 
  decades been little more than a dumping ground for 
  the disenfranchised. 
  By the time Admiral Mehmet Burns Keddah 
  retreated from New Amhara in 4002 Nefur (known at 
  the time as Memphis) was little more than a slow-
  boiling cauldron of ethnic squabbling, where 
  Orthodox arrogance clashed with longstanding 
  Zuranist 
  resentment. 
  The 
  Planetary 
  Senate’s 
  attempts to rebuilt New Amhara’s economy after the 
  Fall were completely unavailing in the case of 
  Memphis, and the city rapidly became a rich 
  recruiting ground and refuge for the hatemongering 
  Firstcomer movement. Each Firstcomer strike against 
  the infrastructure projects of the Planetary Senate 
  was hailed as a triumph of Zuranist resilience in the 
  face of an ever-heavier and more onerous occupation. 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  88 
  The destruction of the Nakanda Gorge Dam was held 
  the greatest triumph of the Firstcomers, but was 
  arguably their last. 
  When the Blinding Sickness began to strike humans 
  across New Amhara during the 4120s Memphis 
  rapidly fell into chaos. Hospitals were mobbed and 
  looted, then food stores, and within a week any form 
  of organised government in the city had collapsed. A 
  mere month later Memphis was little more than a 
  necropolis. Those still alive had fled inland, hoping 
  to find shelter and succour elsewhere. Most died lost 
  and blind in the vastness of the Zalkhi Plains, while 
  the few survivors were absorbed into vurmapan 
  tribes with whom they had some customary ties. 
  Although it became the temporary base for a number 
  of desperate sea raiders during those terrible years, it 
  was almost a century later before Memphis would see 
  human inhabitants again. 
  It was not until the early 43rd century that the 
  Amharian Empire arrived in Memphis. Due to its 
  relative isolation and almost total desertion the city 
  was deemed a secure storage area for the Elixir of 
  Clear Vision on which Amharian dominion of the 
  entirety of rich New Darfur was to rest. Five centuries 
  of occupation as a military base and centre of tribute 
  saw Nefur, as it soon became known, gain 
  unprecedented wealth and some measure of its 
  former population. Made wealthy by graft and idle by 
  sloth the Ras of New Darfur and his strutting Agas 
  soon became vilified as bloated leeches in a city that 
  became a Zalkhite byword for parasitical greed. It 
  was during the Amharian occupation that Nefur first 
  gained in earnest its’ heartfelt sobriquet of “the 
  Accursed” among the Zalkhite natives. 
  The Zalkhite revolution led by Shkelgim Zhenawi 
  was a catastrophe for Nefur. With its garrison 
  already depleted quelling revolts among the islands 
  of the Temptestuous Sea Nefur fell to the Zalkhites in 
  a single night. With the rage of a quiet man provoked 
  beyond all endurance by what he witnessed in the 
  prisons and judicial torture chambers of the last Ras 
  the future Zomma Shkelgim ordered that Nefur be 
  destroyed utterly. What could not be smashed must 
  be burnt, what could not be scattered to the winds 
  would be thrown into the sea. The very ground upon 
  which the accursed city stood must be rendered 
  useless. The zealots of Zalkhi took their prophet at 
  his word. 
  A century after its destruction Nefur remains a city 
  accursed. The vurmapan of coastal Zalkhi consider 
  the ruins of the city taboo, believing that great ill 
  fortune will fall upon any who even 
  glimpse them. Zuranist swatur (cautionary 
  legends) hold that the vengeful ghosts of the 
  Amharian molocki haunt the city still. These 
  superstitions have picked up some credence among 
  the sailors of the Hebesh nations, who ring spirit-
  placating gongs when they sail past the ruins, and 
  spread far and wide the tales of its utter desolation. 
  The unsuccessful punitive attacks of the Amharians 
  during the 4930s spread cautionary tales of the 
  desolated city to the Amharian Highlands and 
  beyond. The tall tales of sailors do nothing to deter 
  eager or desperate treasure hunters determined to 
  find the legendary treasure of the Last Ras, even the 
  pitiful number who return, starving and wild-eyed 
  fuel the legend further. 
  Toadeni Oasis  
  If Mokum is the heart of the new, expansionist 
  Zalkhi, then the great Toadeni Oasis in the heart of 
  the wide plains is its traditionalist counterpart. Long 
  a major nexus of trade for the vurmapan and vujo of 
  the plains, in recent decades Zalkhi’s crash course of 
  technological 
  development 
  has 
  increased 
  the 
  importance of this region further. Sited by some 
  geological fluke at the confluence of several major 
  aquifers the oasis has formed a great inland lake 
  almost fifty miles across in the midst of semi-arid 
  scrublands. The rich reedbeds at the perimeter of the 
  lake have long held a place in Zuranist folklore. As 
  well as being the reputed home of several important 
  Zuranist demi-gods (“geista sanctas”, as they are 
  known among the vurmapan) these wetlands are 
  famed as the one-time refuge of the future Zomma 
  Skhelgim from molocki persecution. 
  The town of Toadeni, named for the oasis, derives a 
  rich income from local agricultural produce (the 
  pomegranate-like fruit of a native Amharian tree fern 
  being a local speciality), the trade of the visiting 
  vurmapan tribes in their huge smoke-belching 
  baroverdon (great wagons), a nascent pilgrim trade 
  dependent on visiting gadji, and also on the support 
  requirements of the numerous astronomical and 
  meteorological research stations that the last three 
  Zomma have ordered built in the distant outliers of 
  the Mountains of the Stars. Although welcomed by 
  the Toadeni council of elders, and guided through the 
  often-dangerous wetlands by local guides, gadji 
  visitors – farmer, pilgrim and astronomer alike - 
  frequently fall afoul of the traditionalist customs of 
  the visiting vurmapan. Breaches of traditional 
  mageriphen, particularly the all-important privacy 
  taboos, which would be overlooked in relatively 
  cosmopolitan coastal lands, have resulted 
  in more than one fatal knife fight in recent 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  89 
  years. The Angelos of the council must treat a 
  delicate line between offending the vurmapan 
  backbone of the Zomma’s armies, and the largely 
  gadji scientists and technicians who ensure the 
  continuing prosperity of their city. 
  Above and apart from all the internecine squabbling 
  of the often rough-and-ready street life of Toadeni 
  stand the rare vujo visitors to the city. Although the 
  vujo regained their sight along with the other human 
  cultures of New Amhara during the early 49th 
  century they are still held in reverence by other 
  Zalkhites for their unbroken and uncompromising 
  adherence to Zuranist traditions and their own anti-
  technological taboos. Coming to Toadeni only to 
  trade their intelligent and finely trained animals 
  (horses, hawks, dogs and monkeys) even the most 
  prideful vurmapan or sophisticated gadji of the cities 
  stand aside when these exotic, dark-eyed relics of a 
  former age walk in their midst. 
  Seething Lands 
  Far to the southwest of the Zalkhi Plains, in the lee 
  of the great Mountains of the Stars, lie the exotic 
  Seething Lands. In these distant valleys an exotic 
  culture of vurmapan never fully absorbed into 
  Zalkhite society make their home among geysers of 
  superheated steam, boiling mudflats and eternally 
  burning pillars of flame. Strange noxious-fleshed 
  breeds of sheep and brutes graze on the sulphur-rich 
  plants of these uplands, guarded always by a close-
  mouthed, xenophobic race of yellow-stained, dour-
  faced herders. By their own particular interpretation 
  of the Zuranist mageriphen (code of rituals and 
  taboos) the natives of these lands deem any who do 
  not share in their rites to be less than true Zuranists, 
  innately marhime in nature. The violent xenophobia 
  of the rasa magerdo (stained people) of the Seething 
  Lands would have remained little more than a local 
  squabble, but for one thing: oil. 
  The combination of vigorous geothermal activity 
  and easily accessible hydrocarbons serve to make 
  this distant region intoxicatingly inviting to the 
  energy-hungry gadji of Mokum. In the years since the 
  Zalkhites first turned their attention toward the stars 
  the Zalkhites have made remarkable advances in 
  inorganic chemistry, advances which stand to 
  improve their standard of living beyond measure, but 
  which require vast amounts of oil and its derivatives. 
  In the past decades numerous Zalkhite expeditions to 
  this region, both exploratory and scientific in nature, 
  were forcibly ejected or butchered by rasa magerdo 
  tribes 
  outraged 
  at 
  the 
  desecrations 
  perpetrated on their sacred lands. Unable to exploit 
  the orbital capabilities offered by his voidsailers due 
  to the perpetual haze of noxious fogs that shrouds 
  the land, the Zomma was ultimately forced to send 
  armed forces to defend the valuable refinery 
  established there. 
  It was in the little-known Seething Lands that the 
  myth of Zalkhite invincibility was dealt its first blow. 
  While unmatched by any other military force they 
  had encountered the Zomma’s vaunted vurmapan 
  cavalry have been fought to a standstill in the boiling 
  bogs and poisonous fogs of this obscure land. Their 
  cavalry all but useless, constrained by primitive and 
  largely ineffective gas masks, and cut off from the 
  matchless intelligence and orbital artillery support 
  usually supplied by their revered voidsailers, the elite 
  of the Zalkhite army have been forced to fight a long, 
  bloody and demoralising war against an enemy 
  which has taken on almost supernatural stature. 
  Among an invading force prone through religion and 
  culture to myth making, the rarely seen but 
  omnipresent rasa magerdo have gained a reputation 
  as trushalo odji (hungry ghosts).   
  The superstitious fears common among the largely 
  vurmapan Zalkhite troops stationed in the Seething 
  Lands 
  are 
  further 
  inflamed 
  by 
  the 
  strange 
  environmental effects prevalent there. Stinking 
  noxious fogs that burn the eyes are bad enough to 
  men raised in the clear air of the Zalkhi Plains, but 
  the unstable mud flats which liquefy under the tramp 
  of marching feet, slow-leaking subterranean pockets 
  of methane and other hydrocarbon gases which 
  ignite at the slightest spark, and the ever-present oil 
  slicks 
  which 
  insinuate 
  themselves 
  into every 
  watercourse, mean that the very land itself seems 
  inimical to life and actively hostile to the invaders. In 
  a manner almost unheard of in Zalkhite history 
  bashars (officers) have recently have had to force 
  their men onto patrols at gunpoint.  
