Quote from: Hrugga;941805I came across this today by coincidence...

Prof Barker wrote a few lines about the pre-Cataclysm Nlüss in Blue Room post #568:

"Absolutely. The N'luss were a genetic offshoot of the rather homogeneous human race before the Catastrophe. They seem to have been wanderers with few fixed bases. They traded rare metals and industrial technology to a variety of races within Humanspace -- and even beyond it occasionally. They maintained an attitude of aloof pride, which annoyed their other human counterparts, and which occasionally got them killed. They appear to have had little or no interest in ruling star empires, and were happiest when "questing.””

and this in post #753:

"It does look likely that the N'luss were"engineered" for size and strength, but this does not necessarily mean thatthey were direct descendants of any particular Terran group -- after all, millennia passed between our own time and any possible starting date forthe N'luss,

N'luss legend states that they came from a "homeland" in the Plain of Towers, and that they served as guards and soldiers in the armies of Lords Vimuhla and Chiteng on Dormoron Plain. From this, comes the origin of the Dragon Warriors, whom the N'luss proudly call "our fathers."

They may well have been some sort of special military unit landed onTekumel before the Time of Darkness. They have maintained their pride and their physical prowess ever since."

It was posted in a Tekumel chat group, not my words. I thought it fit in with Dulahan's question...

Enjoy,

H:0)

Yep; they're having a discussion over on the Yahoo Tekumel Miniatures Group about playing '60k', and where to get miniatures.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;941814I seem to recall Phil talking about this on the Blue Room site. I believe it involved the breeding vats employed by the Lord's of the Latter Times.

Shemek.

Yep; see also "Lords of Tsamra".

Quote from: chirine ba kal;941752Yes. The winners write the histories.

You got it.

Ok, that's always nice to know! Is there any more background info on this sort of thing? I know it must be tied up with the secrets of Tekumel, I wonder how much is out there.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;9419411. Yes. She picked Dark Sword DSM-1151 for her sister, and DSM-4110 for herself.

Cool choices!

Quote2. We try...

Good job so far.

QuoteLet me think about this, and we'll see about running this...

I see three options...
In this thread. (Better not, this thread is for lore).
Starting a thread in the Play-by-Post sub-forum on this site. Something like "IC: Walking around in Jakalla's Foreigners Quarter" (or whatever title you like).
Starting a game on Myth Weavers or similar. (Best option in my book, but I just like the interface of Myth Weavers and having an in-built diceroller, if you need it).

I recommend option two as simplest, or option three if you think of a more long-term activity.

QuoteYou have it exactly! And I have one of his products, too.

The F/S, the smatchet, or something else;)? I only have some of his works.

Quote5. Again, exactly!

Glad I'm getting it right.

Quote6. So would I!!! :eek:

It seems to have been a major topic on Virginian TV stations. Curiously, little has been said about the connection you mentioned.
Then again, it seems that's not the first time VMI cadets march in an inauguration (not sure how close they passed to the president of the USA on the other occasions).

http://wsls.com/2017/01/18/vmi-cadets-prepare-to-march-at-donald-trumps-inauguration/
http://www.vmi.edu/news/headlines/2016-2017/corps-to-march-in-presidential-inaugural.php
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/34305490/watch-live-trump-to-take-oath-of-office

Also, I feel a note of support for Trump in the tone of the reports that's largely missing from the bigger chains. Curious, that.
Or maybe not, since I tend to joke that "Trump is the most Southern president the USA have had in a long while, despite living in NYC".

Thanks once more!  

Here's another on the deeper side of things.  I noticed at one point there was mention of Pavar's Gods "warring with the lords of Humanspace" or something to that effect.  That makes me ask, does that mean the Pariah Gods are said Lords?  As obviously the Humanspace sorts are actually powerful enough to war with Gods it seems.  That's impressive.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;941946Yep; they're having a discussion over on the Yahoo Tekumel Miniatures Group about playing '60k', and where to get miniatures.

