Quote from: chirine ba kal;1036724And that, if you want my biased opinion, is the way a game session should be. Heck, Phil Barker could turn a trip to the market into one of these kinds of game sessions...

"People today think trading is safe and boring. They've never travelled with me!"
Or so Sinbad said, looking at the New York Stock Exchange;).

Hi everybody,

About the Dynasty of the Veritable Autocrator:

I looked for more information about it in the Blue Room archives, atfer reading about it (again) on Shawn Bond's chronology of Tekumel, but coulnd't find anything.

01 - Are the Veritable Autocrator and the First Founder one and the same? Chirine, you mentioned in past comments that the First Founder might have been one of the Lords of Humanspace. Is the Veritable Autocrator a Lord or one of the Lords of Humanspace?

02 - Where does the name/title Veritable Autocrator come from: as in, in which publication has it been mentioned?

02 - How accurate is Shawn Bond's timeline? It's great, but at the same time, it doesn't match this much less detailed timeline.

Quote from: Doc Sammy;1036730Cool, my setting idea is a work in progress titled Army Dudes.

Army Dudes is a world setting where the PC's are anthropomorphic toy army men and similar toy soldiers, similar to Toy Story, Small Soldiers, The Indian In The Cupboard, or the Army Men video games. It was inspired by this website.

http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/armymen1.htm

The world is a realm of bizarre imagination, inspired by Halloween aesthetics and the tropes of Gothic horror, war movies, and cheap military thriller books. There are several nations of Army Men (Green, Tan, Blue, Red, Black, Gray, and Pink) along with other smaller toy soldier factions (Cowboys, Native Americans, Ninjas, Pirates, Knights, Vikings, Romans, etc.) and the campaign setting is in the late stages of a great war between the Green and Tan Armies, along with the different allied armies on both sides.

The war is catastrophic, with a very limited exchange of WMD's followed by a continuation of conventional warfare (Broken-Backed Theory).

Entire towns have been destroyed by small nukes and MOAB's, biological agents have caused zombie outbreaks, and overall the aesthetics of this wartime setting can best be summed up as "Spookydark" (think A Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Hammer Horror, Castlevania, Tim Burton's Batman, or anything related to the celebration of Halloween), and in addition to the bleak war, there are also supernatural and occult elements in the setting as well.

Mechanics wise, I have made some homebrew adjustments to allow firearms and modern vehicles, but the focus is on the setting.

Essentially, it can be summed up as "Toy Story meets Twilight 2000 directed by Tim Burton".

I have not seen either of your examples, so I'm going by your description. It's an interesting premise, and will probably play well in today's gaming environment. I think you'd garner a lot of attention with demo games, too. So, all in all, I think it'd sell to gamers these days, based on what I see at the FLGS.

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;1036828Hi everybody,

About the Dynasty of the Veritable Autocrator:

I looked for more information about it in the Blue Room archives, atfer reading about it (again) on Shawn Bond's chronology of Tekumel, but coulnd't find anything.

01 - Are the Veritable Autocrator and the First Founder one and the same? Chirine, you mentioned in past comments that the First Founder might have been one of the Lords of Humanspace. Is the Veritable Autocrator a Lord or one of the Lords of Humanspace?

02 - Where does the name/title Veritable Autocrator come from: as in, in which publication has it been mentioned?

02 - How accurate is Shawn Bond's timeline? It's great, but at the same time, it doesn't match this much less detailed timeline.

I think it's from the "Humanspace Empires" RPG, done by a Tekumel fan. I don't recall ever hearing Phil use the term in my time with him.

1. I doubt it. Phil was kind of clear that the First Founder was one of the Lords of Humanspace - the 'contractor' for Tekumel's terra-forming, from the hints he gave.

2. None of Phil's, to my best recollection; I am pretty sure I saw it in the "Humanspace" RPG.

3. These are fan-compiled timelines, done by different people at very different times with different sets of data that they had available to them. (I've seen the same kind of thing with Blackmoor, where the fans try very hard to reconcile what were very different phases of Dave's Blackmoor campaign that occured over a very long stretch of time.) As far as I know, nobody has ever sat down with either Phil's files or my archives and done a timeline from that source documentation. I have copies of both timelines in my archives, as well as Phil's own various timelines, and if somebody wanted to correlate all of them I'd be grateful. My own version of The One True Timeline is a plotting of Phil's publications over time, with my campaign notes in parallel to that with time hacks / timecode between things like the Imperial Dispatches, events in the novels, and events in Phil's campaign. I have not done anything like what Shawn and Brett have done, however. (I think that I can say that my timeline, from 2354 to about 2475, will be pretty accurate as it's all taken from primary sources.)

I'm sorry; is this of any help to you? At all?

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1036959I think it's from the "Humanspace Empires" RPG, done by a Tekumel fan. I don't recall ever hearing Phil use the term in my time with him.

1. I doubt it. Phil was kind of clear that the First Founder was one of the Lords of Humanspace - the 'contractor' for Tekumel's terra-forming, from the hints he gave.