  Rumours 
  persist 
  that, 
  despite 
  the 
  hostile 
  environment, the rasa magerdo hide secrets and 
  wealth lost since the Republican days somewhere in 
  the depths of their boiling bogs. Officers dismiss out 
  of hand as garbage reports by soldiers who claim to 
  have seen a series of strange monoliths in the depths 
  of the mudflats. Although forced to keep their peace 
  while stationed in the Seething Lands, drunken 
  soldiers on furlough or at home tell stories of great 
  carven spires that burn with a sickly corpsefire. 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  90 
  New Calabar 
  For many centuries New Calabar was the poor 
  sibling among the continents of New Amhara. During 
  the Republican period the hot and humid minor 
  continent was continually overshadowed by the 
  balmier 
  climes, 
  greater 
  wealth 
  and 
  more 
  cosmopolitan attitudes of neighbouring Amharia. In 
  Ghonda the very name New Calabar was long 
  synonymous 
  with 
  ignorance, 
  racism 
  and 
  backwardness, while the exotic spices, flowers and 
  fruits of the rich coastal plantations were advertised 
  off world as being Amharan, rather than strictly 
  Calabari, in origin. 
  New 
  Calabar 
  finally 
  reached 
  the 
  notice 
  of 
  offworlders beyond a limited scientific community of 
  biotechnicians in the early 40th century when the 
  infamous Landfall Night Massacre of Obun monks in 
  3930 became the flashpoint for worldwide anti-alien 
  rioting. Offworlders who had never before heard of 
  the Firstcomers were repelled by the violence and 
  hatefulness of the pogroms that followed violence 
  that besmirched the reputation of the Zuranist 
  minority across the Republic merely by association. 
  The well-publicised policy of paramilitary policing, 
  which ultimately contained the unrest, merely 
  confirmed to the Amharan and interplanetary elites 
  that New Calabar was a particularly benighted and 
  backward locale. Of the inequities of the Democratist-
  dominated local governments, their forcing of the 
  Zuranist populace into indentured service on the 
  plantations and the despicable use of Obun psychic 
  spies to maintain order in these concerns, the public 
  knew nothing. 
  The retreat of Republican forces from Amharan 
  space in 4002 brought no real change to the 
  inhabitants of New Calabar. They were still caught 
  between the rock of Firstcomer atrocities and the 
  hard place of the Planetary Senate’s ever-harsher 
  curfews and quotas. It was only the universal chaos 
  caused by the Blinding Sickness that eased the yoke 
  on the back of New Calabar’s people. For almost a 
  century hunger, disorder and confusion was the order 
  of the day as the Calabari’s tried to survive in the 
  face of an Obun minority determined to pay back a 
  thousand fold the persecutions of the Landfall Night 
  Massacre.  
  The return of Amharian rule in the form of the 
  Amharian Empire and its Elixir of Clear Vision was 
  little more than a continuation of the bad old days of 
  the Republic for the people of New Calabar. In return 
  for their sight the human Calabaris were returned to 
  the plantations, or shipped to Amharia 
  itself to labour in the dangerous mines of the 
  Amharan Massif. A small minority who utterly 
  rejected the vital serum were allowed by the 
  Amharians to scratch out a living on the margins of 
  Calabari society. This ever-present underclass of 
  blind and pathetic untouchables served as a warning 
  to the Calabari peons on the dangers of disobedience. 
   The Obun, sickened by human perfidy and wary of 
  the returning Amharians, largely retreated from 
  contact with the humans. The ultimate refuge of the 
  alien minority was the hills and jungles of central 
  Calabar, a region never fully mapped even in the days 
  of the Republic, and too inaccessible for the 
  Amharians to deem them any meaningful threat to 
  their rule of the coasts. Irregular raids by the Obun 
  and retaliatory strikes by Amharian Agas ensured 
  that a slow-burning series of guerrilla wars persisted 
  in the backwoods regions for centuries. Only a tiny 
  percentage of Obun chose to serve the colonial 
  masters, 
  parleying 
  their 
  psychic 
  powers 
  and 
  knowledge of Calabari flora and fauna into prosperity 
  and relative security. 
  New Calabar remained a province of the Amharian 
  Empire for centuries. Perhaps more than anywhere 
  else on New Amhara this land became emblematic of 
  the arrogance and injustice inherent in the imperial 
  system. A microcosm of the divisive system of rulers 
  and rules was inherent in the layout of the typical 
  urban church of the colonial period, many of which 
  remain in the towns of New Calabar. In a typical 
  church the richly decorated balcony boxes of the 
  Amharian 
  Agas, 
  accessible 
  only 
  from 
  private 
  entryways, overlooked both the hard wooden pews of 
  the peons and the altar at which services were 
  conducted. Standing room for those local Zuranist 
  non-communicants rounded up and forced to endure 
  the preaching of the Orthodoxy was situated just 
  inside the public doors of the church. Behind 
  elaborately carved roodscreens to the rear of the altar 
  the painful and invasive procedure required to 
  administer the Elixir of Clear Vision to expectant 
  mothers were kept entirely out of the public gaze. 
  The symbolism of such an arrangement was clear for 
  all to see; only through submission to the church 
  would children be born with sight. 
  Rumours of irregularities committed by priests 
  during the administration of the Sacrament of Sight 
  were the cause of more than one revolt by Calabari 
  peons during the Empire. Such was the power that 
  fear for their children’s well being held over the 
  majority that most of these situations fizzled out 
  after a single paroxysm of violence, usually the 
  murder of the Amharian inhabitants of an 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  91 
  isolated villa. These periodic and unpredictable 
  outbursts bred an atmosphere of veritable paranoia 
  among the ruling class, who soon saw threats 
  everywhere they looked. Even at the height of the 
  empire, the Agas of New Calabar were infamous for 
  their sharp eyes for insubordination among their 
  vassals and for their vicious exemplary punishments. 
  Not all the violence the Amharians could muster 
  was able to suppress the revolt that arose among the 
  Zuranist untouchables in the late 48th century 
  however. Always free of close Amharian oversight 
  into their doings the birth of sighted children to the 
  Zuranists in the city of Loango long went unnoticed 
  by any outside their communities. As soon as the 
  news that mothers who had never undergone the 
  Sacrament of Sight were giving birth to sighted 
  children reached the peons on the plantations a 
  large-scale rebellion broke out. Despite the best 
  efforts of the outnumbered Amharians the revolt 
  rolled unstoppable as a forest fire across New Calabar 
  and within a year had spread to New Darfur. Despite 
  massacres of the sighted newborn by the Amharian 
  Chamber of Eyes, which the Calabaris repaid in kind 
  wherever they could, it soon became clear that New 
  Calabar could no longer be held. Within a decade the 
  continent was free of Amharian dominion. 
  The newly liberated people of New Calabar turned 
  against all things Amharian in a frenzy of 
  destruction. Churches were burned to the ground or 
  converted to profane uses, the great plantation villas 
  were looted and the valuable crops burnt in the 
  fields. Technology, long symbolic of Amharian 
  dominance, was wrecked wherever it could be found. 
  Electricity systems were ruined, vehicles burned and 
  even the advanced sewage treatment systems of the 
  cities were smashed beyond repair. It was only when 
  a wave of pulmonary and enteric diseases swept the 
  population that a necessary halt was called to the 
  destruction and the Calabaris began the long, slow, 
  often violent process of building themselves new 
  lives.  
  Although the ringleaders of the revolt initially had 
  grand plans for a communistic society where all 
  worked for the benefit and betterment of one another 
  human 
  perfidy 
  and 
  greed 
  rapidly 
  saw 
  the 
  degeneration of New Calabar into a collection of 
  mutually 
  suspicious 
  cantons. 
  Democratic 
  or 
  autocratic in their internal government these 
  primitive rural territories and scattered city-states, of 
  which Loango and Klova were the greatest, spent 
  most of their time fighting one another or the 
  reclusive Obun of central Calabar. The latter, now 
  being deemed ancestral enemies of the 
  Calabaris for a variety of half-forgotten and poorly 
  articulated reasons, regarded the departure of the 
  Amharians as something of a boon. No longer 
  harried by Amharian aeroskiffs, the Obun of the 
  forests rapidly became the greatest threat the nascent 
  Calabari states faced.  
  It was only under the leadership of a succession of 
  charismatic warlords in the mid 49th century that the 
  Calabari states were able secure their inland borders 
  enough to begin retaliatory raids against the kolla 
  territories of coastal Amharia. For several years the 
  Calabar Sea was the scene of numerous tit-for-tat 
  raids and running battles between the mutually 
  hostile states of the coasts. A brief Amharian 
  revanché in the 4870s saw Loango occupied and 
  sacked by Agas now little better equipped than their 
  former vassals. Since that time the Calabaris have 
  contented themselves with petty raids against their 
  former masters, preferring to sell the rich crops of 
  their lands in trade with the Hebesh nations and 
  Zalkhi. 
  Loango, City of Freedom 
  The first flashpoint of the Calabari revolt, the 
  staunchly Zuranist port city of Loango was once the 
  seat of the Amharian Ras of New Calabar. Loango 
  was also the last city to fall to free Calabaris despite 
  being the site of the worst massacre of Zuranist 
  infants by Amharian soldiery and militias. In the two 
  centuries it has been controlled by Calabaris (first by 
  a democratic council, then a succession of dictators, 
  and most recently by an oligarchy) the city has 
  gradually decayed from a well maintained colonial 
  centre into a veritable warren of houses, workshops, 
  storage yards and houses of iniquity. Any surviving 
  building more than two centuries old bears both the 
  pseudo-Republican art deco hallmarks of the 
  Amharian Imperial style and the scars wrought 
  during the famous Calabari revolt, while more recent 
  constructions seem to have little rhyme or reason to 
  them. 
  The guiding principle of the Calabari revolt, that all 
  were equals and no man was fit to govern the life of 
  any other, has found physical expression in the 
  anarchy of Loango. The million or more inhabitants 
  (although no-one is sure of the exact number) build 
  where they like, with little or no regard to existing 
  architecture or the street plan beyond what other 
  than 
  local 
  inhabitants 
  are 
  able 
  to 
  enforce. 