I love the photos...Really nice!!!

H:0)

From AsenRG:
Cool choices!

Thank you, she says.

Good job so far.

Well, I do hope so; I worry about being boring...

I see three options...
In this thread. (Better not, this thread is for lore).
Starting a thread in the Play-by-Post sub-forum on this site. Something like "IC: Walking around in Jakalla's Foreigners Quarter" (or whatever title you like).
Starting a game on Myth Weavers or similar. (Best option in my book, but I just like the interface of Myth Weavers and having an in-built diceroller, if you need it).

I recommend option two as simplest, or option three if you think of a more long-term activity.

Let me see what happens after we get the Internet service upgrade for our college student done; thing would be a lot easier...

The F/S, the smatchet, or something else;)? I only have some of his works.

The classic F/S. Honed to a fine edge, too, if I do say so myself.

Glad I'm getting it right.

You are, which is why I'm here; you're doing just fine.

It seems to have been a major topic on Virginian TV stations. Curiously, little has been said about the connection you mentioned.
Then again, it seems that's not the first time VMI cadets march in an inauguration (not sure how close they passed to the president of the USA on the other occasions).

It's not, and I think that most of the locals wouldn't know the history - history is a subject not really taught in our schools, and is a concept largely forgotten in this country.

Quote from: Dulahan;941951Thanks once more!  

Here's another on the deeper side of things.  I noticed at one point there was mention of Pavar's Gods "warring with the lords of Humanspace" or something to that effect.  That makes me ask, does that mean the Pariah Gods are said Lords?  As obviously the Humanspace sorts are actually powerful enough to war with Gods it seems.  That's impressive.

Keep in mind that 'the Gods' are not, in Phil's setting, divine beings; they are simply more advanced beings with their own objectives. Think Boskone and Arisia, and I'm not talking about Boston-area SF conventions...

Or go back a decade or so earlier, and contemplate a young F/SF fan reading Howard and Lovecraft in the new magazines...

Quote from: Hrugga;942025I love the photos...Really nice!!!

H:0)

Same here! I have some of them, and they paint up wonderfully well.

I know there was mention of some sort of open house thing to learn and see early Tekumel, I'd certainly be interested in that at some point if it happens - nerding out like a 35 year old kid in a candy store for sure, but hey, I enjoy my nerddoms!  Especially since the Cities aren't too far away for me, being from Fargo.

Semi-related, any comments on the Con of the North and its Tekumel Track?  I've never gone to said con, but knowing about said track has me interested.


As it stands, the interest in the game I'm prepping to run has been pretty huge.  I sent out invites to a bunch of old gamer contacts, and didn't expect everyone to say yes!  So going from what I was expecting to be a simple 4 person group and I to potentially 8 or 9?  Let's just say I'm glad Bethorm isn't that complicated a system - I've successfully run for 10 people in an L5R game in the past, so it could definitely happen.  Though we'll see how it shapes up with the meetup to hammer out details of when and where, easily possible some of them won't be able to commit at that point.  Either way, this thread is getting me more jazzed to run the game, and feeling more confident in doing so.  So big thank you for yet another reason!

Finally, it's also a shame how quickly the pictures disappear!  I am quite curious about pictures of the armor (especially your wife's temple guard armor since one of the posts with Chirine's did show!), but there's plenty of other pictures of various minis that aren't about spattered throughout this massive thread too.

From Dulahan:
I know there was mention of some sort of open house thing to learn and see early Tekumel, I'd certainly be interested in that at some point if it happens - nerding out like a 35 year old kid in a candy store for sure, but hey, I enjoy my nerddoms!  Especially since the Cities aren't too far away for me, being from Fargo.