2. None of Phil's, to my best recollection; I am pretty sure I saw it in the "Humanspace" RPG.

3. These are fan-compiled timelines, done by different people at very different times with different sets of data that they had available to them. (I've seen the same kind of thing with Blackmoor, where the fans try very hard to reconcile what were very different phases of Dave's Blackmoor campaign that occured over a very long stretch of time.) As far as I know, nobody has ever sat down with either Phil's files or my archives and done a timeline from that source documentation. I have copies of both timelines in my archives, as well as Phil's own various timelines, and if somebody wanted to correlate all of them I'd be grateful. My own version of The One True Timeline is a plotting of Phil's publications over time, with my campaign notes in parallel to that with time hacks / timecode between things like the Imperial Dispatches, events in the novels, and events in Phil's campaign. I have not done anything like what Shawn and Brett have done, however. (I think that I can say that my timeline, from 2354 to about 2475, will be pretty accurate as it's all taken from primary sources.)

I'm sorry; is this of any help to you? At all?

Brilliant, thorough reply, as usual.
Thank you very much.

I've got nothing to add ... for now!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2452[/ATTACH]Uncle,

Do Hluss ever "stand" on their hind legs during battle(like Ssu)?

H:0)

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;1036828Hi everybody,

About the Dynasty of the Veritable Autocrator:

I looked for more information about it in the Blue Room archives, atfer reading about it (again) on Shawn Bond's chronology of Tekumel, but coulnd't find anything.

01 - Are the Veritable Autocrator and the First Founder one and the same? Chirine, you mentioned in past comments that the First Founder might have been one of the Lords of Humanspace. Is the Veritable Autocrator a Lord or one of the Lords of Humanspace?

02 - Where does the name/title Veritable Autocrator come from: as in, in which publication has it been mentioned?

02 - How accurate is Shawn Bond's timeline? It's great, but at the same time, it doesn't match this much less detailed timeline.

Lord Neshm,

I found a reference to the Veritable Autocrator in the Gardasiyal ruleset. In the "About this Game" sheet under the "About Tekumel" paragraphs. Just in case you have not seen it. Alas, he is only mentioned in passing.

H:0)

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;1037077Brilliant, thorough reply, as usual.
Thank you very much.

I've got nothing to add ... for now!

You're welcome! Please also see Hrugga's post!

Quote from: Hrugga;1037100[ATTACH=CONFIG]2452[/ATTACH]Uncle,

Do Hluss ever "stand" on their hind legs during battle(like Ssu)?

H:0)

Not that we ever saw, but that's too good a bit of art from Talisanta to pass up!!! I'd go with it.

Quote from: Hrugga;1037109Lord Neshm,

I found a reference to the Veritable Autocrator in the Gardasiyal ruleset. In the "About this Game" sheet under the "About Tekumel" paragraphs. Just in case you have not seen it. Alas, he is only mentioned in passing.

H:0)

Aha! That would be a quote from the early 1990s, after my time, but given that it's Neal Cauley quoting Phil, I'd run with it. Good catch!

Quote from: Hrugga;1037109Lord Neshm,

I found a reference to the Veritable Autocrator in the Gardasiyal ruleset. In the "About this Game" sheet under the "About Tekumel" paragraphs. Just in case you have not seen it. Alas, he is only mentioned in passing.

H:0)

Oh that's a great find. Thank you!

Here's the exact quote (to be found on page two of orange-colored document mentioned by Lord Hrugga):

"[Tékumel] is terraformed: its orbit is altered, gravitic engines and atmosphere converters are installed, and its original inhabitants are settled in "reservations." (Shades of the injustices done to "native" peoples long ago on Earth! The Dynasty of the Veritable Autocrator, the human government that seizes Tékumel, is no kinder than many invaders that have passed before.)"

Quite different, as regards the seizing of Tékumel's human government, than what is said in the S&G Sourcebook: there, only the First Founder is mentioned and ... that's that really.

... interesting.

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;1037259Oh that's a great find. Thank you!

Here's the exact quote (to be found on page two of orange-colored document mentioned by Lord Hrugga):

"[Tékumel] is terraformed: its orbit is altered, gravitic engines and atmosphere converters are installed, and its original inhabitants are settled in "reservations." (Shades of the injustices done to "native" peoples long ago on Earth! The Dynasty of the Veritable Autocrator, the human government that seizes Tékumel, is no kinder than many invaders that have passed before.)"

Quite different, as regards the seizing of Tékumel's human government, than what is said in the S&G Sourcebook: there, only the First Founder is mentioned and ... that's that really.

... interesting.

Agreed! We know that the Hokun were the original 'customers' who wanted the planet terra-formed, and that they - or at least, their colony - was pretty annoyed when humans effectively took over the planet from them. I think that the two quotes / references are complimentary; the First Founder was the contractor doing the job, and the Veritable Autocrator the ruler pulling the dirty work on the Hokun.

There's a game campaign / set of rules in this - "Humanspace Empires", if you asked me...