  Neighbourhood militias enforce ever-changing local 
  laws and a miscreant is almost entirely at the whim 
  and mercy of any band of thugs, idlers or 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  92 
  ‘corner boys’ that appoint themselves as law 
  enforcers. Although most criminals are hauled before 
  the ward Angelos for judgement violent ‘street courts‘ 
  are a common sight on Loango’s crowded streets. 
  Thanks to the Amharian abuse of institutional 
  power during their centuries of misrule the Loangans 
  consider the concept of the corporate entity as 
  something distinct and separate from the people 
  participating in it to be a fraud. No institution, be it 
  church, company or military force, has any rights in 
  Loango. Unfortunately this means that the city has 
  no civic government above the neighbourhood level. 
  Although occasional “people’s champions” are able 
  to muster enthusiasm for faddish popular schemes 
  neither the Angelos or the informal ruling oligarchy 
  of the city are mandated to exact taxes from the 
  populace on a regular basis. Despite the best efforts 
  of the Angelos the civic infrastructure of Loango is as 
  shambolic as everything else about the city. Damage 
  to the electricity, water and sewage systems inflicted 
  during the late 4700s has still not been made good in 
  the year 5000. The streets of the city are full of 
  potholes big enough to drown in, and the wood-and-
  stone walls erected by the popular dictators of the 
  early 50th century are regularly cannibalised for 
  building materials. 
  As a result of the sordid decay into which Loango 
  has fallen the city is a veritable pesthole at the best 
  of time, with high summer being the season most 
  malodorous and injurious to health. During the three 
  lunar months of high summer the majority of 
  inhabitants either decamp to the countryside to work 
  as farm labourers, or set out to sea in a motley array 
  of vessels to fish, raid or trade as the winds take 
  them. The lands around Loango, once the centre of 
  the Amharians’ great Calabari plantations, are now 
  divided into a crazy quilt patchwork of small farm 
  holdings, each of which is defended vigorously by 
  Calabari farmers obnoxiously sure of their territorial 
  rights. Any attempt to accumulate a landholding 
  larger than one’s family and dependents can work is 
  vigorously policed by envious neighbours, who will 
  sometimes use the threat of force to divide 
  ‘excessive’ holdings. 
  Despite the apparent chaos and almost universal 
  squalor that holds in Loango the city is actually 
  remarkably prosperous. The riches of the sea and the 
  fertility of the lands around the city provide the 
  populace with ample food and basic goods, while a 
  rough-and-ready capitalist system of water shippers, 
  nightsoil carters and generator wallahs (an archaic 
  dialect word meaning ‘doer/provider of’) haphazardly 
  supply the structural needs of the city. The 
  rich hinterland of the Loangana (land of Loango) on 
  the northwestern coast of New Calabar is an ever-
  changing tapestry of food and cash crops, the sheer 
  variety of which boggles the mind. Loangan tea is 
  one crop that even the proudest table on New 
  Amhara does not reject. Farmers reduced to 
  pauperdom if they fail to find a market for their 
  produce are able to spend a few years working for 
  their neighbours before the almost inevitable 
  redistribution of land gives them a second chance at 
  relative prosperity. 
  Contemptible as Loango may appear to outsiders, 
  tainted as it is by squalor, disorder and a constant 
  pall of wood smoke, the city maintains an enviable 
  vigour. Neither the regular fires that sweep the 
  crowded rookeries nor the irregular irruptions of the 
  Amharians can prevent Loango from repeatedly being 
  rebuilt. Insolent and badly organised as the 
  inhabitants are in compared to the staid voina-dega 
  Amharians or tolerant urban Zalkhites, the Loangans 
  are, in many ways, a highly civilised people. Any 
  man, other than an Amharian, is free to make a 
  living among them, while any Zuranist is able to rise 
  through merit to a position of respect among his 
  peers. Despite their grubbiness the streets of Loango 
  constantly ring with the songs and shouts of half a 
  hundred dialects, all united in a dissonant susurrus 
  that is a tacit hymn to freedom. 
  Klova  
  The coastal city of Klova, situated on the southeast 
  coast of New Calabar is a city which has always 
  failed to live up to its inherent promise. During the 
  early days of the Republican era Klova was little 
  more than a collection of fishing villages far removed 
  from the bustling centres of industrial farming and 
  bioresearch on New Calabar’s west coast. The 
  Zuranist natives raised their families in the privacy 
  and liberty their ancestors had long sought. This idyll 
  changed irrevocably when a group of investors from 
  an 
  interplanetary 
  corporation 
  named 
  Atlantis 
  Universal Leisure travelled to New Calabar in search 
  of a suitable location for their latest luxury resort: 
  “Atlantis Amhara”. After several months of coastal 
  surveys the investors settled a magnificent deep-
  water bay on the southeast coast of New Calabar as 
  their preferred location.  
  Landing at the sight with an entourage of pompous 
  Planetary Senate delegates the corporate officers of 
  Atlantis Leisure made a spectacular presentation to 
  the bemused Zuranist community leaders, many of 
  who had never even left the bay in their 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  93 
  lives. Although the locals were unschooled in the 
  ways of corporate and government compulsory 
  purchase schemes they were not ignorant in the ways 
  of human nature. One look at these overdressed, soft-
  fleshed city slickers, their faces aglisten with sweat 
  and greed, told the hard-eyed old Zuranists all they 
  needed to know about the future of their home. When 
  millionaire developer Marcel d’Poseido, asked the 
  leader of the local delegation what the name of their 
  lucky, soon-to-be-bulldozed village was he was met 
  with a glare, an obscene gesture and the dialect 
  expletive “klova!”  
  Not realising the true import of the word, and 
  hearing only the associations with the exotic spice 
  trade of antiquity, d’Poseido deemed the name a 
  fitting one for the centrepiece of his new resort. 
  Within three years the hugely expensive resort was 
  born. The centrepiece of this triumph of tasteless 
  wealth was Port Klova, a sanitised reproduction of 
  the very villages that had been destroyed to make 
  way for the marinas, swimming pools, guesthouses, 
  auditoriums, restaurants, VR suites, animal parks 
  and airstrips of “Atlantis Amhara”. Vatgrown 
  offworld pearl oysters were introduced to the 
  shallows of Klova Bay for the entertainment of those 
  who fancied themselves as pearl divers. The Zuranist 
  natives were employed as porters, kitchen staff, 
  maids and ‘local colour’ in the wreckage of their 
  former lives. 
  Unfortunately for the builders of Atlantis Amhara 
  their surveys had neglected to take account of local 
  environmental conditions, this was to cost their 
  spectacular ‘city of the waves’ dear within the first 
  year of opening. Atlantis Universal Leisure’s hurry to 
  turn natural splendour into vast profit had led them 
  to overlook a notable feature of Klovan flora. Once 
  every seven years, as the moon Selash waxed to full 
  in the warmest days of summer, the beautiful Klovan 
  Nightbloom, a native plant not dissimilar to the 
  Terran orchid, released its pollen onto the night air. 
  The tiny wind-blown seeds entered the ventilation 
  and air-conditioning systems of Atlantis Amhara 
  and, within hours, the horror began. Powerfully 
  hallucinogenic when inhaled by humans the spores 
  caused an outbreak of violent somnambulant 
  incidents among the rich and pampered guests. 
  Those awoken by the first screams of the dying or 
  injured found themselves in an incomprehensible 
  nightmare world from which it seemed only atavistic 
  violence could protect them. 
  Rescue parties arriving from Loango the following 
  morning found carnage among the guests. Almost all 
  the visitors to the exotic paradise resort were 
  dead, injured or unhinged by their experiences. As 
  news leaked out about the “Port Klova Holocaust” 
  Atlantis Universal Leisure’s stock plummeted. Within 
  a month Marcel d’Poseido was a laughing stock and, 
  after the class action suit by the survivors of that 
  terrible night, a reviled pauper. A year after it had 
  opened, the vastly expensive Atlantis Amhara was 
  deserted. 
  The Zuranist locals, who had long used the 
  hallucinogenic pollen of the Klovan Nightbloom in 
  their religious rites, returned to the ruined holiday 
  resort and attempted to rebuild their lives. In the 
  stunning lodges where the elite of the Republic had 
  slept under silken sheets the Klovan Zuranists built 
  their family homes. Golf courses were planted with 
  crops, while in ther lagoons where the rich and 
  famous had once snorkelled and sailed the Klovans 
  fished and dove for pearls. As the centuries passed 
  the Republic fell and stories of the Port Klova 
  Nightmare became conflated with existing folktales. 
  By the time the Klovans had struggled through the 
  hard times of the Great Blinding stories of the 
  arrogant Atlanteans who had come up from the sea 
  to rule the land, before being repulsed in a single 
  night by Saint Moonflower, were part of their cultural 
  mythology. Even Marcel d’Poseido passed into myth 
  as Saint Poseido, father of the oysters.  
  The arrival of the strutting Amharians in the 43rd 
  century seemed a repeat of the Klovans’ folk-tales in 
  many ways. Once more a wealthy and arrogant 
  foreign power had come to steal away the good 
  things of life and make the Zuranists slaves. Even 
  the offer of the Elixir of Clear Vision could not 
  disguise the truth of what was, to the quick wits of 
  the Klovans, just another type of slavery. The 
  Amharians were made of sterner stuff than their 
  Republican predecessors however. Although startled 
  by what they first took as a Zuranist revolt the 
  veteran Aga troops of the Holy Speaker were not 
  repulsed by a midsummer night of hallucinations and 
  maddened murders. The money to be made selling 
  the products of rich pearl beds of Klova Bay to the 
  decadent Imperial aristocracy was colossal, too vast a 
  source of wealth to wait on bad dreams. When the 
  cause of the seasonal mania was finally discovered 
  the hallucinogenic effects of the Klovan Nightbloom 
  were transformed from a sacramental tool of the 
  Zuranists into a recreational drug for jaded rakes and 
  pampered ladies of distant Ghonda. 