Well, the idea is that we could host people for a weekend's worth of gaming and fun some weekend. There are a number of 'micro-cons' that exist; we had one a few years back here at the house, when we had a house full of guests over a very fun weekend. My wonderful Missus has said she'd be happy to have something like this happen - once we get Fifth Daughter unpacked, of course! The game room and lounge are always set up to receive visitors; the Missus has allowed me to have half her basement for these, and an additional quarter of the basement for the actual 'Chirine's Workbench'. My home office would also be open, as would the kitchen for light refreshments.

We have a small motel a couple of blocks away, and more lodging south of the airport - we live just north of the main airport, and the infamous Mall of America is about fifteen minutes away. So, plenty of places to stay, and things for the non-gamers in the family to do. Shuttles to and from the airport as needed.

What we are doing is leaving it up to folks to figure out what time frame they'd like to do this in, and a possible weekend to do it. I need about thirty days advance notice to get any time off of work, so that's a factor. Talk amongst yourselves, pick a date, and let me know. The Missus can put the kettle on, or do iced teas, depending on the season.

Serously; work some thing out, folks,  and we'll host it.
 
Semi-related, any comments on the Con of the North and its Tekumel Track?  I've never gone to said con, but knowing about said track has me interested.


Brett Slocum runs this each year, and I think he does a very good job of organizing it and getting good GMs to run good games. I do not run games at the convention, due to the sheer size of the tables that my games use - 60" x 60" up to 60" x 120" - and the logistics of miniatures games, but Brett has been thinking about asking for more space from the convention organizers. So, we'll see. I will be there this year, all weekend, as I'm supplying the Skyline display and laptop that Bill Hoyt is using for his 'History of RPGs in the Twin Cities" display in the lobby. If you do wind up coming to the con, drop by and we can run off to the house so you can see what all the fuss is about. One of the big problems with my doing convention shows is the sheer volume of what I have; I have a cargo van (an Astro) with 64 cubic feet, and I can fill it up completely with game stuff for a show...

As it stands, the interest in the game I'm prepping to run has been pretty huge.  I sent out invites to a bunch of old gamer contacts, and didn't expect everyone to say yes!  So going from what I was expecting to be a simple 4 person group and I to potentially 8 or 9?  Let's just say I'm glad Bethorm isn't that complicated a system - I've successfully run for 10 people in an L5R game in the past, so it could definitely happen.  Though we'll see how it shapes up with the meetup to hammer out details of when and where, easily possible some of them won't be able to commit at that point.  Either way, this thread is getting me more jazzed to run the game, and feeling more confident in doing so.  So big thank you for yet another reason!

How wonderful! Let me know if you need any help!

Finally, it's also a shame how quickly the pictures disappear!  I am quite curious about pictures of the armor (especially your wife's temple guard armor since one of the posts with Chirine's did show!), but there's plenty of other pictures of various minis that aren't about spattered throughout this massive thread too.

Do you mean the pictures I've posted on this thread? I didn't know that they went away after a while. If there's anything in particular that you're looking for, ask and I can see about reposting them, or you could look at my other photos on my Photobucket page - the link is in my signature block.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;942422Well, the idea is that we could host people for a weekend's worth of gaming and fun some weekend. There are a number of 'micro-cons' that exist; we had one a few years back here at the house, when we had a house full of guests over a very fun weekend. My wonderful Missus has said she'd be happy to have something like this happen - once we get Fifth Daughter unpacked, of course! The game room and lounge are always set up to receive visitors; the Missus has allowed me to have half her basement for these, and an additional quarter of the basement for the actual 'Chirine's Workbench'. My home office would also be open, as would the kitchen for light refreshments.

We have a small motel a couple of blocks away, and more lodging south of the airport - we live just north of the main airport, and the infamous Mall of America is about fifteen minutes away. So, plenty of places to stay, and things for the non-gamers in the family to do. Shuttles to and from the airport as needed.

What we are doing is leaving it up to folks to figure out what time frame they'd like to do this in, and a possible weekend to do it. I need about thirty days advance notice to get any time off of work, so that's a factor. Talk amongst yourselves, pick a date, and let me know. The Missus can put the kettle on, or do iced teas, depending on the season.