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1037423Agreed! We know that the Hokun were the original 'customers' who wanted the planet terra-formed, and that they - or at least, their colony - was pretty annoyed when humans effectively took over the planet from them. I think that the two quotes / references are complimentary; the First Founder was the contractor doing the job, and the Veritable Autocrator the ruler pulling the dirty work on the Hokun.

There's a game campaign / set of rules in this - "Humanspace Empires", if you asked me...

Uncle,

I think this is worth posting again. From part I about the First Founder. I made notes...Enjoy all(I really like Humanspace Empires).

TÉKUMEL / HUMANSPACE EMPIRES SOURCE MATERIAL: THE FIRST FOUNDER, LORD OF HUMANSPACE

"["The First Founder" (supposedly, the first human who ever set foot on Tékumel), his "ghostly" sons and the ruins/location of his original dwelling?

The Sourcebook mentions that his house is ruined if not completely destroyed, but it also says that some people know where it was located and that the First Founder's ghosts still haunts that area, seemingly cursed by the Ssu as "the despoiler of their world"."]

Well, we found out about the First Founder when Phil plopped the copy of the manuscript of "Man of Gold" down on the table; he'd kept it secret until he sent it off to DAW. After that, it was all little hints here and there, over the years.

As ner as we can make out, the First Founder is the Lord of Humanspace who did the terraforming of Tekumel. He (and its only a supposition that he's a he, by the way) did all the contracts with the various races and beings to actually did the work. the Ngoro, for example, were hired as guardians - and since they are colony creatures, the Ngoro you meet may very well be a the colony that dates back to the time of the Ancients. We think that the Brotherhood of the Half-Human is also part of his legacy, along with some of the more recondite bits of ancient technology.

I have my own theory as to where his residence is located; it's one of our adventures. (Hoo, boy, and it was An Adventure.) As for the 'ghosts', what you see are manifestations of other-planar energy, not 'spirits' in the sense we use 'ghost'; people and events that involve a lot of energy create 'corona effects' where images of other places and times can be seen. There are a number of locations on Tekumel where this happens; there's a ruined Engsvanyali palace up in the Desert of Sighs where a party has been going on for centuries. Big heavy-duty 'curses' will do this thing as well; the person 'cursed' can be trapped in an infinite time loop, for example.

So, what little we do know is that this person was hired by the Hokun, he and his people fought and repressed the Ssu and Hlyss (and some others, like the Churstalli), they did the terra-forming, there was some sort of falling out with the Hokun, and he left stuff - like the Egg of the World, the planetary defense base on Kashi, and quite possibly Avanthar the Mighty herself - all over Tekumel for us to find. Think Rassilon, if you will; I can only note that Phil was a big Dr. Who fan.

Chirine baKal"

Good stuff!!!

H;0)

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1037423Agreed! We know that the Hokun were the original 'customers' who wanted the planet terra-formed, and that they - or at least, their colony - was pretty annoyed when humans effectively took over the planet from them.

We do know that the Hokun were the "original customers"? If this is mentioned anywhere in any of the original books, I missed it.
I know that the Hokun are complex: there's different Hokun cultures, different types of creatures too, and they're spread over the whole of the planet it seems, but I had no idea about their long-standing history with Tekumel. Mind blown.
 

Quote from: chirine ba kal;1037423I think that the two quotes / references are complimentary; the First Founder was the contractor doing the job, and the Veritable Autocrator the ruler pulling the dirty work on the Hokun.

There's a game campaign / set of rules in this - "Humanspace Empires", if you asked me...

This is a very interesting and exciting idea indeed. Loads of potential for a Humanspace Empires campaign.
Still, as regards "the Veritable Autocrator", although fascinating in its own right, since it's only mentioned in "Gardásiyal" in a sort of unclear manner (it's not mentioned in "Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne" which skips a lot of confusing early Tekumel history details -- a good call in my book), I'm gonna put it aside as an idea and stick to what the Sourcebook says about the First Founder.

Let's chat about a place called "Malcháiran".

Lots of little bits of info can be found about it around the interwebs.

The most detailed bit is to be found here I think:
"Their tribal shamans became a red-robed hierarchy, and the squalid log huts of the village of Malcháiran were transformed into the proud towers of the capital of a theocratic empire."
So Malcháiran is a village, or was, where a fiery extra-planar entity (one which may or may not have been Vimuhla -- the locals are sure the two were and are the same) became the Dragon Warriors' main god.

But that "village" pops up again later on, in a big way, as it turns out to have been the place where the Petal Throne itself was found:
"the Petal Throne was brought into Tsolyanu centuries ago from the N'luss city of Malchairan, near which are ruins and monuments of the Latter Times."

Wow, sounds like that little backwater village, later on mighty Dragon Warriors city, has actually always been a special place, thanks to its being located near ruins from the Latter Times ... which really means ruins from the Humanspace era.

And then, there's this quick note here:
"the still-active spaceport north of Malchairan"

Whhhhat?! Is this actual Tekumel lore, of the sort I've never heard of before?