  During the centuries of Amharian rule Klova became 
  a byword for hedonistic, indolent enjoyment among 
  the elite of the empire. This formerly little-known city 
  on the coast of the Obscure Sea (so called for 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  94 
  both its great distance from Ghonda, and for the sea 
  mists which regular rose from it in the cooler winter 
  month) became a place of perverse pilgrimage for 
  both the Amharian gentry resident in Calabar and 
  those of the Amharian nobility too idle or decadent to 
  enjoy the vigorous pursuits followed in the Manshi 
  lodges of their elders. The great influx of leu into the 
  city saw it regain something of the lustre of its initial 
  Republican founding, with Klova once more being the 
  playground of the powerful and the favoured harbour 
  of pleasure cruisers. Although the wide variety of 
  spices grown in the hot, moist Klovan hinterlands 
  were officially its major source of income, anyone 
  who was anyone knew the truth of the city’s 
  prosperity. During the height of the empire the 
  saying “voyaging to the land of spice” was an almost 
  universal euphemism for narcotic intoxication. 
  The apparently miraculous recovery of natural 
  human sight among Calabari newborns during the 
  late 48th brought a brief-lived reign of terror to Klova, 
  as to the other lands of Amharian Empire. Never a 
  stronghold of the Universalist faith the Klovan 
  Calabaris had long since succeeded in parleying their 
  various services to the visiting nobility into a small 
  contraband trade in the Elixir of Clear Vision. When 
  the local Amharian authorities realised that the birth 
  of sighted Zuranist newborns exceeded the numbers 
  possible they reacted with the viciousness which has 
  blackened the Amharians’ name ever since. Curfews, 
  roundups and executions went on for several weeks, 
  before the long-suffering Klovans finally rose in mass 
  revolt and threw their despised and bloated masters 
  out. 
  In the last two centuries Klova has transformed 
  itself from the sump into which all of Amharia’s 
  more degenerate lusts were poured into a wealthy 
  centre of export trade. Klovan pearls, formerly the 
  preserve of the Amharian nobility, are sought by the 
  rich and emulous across Amharia for their fabulous 
  lustre, while the pollen of the Klovan Nightbloom has 
  become a popular recreational drug in many of the 
  city-states of New Calabar and beyond. The Serene 
  Council, which governs the various clans of Klova, 
  has also led the way in moving the populace from a 
  subsistence level of agriculture to exporting a wide 
  variety of native Amharan spices. In recent years the 
  fame of the city and its glamorous, well-maintained 
  centre have spread far and wide, with visitors from 
  distant lands sailing to Klova in search of the city’s 
  fabled splendour and riches. 
  The Locus of Intermittent Being 
  The Bintaru-worshipping Obun tribes of New 
  Calabar, long isolated from their human neighbours 
  by both distance and historic enmity, know more of 
  the mysteries of the tropical jungles than any other. 
  Although they are the masters of their environment, 
  surviving and flourishing where a human would 
  soon die of starvation, poisoning or disease, there are 
  some places that even these lords of the forests fear 
  to tread. Although they are loathe to speak of such 
  things to outsiders over the centuries scattered 
  references in Obun fables and vague travellers tales 
  have hinted that deep in the Calabari jungle is a 
  place of ancient power where the very fabric of the 
  world is weakened. Legend has it that a person who 
  finds this place is able to take upon himself the 
  powers of the ancient Obun gods, reshaping the 
  world in accordance with his own will as easily as a 
  child shapes clay.  
  Whether truth, exaggeration or outright fable, tales 
  of the awesome Locus of Intermittent Being have 
  lately drawn explorers to the city of Loango from 
  across New Amhara. Every other week some foreign 
  treasure hunter or local bored of his workaday life 
  will gather up a cadre of ne’er-do-wells and head into 
  the Calabari jungles in search of the reclusive Obun 
  tribes. Even those explorers who manage to negotiate 
  the services of an Obun guide, and who manage to 
  avoid the savage Obun hunters known as the 
  Vhemthoro Oba, more usually reap death than glory 
  for their efforts. The few devastated human wrecks 
  who stagger back to human lands with strange, pre-
  human artefacts clutched in their palsied hands are 
  never the same again, refusing to ever speak of what 
  they have experienced far from human eyes. 
  Those few who take the time to research what 
  ancient records survived the days of the Greast 
  Blinding, the Amharian Empire and the excesses of 
  the Calabari revolt occasionally happen upon 
  Republican-era 
  scientific 
  reports 
  regarding 
  the 
  interior of New Calabar. Obscure, barely understood 
  references to “non-linear temporal/spatial psycho-
  reactive causal anomalies” are accompanied by page 
  on page of esoteric equations, topographical maps 
  and direful predictions. Of course, when combined 
  with the folktales to which these antiquarian 
  treasure-hunters give credence, the yellowed pages 
  and flickering data-crystals of the Republican 
  scientists act as a further spur to exploration. 
  The truth of the Locus of Intermittent Being is one 
  that the treasure hunters of modern New Calabar 
  have never yet fathomed. In truth it is not a 
  
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  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  95 
  single location in the Calabari jungle, but rather an 
  ever-shifting interface between the everyday world 
  and a bizarre realm where the power of the mind is 
  able to shape reality. The strength of the connection 
  between New Calabar and the strange netherworld of 
  the Locus varies in unfathomable patterns. For 
  decades there might be no hint of it, or only bizarre 
  mirages reflected from the lowering clouds, while at 
  other times it may shimmer rapidly in and out of 
  existence in far flung locations. The greatest mystics 
  of the Vhemthoro Obun have gleaned some slight 
  understanding of this place and, for reasons 
  unknown to any but themselves, try to ensure that 
  all intelligent beings avoid its manifestations.  
  The Locus has had two previous heights of activity 
  since the Fall of the Republic, both corresponding to 
  record high levels of solar activity in New Amhara’s 
  sun. It is no surprise to researchers able to decipher 
  the bizarre dating system used by the Vhemthoro 
  Obun that these dates correspond to the early 42nd 
  and the late 48th century in the Orthodox calendar. 
  During these periods, already infamous in Amharan 
  history, the jungles of New Calabar were the site of 
  numerous prodigies. Creatures utterly unknown on 
  New Amhara were seen, while people thought lost in 
  the jungle years before re-appeared with no 
  recollection of their names or of their former lives, 
  the skies darkened in daytime, distances became 
  distorted and the landscape reshaped itself like a 
  living thing. Unbeknown to any but the Vhenthoro 
  Obun mystics it seems that the Locus of Intermittent 
  Being is entering a new cycle of heightened activity. 
  The Hebesh Nations 
  The Hebesh nations are a collection of minor states 
  that have arisen around the Tempestuous Sea in the 
  years since the Amharian imperial collapse. “Hebesh” 
  is an Amharian word meaning 'scraps' or 'sweepings', 
  and was initially used as a pejorative by the 
  disenfranchised Amharian nobility who remembered 
  a time when their writ extended over the entire sea. 
  Although most inhabitants of the Hebesh nations 
  identify themselves primarily with their own locality 
  the name has recently been adopted as a badge of 
  honour among progressive politicians. To many 
  living in the new states, the distinction of Hebeshi is 
  slowly 
  becoming 
  a 
  mark 
  of 
  their 
  freedom, 
  representative of their continued defiance of both the 
  greatly disliked former rulers, and the rising power of 
  Zalkhi. 
  Most of the scores of islands states and tribal 
  homelands of the Hebesh are small in 
  population, influence and interest to the casual 
  visitor. The reach of a warlord, tribal council or 
  federal body usually extends only over a group of 
  islands or an easily traversed region limited by 
  natural borders. Although some Hebeshi rulers 
  attempt to extend their influence as far as their 
  warships and flying boats can reach, these petty 
  empires are usually short-lived and self-defeating 
  thanks largely to the damage they cause to their own 
  people’s prosperity. The only power to maintain a 
  meaningful military presence in the Tempestuous Sea 
  is the semi-piratical fleet of the self-styled Supreme 
  Oba, but even this force often seems more intent on 
  exacting ‘safe passage tolls’ or pursuing private 
  vendettas than in outright conquest. 
  Although not as glorious as warfare, trade is a 
  greater lever of long-term power and influence in the 
  Hebesh nations. Except at the height of the autumn 
  storm season the Tempestuous Sea is thick with 
  ships sailing wherever the lure of profit leads. The 
  nexus of this trade is, of course, the immensely rich 
  port 
  of 
  Edul, 
  although 
  routes 
  beyond 
  the 
  Tempestuous Sea to Mokum and Loango have 
  recently become more popular. 
  Jhanbar 
  The city-state of Jhanbar is a prosperous domain 
  situated on the forested eastern coast of New Darfur. 
  An ally and client of Amharia since the early days of 
  the Amharian Empire has long been a centre of 
  Amharian Orthodox feeling in the largely Zuranist 
  east of the Tempestuous Sea. Although Jhanbar is the 
  nearest mainland area to the Khalasei Islands and is 
  historically associated with them due to blood and 
  cultural ties the divergent religions of the two 
  nations has recently led to political tension between 
  the two. If the piratical raids of the Supreme Oba of 
  On Khalasei were the sum of Jhanbar’s worries it’s 
  governing class would feel no great concern. In 
  recent years however the Zomma of Zalkhi has 
  expressed his interest in ‘closer ties’ with Jhanbar, 
  particularly in regards to its famous timber reserves 
  and the vast Jhanbar Bank oilfield. 
  Many visitors deem the verdant forests around 
  Jhanbar the true glory of the city, one that outweighs 
  its wide, clean streets and well-maintained Imperial-
  era buildings. The trees of the Jhanbar forest are 
  unique in that they are the result of ancient genetic 
  engineering during the days of the Second Republic. 
  As New Amharan mining became less profitable 
  during the latter years of the Republic, the city 
  government of Jhanbar hit upon the idea that 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  96 
  New Amhara’s thick, oxygen-rich atmosphere was 
  the perfect growing medium for modified trees. 
  Bioengineers were invited to the city and within a 
  few years had produced varieties of trees whose 
  woods had the strength of steel, others whose fruits 
  yielded hydrocarbons, and others the never-drying 
  saps of which glistened with shifting colours in 
  sunlight. In the last years of the Republic Jhanbari 
  custom woods became a major export of New 
  Amhara, but not in themselves enough to prevent the 
  economic collapse of the Fall.  