Serously; work some thing out, folks,  and we'll host it.

Yep, I'm definitely down with this if we can make it happen.  That sounds like a wonderful experience.  and I'm pretty free as well, I live a sadly uneventful life, so 30 days notice should be no problem, throw some days people!  As long as it's not Gen Con, this is an easy one for me.  The Twin Cities are only a 3 hour drive or so for me, so I'm not even that worried about needing time off.

QuoteBrett Slocum runs this each year, ... So, we'll see. I will be there this year, all weekend, as I'm supplying the Skyline display and laptop that Bill Hoyt is using for his 'History of RPGs in the Twin Cities" display in the lobby. If you do wind up coming to the con, drop by and we can run off to the house so you can see what all the fuss is about. One of the big problems with my doing convention shows is the sheer volume of what I have; I have a cargo van (an Astro) with 64 cubic feet, and I can fill it up completely with game stuff for a show...

Excellent, thank you.  I'm starting to seriously consider it, as long as I can finangle roommates and make sure the time off situation for Friday will work out with other planned excursions, but between a good Tekumel track and now this, I'm leaning towards doing what I can.  The history of RPGs in the Twin Cities thing sounds pretty fascinating as well.   And that's an impressive amount of con gaming stuff, no lie!  

QuoteHow wonderful! Let me know if you need any help!

This one I'll absolutely be taking you up on once things get in gear.  Even if just some posts to this thread for ideas of some plot seeds to plant once I know what they'll be.  So far I know one of them has interest in being a character who would be a specialist in Engsalyvani history, thankfully he's one of the ones already diving into the lore for fun, so he'll definitely be reading the PDF of such.  He's currently waffling between Thumis or Ksarul (or a cohort of them), and will certainly be a priest.  Either way, this one certainly gives me some plot seeds to work with.  So I approve!

QuoteDo you mean the pictures I've posted on this thread? I didn't know that they went away after a while. If there's anything in particular that you're looking for, ask and I can see about reposting them, or you could look at my other photos on my Photobucket page - the link is in my signature block.

Yeah, either that or conversation was based on things recently added to the photobucket.  I hadn't gotten to the blog or photos yet, pretty much because of this thread (I grow closer to the end!). I took a glance after seeing this post though, and saw the armor picture I was curious about.


Finally! Onto another question:

In the Ucon Conversations book, there was a point the Professor was talking about an Empire or Kingdom on the Southern Continent that used a weird magic system involving groups that each have a specific role.  Something really different from the way the Five Empires do it.  Did you, perchance, ever visit this place?  Any any more you could elucidate about it?

A couple other things that have come up today.  Noticed you talking about Gaming Cons in striking distance.  don't forget Fargo!  We've got Core Con and Valley Con, the former of which at least is definitely in the same size range as many of those you mention.  Really nerdy, gamer heavy city here with all the colleges and the tech industry booming like it is.  Great place to intro impressionable gamers to a glorious setting (as I am looking to do - even if my potential players are all... whatever we want to call 30 and 40 something gamers)  Plus we're a few hours closer than a few others.

Though more importantly, as I've hit the 4100s of this thread reading marathon, I notice mention of Luttwak's Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire!  Excellent book!  In can people weren't aware, he's got one for the Eastern Roman Empire, aka, Byzantines (Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire) which is probably equally, if not more useful for Tekumel too.

EDIT: And like 3 posts further into the thread after I posted this, talk of the Byzantine one comes up.

I will add this, it was highly regarded stuff by my professors in the department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University.  So much so they were both pointed out to me for uses in talking about the Mongols and their interactions with China.  Mostly as a good means of extrapolating Defense in Depth and the likes out of them, but fascinating texts all the same.