  After the Fall the people of Jhanbar, largely of 
  Amharian or offworld descent and Orthodox in 
  sentiment, maintained their love affair with their 
  unique trees. Tree-farming and wood crafting 
  remained honoured professions among Jhanbaris, 
  who used their unmatched materials and skills to 
  create beautiful ships. The Great Blinding, although 
  it struck Jhanbar as hard as anywhere on New 
  Amhara, was unable to destroy Jhanbari culture. The 
  chaos of the early years, a nightmare of clan warfare, 
  foreign raids and pirate attacks, was gradually 
  replaced by a conservative oligarchy based on age, 
  local area knowledge, and – as metal refining was 
  beyond the capacity of a largely blind society – 
  mastery of all-important woodcraft skills.  
  The Jhanbaris by and large welcomed the advent of 
  the Amharian Empire across the Tempestuous Sea in 
  the 43rd century. Submission to aeroskiff-riding lords 
  of Ghonda was a small price to pay for the promise of 
  the marvellous Elixir of Clear Vision and the 
  guarantee of an end to the late uncertainties. By the 
  time they submitted to Amharian governors the 
  Jhanbari people had already established their own 
  unique technocracy, in a very particular sense of the 
  ancient word techne (”skill”). In a bizarre, but 
  strangely intuitive leap of logic, the Jhanbaris of the 
  post-Blinding days came to the realisation that the 
  greatest 
  assets 
  needed 
  in 
  a 
  leader 
  were 
  thoughtfulness, carefulness and dedication. By 
  coincidence these were the same virtues displayed by 
  the greatest woodcrafters of Jhanbar. When the 
  Amharians arrived they were startled to find a state 
  where fitness to rule was judged not by wealth, 
  might or cunning, but by patience and obsessive care 
  over ones’ work. 
  Even after the Elixir of Clear Vision restored the 
  sight of the Jhanbari populace they maintained their 
  curious tradition of local rule. Election to high office 
  in Jhanbar was, from that time forward, decided by 
  the judging of wood crafted artworks made by the 
  candidates by a panel of judges from outside the 
  local area. The principle behind the annual 
  election was that anyone who took such obsessive 
  care over their art would be both a fine thinker and 
  craftsman, as well as being unlikely be interested in 
  the 
  opportunities 
  for 
  corruption 
  and 
  self-
  advancement presented by politics. It soon became a 
  criminal offence to refuse an offer of office based on 
  this selection by art.  
  Despite the high ideals of the Jhanbaris the 
  “election by skill” system they instituted had one 
  fatal flaw. Although the vast majority of governors 
  elected by the system were indeed the sober and 
  thoughtful men sought for, they were ultimately 
  dependent on an Amharian-dominated civil service to 
  translate their sensible decisions into policies. This 
  civil service often deemed the decrees of distant 
  Ghonda or the orders of the Amharian dejazmatch of 
  Jhanbar of greater import than the needs of the 
  Jhanbari people. During the centuries of Amharian 
  misrule many unique varieties of Jhanbari tree 
  became extinct through over logging. Passing fads 
  among the nobility for ornaments of Jhanbari 
  gossamerwood or furniture of oilbark cedar could, 
  and did, cause irreparable damage to the Jhanbari 
  forests. The devastation of their beloved trees was 
  aggravated by the coastal pollution caused by 
  reckless Amharian oil drilling on the Jhanbar Bank. 
  More than one riot among the Jhanbari people arose 
  over the way their once pristine coast was tainted by 
  the 
  greed 
  of 
  Amharians 
  and 
  their 
  Jhanbari 
  collaborators. 
  Much as they resented the overbearing arrogance of 
  the Amharian Agas many Jhanbaris were shocked 
  and dismayed at the collapse of the Empire in the 
  4700s. Centuries of wealth brought to Jhanbar by the 
  hard work of its people were an irresistible target for 
  the pirates that plagued the Tempestuous Sea in the 
  wake of the collapse. The Jhanbaris found their 
  delightful city transformed into an armed camp as 
  the always-fractious people of the Khasalei Isles 
  assailed their coasts and the Ukari of the Mountains 
  of the Stars poured into their hinterland. The brief 
  Amharian resurgence of the 4930s, although it 
  stabilised the Jhanbari frontiers, made them a prime 
  target for retaliation when the Amharians finally 
  retreated from New Darfur in 4935. To this day 
  Jhanbari traders sailing to Mokum, Edul, Port 
  Venlosch or distant Loango arm themselves and their 
  finely crafted clipper ships to the teeth. 
  Since the establishment of Zalkhi as the dominant 
  power in their part of the world the Jhanbaris have 
  moved warily. The ‘requests’ of the Zomma are not 
  lightly dismissed by a small nation sandwiched 
  between the zealous armies of Zalkhi and 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  97 
  the greedy raiders of the Khasalei archipelago. In 
  recent years stories have reached Jhanbar from 
  islands around the Tempestuous Sea that speak of 
  dire celestial portents resulting from failure to accede 
  to the demands of the Zomma. The news of the 
  overnight destruction of the pirate nest of Melkabar 
  by an unanticipated shooting star has caused a crisis 
  of faith and confidence in the city. Despite their 
  repeated requests for Amharian support it appears 
  that the Universalists of Jhanbar may soon face the 
  harsh choice of death at the hands of the Zalkhite 
  legions, enslavement by a foreign hegemony, or exile 
  from their ancestral groves. It is a choice none will 
  make lightly. 
  Mokad-nar, the Hidden City 
  The upland valleys of the southeastern Mountains 
  of the Stars have been the home of New Amhara’s 
  Ukari since days of the Second Republic. Originally 
  imported from Kordeth and Aylon as indentured 
  workers for the rich mines of New Amhara the Ukari, 
  for all their skill as geologists and miners, were 
  ultimately 
  made 
  redundant 
  by 
  technological 
  progress. In one of their more ‘enlightened’ decisions 
  in 3885AD the Planetary Senate presented the 
  unsettled and seemingly worthless Tlinto Tana 
  highlands of the eastern Mountains of the Stars to 
  the resident Ukari as a homeland in perpetuity.  
  As anti-alien hostility became more marked during 
  the last years of the Republic the Ukar of the Tlinto 
  Tana (a name meaning “bridge to the stars” in their 
  native Uryari tongue) gradually withdrew from 
  contact with outsiders. The few urban settlements in 
  the area were abandoned as the Ukar clans reverted 
  to the primitive and largely subterranean mode of 
  existence their ancestors had once known on 
  Kordeth. Half-forgotten traditions were revived, 
  abandoned mine workings were converted to warrens 
  and the herds of sheep and chervin imported 
  centuries before by an over-optimistic livestock 
  company reverted to a wild, free-roaming mode of 
  life. During the first eventful century of New 
  Amhara’s isolation from humanspace the Tlinto Tana 
  became a region of ill repute among the humans of 
  the coastlands. Any who entered those lands was 
  unlikely to return alive. 
  The terrible advent of the Blinding Sickness by and 
  large passed the Ukari of the highlands by. It was 
  only when a small group of humans seeking a safe 
  haven from the chaos of the coasts blundered upon 
  the ruins of an abandoned mining settlement and 
  began to establish a life for themselves that 
  the Ukari of the Dwelthmid clan became aware of the 
  situation. Although the younger and more aggressive 
  members of the tribe voted that the hated humans be 
  driven off and killed their elders urged patience. 
  Perhaps Anikrunta intended these blind but stubborn 
  humans as a trial of worthiness for his children. 
  After strenuous debates a watch was established.  
  Over the months the Ukari watched many of the 
  blind 
  humans 
  lost 
  their 
  lives 
  climbing 
  the 
  treacherous slopes of the highlands, but the 
  remainder gradually accustomed themselves to their 
  new and dangerous home. It was deemed significant 
  that the few sighted humans displayed a care for 
  their blind kin that was almost Ukari in the level of 
  its devotion. After the humans had been settled in 
  their valley for a year and a season taedwon Vodurn 
  of the Dwelthmid happened on a blind human who 
  had become lost and separated from his kin. Rather 
  than taking his blood for Anikrunta Vodurn chose to 
  speak to the human in his halting Urthish, asking 
  the man what his business was in the mountains. 
  Unable to see that his interlocutor was one of the 
  feared killers of the highlands the human introduced 
  himself as Jacob van Dyr and invited the taedwon to 
  share his food. Constrained by the rituals and 
  customs of his culture the Ukar had no alternative 
  but to accept this unconditional offer of hospitality 
  and, as human and alien ate together, each began to 
  learn the history of the other. 
  A week later the sighted humans of the settlement 
  were amazed to see their neighbour, whom they had 
  given up for dead, walking towards his home in the 
  company of an honour guard of Ukari. For the past 
  week van Dyr had lived among the subterranean 
  Ukari, never realising that they were anything other 
  than human. It seemed to taedwon Vodurn that the 
  speed with which the blind human adapted to the 
  lightless Ukari lifestyle was more a sign from his 
  gods than mere adaptability; a sign that humans and 
  Ukari could live and work together as they had long 
  before. As Vodurn and van Dyr explained the tale of 
  their meeting to the assembled humans and Ukar the 
  foundations of one of the strangest cultures of New 
  Amhara was laid. 
  Long years of exposure to one another’s culture 
  gradually changed the humans and Ukar of Mokad-
  Nar (“new settlement” in Ukari). As the humans 
  slowly adapted to the lightless lifestyle of the aliens 
  the Ukari slowly became less clannish and more 
  accepting of their human neighbours. Universal 
  schooling in the Baa’Mon writing of the Ukari 
  allowed the blind humans to record their culture; this 
  in turn broadened the intellectual horizons of 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  98 
  the sheltered and relatively ignorant Ukari. An 
  attempt to school humans in the use of the ‘near 
  sense’ common to almost all the psychic alien race 
  was a dismal failure, resulting in years of psychosis 
  among the human guinea pigs and rampant Urge 
  among their Ukari tutors.  
  Perhaps the greatest invention of the combined 
  human-Ukari society was invention of the sonar 
  helm in the 45th century, the result of decades of 
  slow, painful, and often-fatal research. Utilising the 
  sonic technology found in the ancient mining 
  equipment the growing communities shared, the 
  vestiges of human medical knowledge that had 
  survived the Blinding Sickness, Ukari psychic 
  powers, and a rigorous system of research it 
  eventually became possible to create masks that 
  allowed the blind majority of humans to see their 
  environment without recourse to their corrupted optic 
  nerves. Although the first of these masks was little 
  more than a proximity sensor the technology was 
  slowly improved until the wearer could sense their 
  environment in a manner that sighted humans could 
  only imagine. By the time the masks were complete 
  both human and Ukari culture had been profoundly 
  changed by the project. The human and Ukari 
  settlements had grown together into a single city, in 
  which the philosophical questions the sonic masks 
  raised on the nature of perception and being were the 
  prime focus of intellectual life. Through the cross-
  fertilisation of Ukari metaphysics and human science 
  Mokad-Nar had become the centre of a racially mixed 
  society centred on the collection of knowledge for the 
  purpose of greater perception of reality. 
  Centuries after the Blinding Sickness had first 
  struck the fruits of the unique blend of human and 
  Ukari culture made themselves known in the coastal 
  lands of the western Tempestuous Sea. Men who 
  spoke with strange accents and wore elaborately 
  carved brazen masks began to make their appearance 
  in the cities of the coasts. Paying their way with 
  nuggets of precious metals, rare uncut gemstones 
  and artefacts of a kind unseen since the days before 
  the Blinding Sickness these masked pilgrims, who 
  soon became known as the Resonant Lords, 
  proceeded about their business surrounded by a 
  mantle of mystery and fable that grew in the telling. 
  It was said that the masked monks sought to gather 
  all the knowledge of the world, that they never raised 
  a hand in their own defence, that they could kill with 
  a word, that they worshipped gods known to no 
  other, and that they could see through walls or 
  darkness.  
  As the masked monks spread about the coasts of 
  the Tempestuous Sea on their mysterious errands 
  rumours of these Resonant Lords of Mokad-Nar 
  preceded them. People came to see them as 
  harbingers of good or ill luck, repositories of hidden 
  histories, or the keepers of forbidden occult secrets. 
  At the height of the Amharian Empire even the feared 
  Chamber of Eyes were unable to fathom the secrets of 
  these laconic visitors from afar. In the early 49th 
  century some even went so far as to ascribe either 
  the fall of the mighty Amharian Empire solely to 
  their strange and subtle influence on human affairs. 
  To all the questions that their presence raised the 
  masked monks made no answer, merely continuing 
  on their strange journeys and keeping their own 
  counsel. 
  The Vogandi Preserves 
  The sweltering, pestilential jungles at the northern 
  tip of the continent of Amharia have long been a 
  mysterious and dangerous land. Inaccessible by 
  virtue of latitude, terrain and prevailing sea currents 
  even at the height of the Second Republic they were 
  for centuries home to little more than scattered 
  bioresearch stations and short-lived communities of 
  refuseniks and survivalists from the core worlds. 
  Vogandi’s status as an embarrassing blank on the 
  map was changed irrevocably when a wealthy 
  Democratist businessman had the bright idea of 
  turning the jungle into a nature preserve. This 
  “Jungleland” would be the home of alien creatures 
  from a hundred different worlds, the greatest nature 
  park in the Republic and the biggest tourist 
  attraction on New Amhara. Over the objections of 
  traumatised ecologists the Planetary Senate approved 
  the idea in 3619, and within a year, the first alien 
  creatures and plants were being introduced into 
  carefully demarcated and isolated stretches of cleared 
  ground. 
  For several decades, tourists from both New 
  Amharan natives and offworlders visited the air-
  conditioned hotels of Jungleland to see creatures 
  from 
  a 
  spectacular 
  variety 
  of 
  alien 
  tropical 
  environments. 
  Bio-scientists 
  and 
  ecologists 
  interested in the effect of environment on evolution 
  joined the throng, working in a large, sprawling 
  campus on the edge of the resort. Elaborate climate 
  control systems modified oxygen content and air 
  pressure, as well as mitigating or intensifying 
  ultraviolet and visible solar radiation over the 
  various preserves, mimicking the effects of a hundred 
  alien biomes. For several years in the 39th 
  century Jungleland enjoyed exclusive rights 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  99 
  to the recovered DNA of the Terran Bengal Tiger and 
  trumpeted the unique status of these iconic animals. 
  For a time the famous tiger ‘Sher Kahn’ became as 
  popular an advertising motif for New Amhara as 
  were portraits of dancing Zalkhites, grinning 
  Khasaleite sailors or landscape shots of the 
  Amharian Highlands.  
  As with so much else, the recession of the 40th 
  century devastated Jungleland. As the core worlds 
  found new fashionable resorts, and New Amhara’s 
  resources and money dried up, it proved untenable to 
  maintain a high-technology resort thousands of 
  miles from the nearest major city. By the last half-
  century of the Republic, Jungleland was a deserted 
  and overgrown relic lost in a jungle rapidly 
  reclaiming its once pristine structures. In 3970 a 
  forest fire destroyed the faux-native coastal town of 
  Olmanriya, originally built on the coast north of Edul 
  to act as a support town for Jungleland. After the Fall 
  the Vogandi Preserves gradually reverted from the 
  tailored environments to the native Amharian flora. 
  Thousands of penned creatures died as automated 
  systems failed and their habitats became unsuitable 
  for them. This silent catastrophe passed entirely 
  unnoticed by a world with larger and more urgent 
  concern of the Blinding Sickness. 
  It was during the chaotic times of the Blinding 
  Sickness that Olmanriya gained a new lease of life. 
  Originating as a shantytown of desperate refugees 
  from the disorder of the Khasalei Isles the town of 
  moored boats and stilt-cottages became the centre of 
  a roaring trade in stolen, smuggled and ‘found’ 
  goods after the establishment of the Amharian 
  Empire. Although never a match for the great trading 
  city of Edul-I-Aga Olmanriya survived by supplying 
  the necessities of life – primarily medicines and the 
  Elixir of Clear Vision – to those who saw the 
  impenetrable swamplands and tropical forest as their 
  last refuge from the heavy hand of empire. Treasure 
  hunters who heard tell of a marvellous lost city 
  named Jonchand supplemented the number of 
  immigrants to Olmanriya. 
  Over the centuries the people of the Vogandi 
  Preserves learned to cope with the multiplicity of wild 
  beasts that now roamed their jungle home, killing 
  those they could and fleeing from what did not fall to 
  their often primitive weapons. Several fearsome 
  species of mutated Aylonian biradials have emerged 
  as the top predators in the jungles, with fast-moving 
  Slekkers, mighty Torgons and even rare Reapers 
  (known to the natives as “killing trees”) wandering 
  the vast forests. The biradials have taken on a 
  totemic, almost godlike status among some 
  tribes 
  of 
  the 
  interior, 
  who 
  sometimes 
  offer 
  propitiatory sacrifices of intruders to the beasts. 
  During the millennium and more they have spent on 
  New Amhara these creatures seem to have developed 
  the 
  ability 
  to 
  detect 
  metal 
  oxides, 
  perhaps 
  metabolising them as a dietary supplement. Although 
  little known to outsiders it seems that the refusal of 
  the inland tribes to use refined metals in their tools 
  in preference to stone or wood may be based on more 
  than mere superstition. 
  On Khasalei (The Khasalei Islands) 
  The Khasalei archipelago stretches like a curved 
  claw forming the northern limits of the Tempestuous 
  Sea. Comprised of thousands of islands ranging from 
  sub-continental to miniscule in size the Khasalei 
  Isles are a rich and diverse melting pot. Long the 
  haven of exiles, fugitives and pirates the Isles has 
  been a thorn in the side of any formal government 
  that has sought to dominate New Amhara. As early 
  as a century after the first landing on the planet, 
  Zuranist tribes outraged by the demands of the 
  offworld-run government centred in New Darfur, had 
  fled to the Isles seeking freedom and peace. Freedom 
  they may have found, but peace eluded them.  
  Over the centuries of the Consolidation and the 
  early Republican era the Khasalei Isles, a largely 
  unprepossessing part of an obscure world, became a 
  refuge for anyone seeking to elude the long arm of 
  Republican law. Although the Republic might storm 
  and rage at the Amharan Planetary Senate about the 
  range and volume of illicit goods, experimental drugs 
  and unlicensed biotechnologies emerging from the 
  Khasalei Isles there was little the government could 
  do. Although the great Zion’s Crown naval starbase 
  at first seemed likely to stem the flow of vice 
  emerging from the huge archipelago the problems of 
  planetary versus fleet spheres of responsibility, as 
  well as the right offers to the right people in 
  planetary traffic control, ensured that unregistered 
  smuggler ships met with a minimum of interference. 
  As New Amhara’s economy grew weaker in the later 
  days of the Republic the untaxed wealth of the 
  Khasalei 
  had 
  an 
  ever-greater 
  influence 
  on 
  government policy. 
  The isolation of New Amhara from the greater 
  jumpweb after 4002 saw little essential change to the 
  economy or society of the Khasalei archipelago. 
  Although some concerns went to the wall as they lost 
  necessary offworld supplies, most adapted to the new 
  situation. 
  Starships 
  and 
  microfactories 
  were 
  mothballed 
  or 
  cannibalised 
  as 
  high 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  100 
  technology grew harder to come by, and the 
  Khasaleites reverted to a semi-agrarian existence. 
  The Firstcomer movement found fertile soil for their 
  brand 
  of 
  bigotry 
  and 
  madness 
  among 
  the 
  disenfranchised libertarians of the Isles, and many of 
  the worst attacks on Democratist interests on New 
  Amhara were launched from obscure islands and 
  atolls in this vast chain. 
  The Great Blinding struck the Khasalei Isles hard. 
  The cutthroat traditions of the Isles rated co-
  operation and mutual trust low on the ladder of 
  survival traits and, as the majority of the human 
  population slowly went blind during the 4120s, 
  society collapsed. Many aliens, irrationally blamed 
  for the affliction of their human neighbours, met 
  their ends at Firstcomer hands. Other aliens struck 
  before the humans could, then fled to other isles in 
  waterborne exoduses. Those few humans still able 
  too see sought to escape from the thraldom to which 
  many 
  were 
  condemned, 
  forming 
  piratical 
  brotherhoods of the sighted and adding further 
  bloody chaos to the situation. Although none know 
  for certain it is possible that within a generation two-
  thirds of the pre-Blinding population died before their 
  time. 