From Dulahan:
Yep, I'm definitely down with this if we can make it happen.  That sounds like a wonderful experience.  and I'm pretty free as well, I live a sadly uneventful life, so 30 days notice should be no problem, throw some days people!  As long as it's not Gen Con, this is an easy one for me.  The Twin Cities are only a 3 hour drive or so for me, so I'm not even that worried about needing time off.

We had a lot of fun the last time we did this, and really enjoyed having a house full of people for the weekend. Due to Fifth Daughter now living with us, we can't provide overnight berths, but we can provide for a weekend of fun. The Missus even suggested moving the big LCD TV up to the living room from the game room, so as to be able to show some of Phil's favorite movies while games are being run in the basement. It was also suggested that since we have one of those lawn tent / gazebo things, we could also run things in the back yard if the weather was nice. So, if people are interested...

Excellent, thank you.  I'm starting to seriously consider it, as long as I can finangle roommates and make sure the time off situation for Friday will work out with other planned excursions, but between a good Tekumel track and now this, I'm leaning towards doing what I can.  The history of RPGs in the Twin Cities thing sounds pretty fascinating as well.   And that's an impressive amount of con gaming stuff, no lie!  

You're welcome! Brett puts on a good show, and has some very good events. I think you can go to the Con of the North website to see them.

I have a lot of 'game packages' of games that I can run 'from inventory'. I've been at this hobby for a very long time, and it was the tradition / 'custome of the house' that the GM / referee provided the terrain and scenery for games - and quite often the figures, as well. Very early on, I learned the dire lession that I needed to have everything required for a particular game, and not rely on folks to bring things with them to an event. So, I provide the tables, the terrain, the scenery, the miniatures, the rules, the dice, the tape measures or rulers, templates, markers, and everything else for my games. It does add up, in terms of sheer volume of cubic feet, but I do think it makes for fun and good-looking games. Have a look at the game pictures I've put up, and you'll see what larks I get up to.

And we've spent the money and time to make sure that it's all very portable. I can go from zero to start on the game table in fifteen minutes, including bringing in stuff from the shed. I'm kinda proud of that, if I may sa so.

This one I'll absolutely be taking you up on once things get in gear.  Even if just some posts to this thread for ideas of some plot seeds to plant once I know what they'll be.  So far I know one of them has interest in being a character who would be a specialist in Engsalyvani history, thankfully he's one of the ones already diving into the lore for fun, so he'll definitely be reading the PDF of such.  He's currently waffling between Thumis or Ksarul (or a cohort of them), and will certainly be a priest.  Either way, this one certainly gives me some plot seeds to work with.  So I approve!

Either one will be fun; go with whatever works for the party. And ask away! It's what I'm here for!

Yeah, either that or conversation was based on things recently added to the photobucket.  I hadn't gotten to the blog or photos yet, pretty much because of this thread (I grow closer to the end!). I took a glance after seeing this post though, and saw the armor picture I was curious about.

Oh! Cool! Look in the 'game lounge' album; I think that's where the bulk of the costume photos are.


Finally! Onto another question:

In the Ucon Conversations book, there was a point the Professor was talking about an Empire or Kingdom on the Southern Continent that used a weird magic system involving groups that each have a specific role.  Something really different from the way the Five Empires do it.  Did you, perchance, ever visit this place?  Any any more you could elucidate about it?

Yes, we dropped in there, on one of our little jaunts down south. You want to look at the article that Al wrote:

http://www.tekumel.com/gaming_advOC.html

Very, very different then the cultures of the Five Empires, and an example of just how diverse and varied Tekumel is as a world setting.

Wonderful!

And here's a Geopolitical situation.  What is the likely response to the Ssu starting to overwhelm Pechano (Let's hope not!  I do like that place!) - if things were going bad enough, would Salarvyana, Yan Kor, or the Seal Imperium send troops to help stem the tide?  Or all of the above?  Would a big inimical threat be enough to lead to a form of temporary truce?