  When the Amharian Empire arrived in the 
  maelstrom of ‘devil take the hindmost’ savagery then 
  prevalent in the Isles it enforced only a semblance of 
  order 
  on 
  the 
  Khasalei 
  peoples. 
  The 
  empire 
  established a number of naval bases and depots at 
  key chokepoints within the archipelago, usually 
  along the shipping routes and straits through which 
  the tribute shipments from New Darfur would pass. 
  These mighty fortifications were governed by a 
  number of mutually emulous rival dejazmatches, 
  who soon became hereditary lords of their own petty 
  domains. The scattered Amharian bases acted as the 
  anchor points for a feudal relationship with the 
  existing elites of the Isles, enforced by Amharian 
  gunboats and aeroskiffs. In return for access to the 
  Elixir of Clear Vision for themselves and their 
  favoured supporters many pirate warlords threw their 
  lot in with the Amharians, acting as local tax 
  farmers, watchmen and bullyboys. 
  The collapse of the Amharian Empire and the 
  restoration of natural human sight in the late 4700s 
  saw the Khasalei Isles return to their immemorial 
  ‘business as usual’ of piracy, smuggling and feuding. 
  No longer dependent on the goodwill of a despised 
  foreign cult the sanctas (shamans and mystics) of 
  Khasaleite Zuranism became the focal point for 
  countless petty revolts. For the next two centuries the 
  archipelago was controlled by a dizzying 
  array of mutually rival minor states, few operating at 
  above a local (one island) level. These microstates 
  varied from pre-metallurgical to early industrial in 
  their technology base, and ran the gamut of political 
  organisation from true anarchy to totalitarian 
  dictatorship. Try as they might the remaining 
  dejazmatches were unable to enforce Amharian 
  feudalism on the Khasalei Isles, and the most 
  common form of polity to emerge was a loose, ever-
  shifting confederal system. 
  After two centuries of disunion and bloodshed the 
  Khasalei Isles have in recent years experienced 
  something of a unique phenomenon, a conqueror 
  who is both successful and popular! A substantial 
  area in the western half of the archipelago has in the 
  past decade fallen under the dominion of the island 
  of On Bekta, long famous for the creation of paper-
  thin, translucent ceramics that adorn the tables of 
  the wealthy across New Amhara. This island of 
  previously unremarkable craftsmen now answers to a 
  sea king who styles himself the “Acclaimed Supreme 
  Oba and Grand Admiral-General of All the Oceans”. 
  Islands free of outside rule since the 4800s have 
  recently found themselves threatened by naval forces 
  of unprecedented scale and brutality. Primitive 
  aeroplanes launched from improvised aircraft carriers 
  bomb both ports and inland cities which have not 
  known such military inequality since the height of 
  the Amharian Empire. 
  Quite how this “Supreme Oba” has managed to do 
  what thousands before have failed to eludes 
  observers, although many speculate at his discovery 
  of an ancient Republican weapon cache, or at his 
  having Zalkhite military backing. This last is not 
  beyond the bounds of possibility given that some 
  expansionist factions in the Zomma’s court consider 
  the Khasalei Isles a useful stepping-stone to the 
  eventual conquest of the Amharian lands. This recent 
  development, although a cause for concern among 
  the merchants of Edul, has ruffled no feathers in 
  distant Ghonda, where the noble advisers of Holy 
  Speaker Nesta deem the Supreme Oba merely the 
  inconsequential lord of a few pirate lairs. 
  The Free Simian State  
  It is said that any form of political entity can be 
  found in the Khasalei Isles, and this includes a state 
  ruled by the diminutive alien Gannok. Originally the 
  creation of the chaos of xenophobic mayhem 
  subsequent to the Great Blinding this minor enclave 
  based on an island in the eastern reaches of the 
  Khasalei archipelago has endured centuries 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  101 
  of mockery, contempt and bullying from its 
  neighbours. The Gannok have endured all these 
  things with the vigour and good humour that are 
  their racial hallmarks, countering ridicule with 
  smiles and insult with wickedly accurate mockery. 
  The Free Simian State had its genesis in the first 
  days of the Amharian Empire’s control of the 
  Khasalei Isles. Hearing of the Amharian arrival in the 
  Isles the Gannoks in the beleaguered and despised 
  island enclave were among the first to send tribute to 
  their local dejazmatch. Although their island was a 
  source of both rare spices and a small amount of 
  valuable thermocrystal the Gannok took advantage of 
  the prejudices that humans held about them and 
  presented their tribute entirely in the form of soft 
  fruit. In return for their loyal submission the 
  dejazmatch, a man not without a sense of the 
  absurd, awarded the Free Simian State with a charter 
  that guaranteed their autonomy within the empire in 
  exchange for an annual peppercorn rent of fruit. The 
  Gannok smiled, accepted the charter with a comical 
  (to the humans) solemnity, and revelled in their tax-
  free status for centuries thereafter, rapidly becoming 
  the centre of banking and money laundering in the 
  Isles. 
  During the rule of the Amharian Empire the Gannok 
  of the Free Simian State rapidly forged a reputation 
  as both able seamen and masterful craftsmen. With 
  their multiple prehensile limbs, excellent sense of 
  balance, fine hand-eye co-ordination and strong 
  constitution the Gannok rapidly renewed the 
  reputation as master mariners that they had earned 
  in the pre-Blinding days. Indeed, it became a 
  universal superstition in the Tempestuous Sea that a 
  ship without a Gannok aboard was doomed to a 
  sudden watery grave. Accusations of sabotage were 
  often bandied around by sailors resentful of the 
  higher pay awarded to Gannok seamen. Captains 
  who often owed money to the Free Simian State were 
  more politic. 
  With the fall of the Amharian Empire the special 
  and protected status that the Free Simian State had 
  long enjoyed went by the board. Although the charter 
  of alliance remained safe in the town hall of 
  Ooknaburg it was no protection from the greedy 
  pirates who sought to plunder the rumoured riches of 
  the Free Simian Bank. Some Gannok decided to stand 
  and fight the renewed aggression under which they 
  laboured, and often become fearsome corsair 
  captains in their own right, while a sizable minority 
  fled to join the Gannok expatriate communities 
  overseas. By the year 5000 it was possible to find 
  small communities of these famously clannish and 
  adaptable little aliens in any city on New Amhara 
  from Mokum to fabled Klova. 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  102 
  Game Rules 
  Amharan Spear Duelling 
  In marked contrast to the pre-eminent place the 
  sword hold in the armouries of the Known Worlds the 
  Agas of Amharia deem the war spear the noblest of 
  weapons. Similar in size and shape to medieval 
  European glaive pole-arms, although numerous 
  historic and regional variations in size, shape and 
  weight exist, the aristocracy of the Amharian Empire 
  evolved a rich fighting tradition with these weapons. 
  Amharian Aga (freeborn) characters may buy fencing 
  combat actions for use with their war spears, which 
  use the same stats as the spear in the Fading Suns 
  Rulebook. Fencing actions purchased for use with the 
  war spear may not be used with Known Worlds 
  sword fencing. 
  Mokad-narin Sonic Masks 
  The sonic masks of the mysterious monks of 
  Mokad-Nar are a substantial part of their mystique. 
  Linked to the nervous system of their user by a 
  system of invasive neural interface threads these 
  masks use an antler-like phased sonar array to grant 
  the wearer cybernetic senses equivalent to the Sixth 
  Sense psychic powers of Sensitivity, Darksense and 
  Shared Sense (the latter only within another masked 
  monk within line of sight). The sight conferred by a 
  For each day of exposure, or part thereof lasting 
  more than an hour, to New Amhara's strong UV a 
  player is required to make an End+Observe check for 
  their character. These tests must be made more 
  frequently during the fabled lightstorms that 
  accompany elevated sunspot activity on New 
  Amhara’s sun. 
  A failed test results in Observe being effectively 
  halved by dazzle.  
  On a fumbled End+Observe roll the character 
  permanently loses a point of Observe as UV damages 
  their eyes. This penalty can be removed by 
   
  © Jack Oldham, 2005 
  
  Lost World: New Amhara 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  103 
  cybernetic replacement of the eyes, or through TL7-8 
  medical technology. If Observe is permanently 
  reduced to 0 through fumbled tests the character is 
  permanently blinded. 
  The 
  wearing 
  of 
  Amharian-made 
  optishields 
  (essentially sunglasses) is sufficient to protect the 
  eyes in the majority of circumstances, and in the 
  centuries since human vision was restored the 
  possession of these items has become a status 
  symbol among most New Amharan social elites. 
  sonic mask functions regardless of light conditions, 
  and reduces Perception or combat penalties for fog by 
  half. A trained wearer may also use cybernetic 
  equivalents of the Bedlam psychic path powers of 
  Confusion, Resonate and Nerve Burn at the normal 
  Wyrd costs and use the Psyche power of Brainblast at 
  the normal Wyrd cost + 1 point of Vitality. A sonic 
  mask mask also gives a +2 bonus to Impress among 
  New Amharans. 
  Due to the unique manner in which sonic masks are 
  tailored for the wearer it is only possible to use them 
  after a hazardous TL5 cybernetic surgery procedure 
  and several years of training by the Resonant Lords 
  of Mokad-Nar. An untrained user who attempts to 
  don a stolen sonic mask without a thorough 
  understanding of the proper procedures will likely 
  have their hearing damaged by the overwhelming 
  cacophony of noise the pick-ups transmit. 
  Price: not for sale! 
  Ultraviolet Radiation 
  New Amhara’s primary is a very active star. This 
  not only makes New Amharan days brighter than 
  those of Earth, but can also have detrimental effects 
  on the unprotected eyes of visitors over the long-
  term. 
  Amharan Altitude Sickness 
  Although the atmosphere of New Amhara is richer 
  in oxygen than that of Earth the central plateau of 
  the Amharian continent lies at about 9000ft above 
  sea level. Non-natives without breathing apparatus 
  suffer a –2 to Vigour on the Amharan plateau. At this 
  altitude UV tests also suffer -2 penalty to the 
  End+Observe goal. Among the highest peaks of the 
  Amharian Massif or the Mountains of the Stars these 
  penalties are even more severe. Even the natives rely 
  upon bottled oxygen when attempting to climb 
  monstrous peaks like the 32,000ft Ras Dashen. 
  The Science of the Blinding 
  This particularly nasty disease was inspired 
  partially by an article on "light-activated" ion 
  channels in optical nerves by Richard R. Kramer a 
  copy of which can be found here:  
  http://mcb.berkeley.edu/faculty/NEU/krame
  rr.html
  Dedication 
  This shabby little effort is dedicated to a few people 
  without whose assistance I would have just given up.  
  So thanks to: 
  Jack Oldham – for showing me how an Imperial 
  Survey write-up *should* be done, and for nagging 
  me to meet the deadlines. 
  Angelus Michaels – for helping turn my poorly 
  thought-out ideas into a (semi-)coherent world. 
  Lisa McCarthy – for letting me pick her brains and 
  putting up with my 4am typing sprees. 
  Kathy Schadt – for her inspirational artwork. 
  Johann Eriksson – for insights into layout and pdf 
  conversion help. 
  The FSGames and FSChronicles YahooGroups – for 
  their feedback. 
  Holistic Design – for creating the Fading Suns 
  universe. 
   
   
  
  Variant Critical Failure and Success Rule 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  104 
  Variant Critical Failure and Success Rule 
  By Casey Standridge 
   
  This is a short variant for the (un)popular critical 
  rule presented in the Fading Suns Rulebook by HDI. 
  The set is wonderfully simple and runs off of the 
  suggestion that Arioch had back when this was being 
  discussed on the HDI Forums. 
  The simple premise is when a CRITICAL failure is 
  rolled (the Dreaded 20) the player should make 
  another roll based on half his goal. As an example, a 
  Drive (Landcraft) goal of 13 (Dex 5 + Drive 
  (Landcraft) 8) will be used. The variant is that even 
  with this low margin of success, a critical failure 
  (natural 20) only exist if the player rolls a SECOND 
  20 (unmodified by accenting and penalty conditions). 
  Only in this case, do the sad and catastrophic events 
  of the dread 20 commence. If the player merely rolls 
  an 8 (using his Drive (Landcraft) skill of 8 as the 
  goal), it is merely a failure and thus on indicates an 
  inability to collect the points in that roll. Conversely, 
  if the player manages to roll under this small 
  number, the Pancreator has smiled that near fatal 
  mistake has not only been avoided, but he manages 
  to garner some success from his mistake. If the 
  player had rolled a 5 under the above variant, he 
  would garner the Victory Points gained (though the 
  GM could rule that the points are halved along with 
  the goal, but this up the GM). 
  Example 
  Irem the Scraver is making a quick getaway from 
  the local constables in the Imperial City on 
  Byzantium Secondus. The skimmer craft he’s driving 
  is barreling along the cluttered streets of the city at 
  130km/h and he is taking fire from the gun ports of 
  the constables’ skimmer. He spots an alley that links 
  to a grav-train network on the north side which 
  seems a great escape route to lose the law, but the 
  turn is tight and fast approaching 
  The Gm rules that a total of 8-victory point needs to 
  be garnered so that Irem can navigate the turn safely. 
  He’s allowing to three rolls to gather the points. 
  Irem’s player rolls the dice three times against his 
  Drive (Landcraft) goal (we’ll use the above as 
  reference). She rolls 10, 6 and 20. Under the variant 
  rule, Irem’s player now rolls that d20 again to 
  “change” fate and with her new goal, the players 
  rolls a 6, the exact number (GM’s can allow the 
  character a critical success, but otherwise as per this 
  variant is just a success). This allows Irem the two 
  victory points he needs to make the turn safely, but 
  it’s none too perfect. 
  Irem jerks the wheel at the last possible second, 
  causing his skimmer to swing a little too wide. He 
  corrects at the last possible second and instead of 
  blowing through the building itself (or just blowing 
  himself up), he makes the turn and only ends up 
  scrapping against the wall of the building next to 
  him hard, causing sparks, pieces of skimmer body 
  and none too few sweat drops to fly from the 
  skimmer.  
  He speeds to safety, hearing a loud crash as the 
  constable tried the same move, but didn’t turn soon 
  enough. Irem smiles as skims the grav-tracks and 
  pulls onto the intercontinental speed way out of the 
  Imperial City and out into the urban countryside of 
  Byzantium Secundus. 
   
   
  
  Victory Point /Defeat Point System 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  10
  Victory Point /Defeat Point System 
  By Lionel Rudling 
   
  The Victory Chart is at the core of Fading Suns' 
  resolution system. It translates Successes into 
  Victory Points and Damage Dice. This allows a test 
  result to have a direct effect on the game world in 
  the form of goal modifiers, additional damage, and 
  measuring the duration of extended actions. 
  The system for failure is not as graduated. There is 
  no differentiation as we find for the success system. 
  A character either fails or critically fails with no 
  indication of the severity as we find with successes. 
  I have extended the philosophy of the successes to 
  failures so that the entire Victory Point System is 
  evenly graded. 
  The Expanded Rules  
  Failures 
  have 
  varying 
  degrees 
  just 
  like 
  Successes. They translate into Defeat Points (DP) 
  as Successes translate into Victory Points (VP). 
  Defeat Points are the opposite of Victory Points, and 
  the simplest way to work with them is to add a 
  column to the Victory Chart for Defeat Points. The DP 
  column repeats the VP column except for being 
  inverted (starts at the bottom and increases up). The 
  modified Victory Chart below 
  illustrates 
  this 
  clearly. 
  Example: A roll of 6 is either 
  2VP or 4DP (depending on 
  whether you got above or below 
  the 
  goal 
  number). 
  The 
  modification is also extended to 
  the Accenting Chart. 
  VP/DP Victory Chart  
  Victory Points / 
  Victory Dice 
  Result Defeat Points /  
  Defeat Dice 
  Accomplishments 
  Failings 
  1/+0 
  2 
  -6/-6 
  Barely satisfactory 
  Disastrous 
  1/+1 
  3-5 
  -5/-5 
  Mediocre 
  Pitiable 
  2/+2 
  6-8 
  -4/-4 
  Pretty good 
  Laughable 
  3/+3 
  9-11 
  -3/-3 
  Good job 
  Poor 
  4/+4 
  Just as Critical Successes 
  result when you roll exactly 
  the goal number, so Critical 
  Failures result when one misses the goal number 
  by one. Critical Failures double the resulting Defeat 
  Points just like Critical Success double the resulting 
  Victory Points. A natural 20 is no longer a Critical 
  Failure. 
  12-14 
  -2/-2 
  Excellent 
  Feeble 
  5 
  Just as a natural one is an Automatic Success, a 
  natural 20 is an Automatic Failure. A 19 has no 
  special meaning anymore. 
  5/+5 
  15-17 
  -1/-1 
  Brilliant 
  Deficient 
  6/+6 
  18-19 
  -1/-0 
  Virtuoso performance Inadequate 
  VP/DP Accenting Chart 
  Victory Points /  
  Victory Dice 
  Positive  
  Accenting 
  Defeat Points / 
  Defeat Dice 
  1/+0 
  2 
  -9/-9 
  1/+1 
  3-4 
  -8/-8 
  2/+2 
  5-6 
  -7/-7 
  3/+3 
  7-8 
  -6/-6 
  4/+4 
  9-10 
  -5/-5 
  5/+5 
  11-12 
  -4/-4 
  6/+6 
  13-14 
  -3/-3 
  7/+7 
  15-16 
  -2/-2 
  8/+8 
  17-18 
  -1/-1 
  9/+9 
  19 
  -1/-0 
   
   
   
  Victory Points /  
  Victory Dice 
  Negative  
  Accenting 
  Defeat Points / 
  Defeat Dice 
  1/+0 
  2-4 
  -4/-4 
  1/+1 
  5-8 
  -3/-3 
  2/+2 
  9-12 
  -2/-2 
  An Automatic Success occurs on a natural roll of 
  one (1). 
  An Automatic Failure occurs on a natural roll of 
  twenty (20) 
  A Critical Success occurs on a roll equal to the 
  Goal, doubling the VPs. 
  A Critical Failure occurs on a roll exceeding the 
  Goal by one, doubling the DPs. 
  3/+3 
  13-16 
  -1/-1 
  4/+4 
  17-19 
  -1/-0 
  
  Victory Point /Defeat Point System 
   
  Volume 1                     May 5006 
  106 
  The Philosophy 
  Skilled characters now have an edge other than 
  succeeding more often – they now fail less badly. 
  The higher the goal number, the less severe failure 
  and critical failure become. A goal-16 character who 
  critically fails only scores 2DP, whereas his inept 
  counterpart goal-6 critically fails with 8DP. 
  Advantages 
  This system has several advantages. Failures now 
  have a defined meaning. The DP may be used as a 
  goal modifier for the next action, instead of having a 
  character fail outright. It may even translate into 
  damage dice for a partial success, or as self inflicted 
  damage. 
  Critical Failure has a defined meaning on a scale 
  equivalent to Critical Success, and no longer needs 
  to be guessed at. Higher skilled characters fail less 
  badly and critically fail less severely. Critical Failure 
  is no longer a disproportionate disastrous outcome 
  as compared to the rewards of a Critical Success. 
  You now know the likely consequences of the 
  failure. Two Defeat Points may just be a gun-jam or 
  missed action, but 12DP is something potentially 
  fatal. 
  Positive Accenting now carries more risk with the 
  increased reward, and Negative Accenting less risk 
  with the decreased reward. This prevents Positive 
  Accenting from abuse without having to resort to 
  special rules. It may even encourage Negative 
  Accenting because of the decreased risk. 
  The system is extendable to Cumulative Actions, 
  with failures subtracting from accumulated totals, 
  representing the ebb-and-flow for a complex task. 
  Tasks will take longer if this system is used, but it 
  may be appropriate for suitably stressed situations 
  as players occasionally bungle to get something 
  done. Note that, with sufficient bad luck, low-skilled 
  characters can potentially never complete a task. 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Fading Suns/Fading Suns Chronicles of the Fading Suns Volume 1.pdf