Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

It helps immensely!

So it sounds like on an average day, you might have to deal with your clan trying to marry you off in a political union with a woman you detest, your temple needing you to find out what happened to their lost pilgrimage in the underworld which may have been torn apart by weird demons, your military command ordering you to suppress a revolt three provinces away, assassins dropping in from when you accidentally insulted a high-ranking someone, undying wizards who have to be stopped *right now* from moving Tekumel back to Humanspace, silver men appearing out of nowhere to raid valuables, and finally you trip going down the stairs and land in a tubeway car that takes you to the opposite side of the planet. And that was after you accidentally drank the water downstream from the chlen herd.

Have I missed anything?

I am endlessly fascinated by your (and Gronan's) stories, and I can't wait to read the books you're writing!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

The 'Undying' are humans who, through the luck of the genetic draw, simply don't die of old age. They can be hurt or killed, but they simply grow to a point in life and then stop aging. Some of them are magic-users, and these are the 'Undying Wizards'. They are very good at sorcery and the ancient technology, simply because they've been at it and learning about it for centuries.

Interesting. Is there any chance for a PC to win this genetic draw? Or is the only way you'd find out be by just *living* too long, which is probably beyond the scope of normal play?

Do you think they were wizards before becoming Undying? Or did they turn to tech + wizardry when they suddenly realized they had all the time in the world, and anything else would be boring?

(Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them took up art or music as well, in the style of Michael Moorcock's Corum's people, where they might spend thirty years on a single piece of music, only to discard it when it annoyed them or became boring to work on.)

Do the Undying have any interactions with each other? Beyond hiring adventurers to foil each other's plans occasionally. Is there somewhere a secret "council" of the Undying who meet to plot Tekumel's fate? And do they police their own when one goes a little _too_ far off the rails?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Sure. Some are pretty decent, others are mad as hatters and should be avoided like the proverbial plague. (Nyelmu, for example.)

The 'Undying' are humans who, through the luck of the genetic draw, simply don't die of old age. They can be hurt or killed, but they simply grow to a point in life and then stop aging. Some of them are magic-users, and these are the 'Undying Wizards'. They are very good at sorcery and the ancient technology, simply because they've been at it and learning about it for centuries.

They are not a unified group, and generally neither 'good' or 'evil'. Some want to restore Tekumel to human space, some don't. Some are welcome allies, and some are real pains in the butt to have to deal with. They are very self-centered, very skilled, and some are very arrogant. (Pretty mixed lot, really.) They all have their own goals and objectives, and their own specialties. There's a lot of rivalry and one-upmanship that goes on, too.

Yes. We met quite a few of them. We worked for Thomar, fought Nyelmu, got advice and help from Subadim,and had Turshanmu as a party member and Severe Hazard To Navigation off and on for quite a while. My namesake also showed up once or twice to lend me a hand in sticky situations.

Does this help?

Any resemblance to Rialto the Marvelous and other high-level wizards of Dying Earth is entirely non-coincidental...

Originally Posted by Atsuku Nare

It helps immensely!

So it sounds like on an average day, you might have to deal with your clan trying to marry you off in a political union with a woman you detest, your temple needing you to find out what happened to their lost pilgrimage in the underworld which may have been torn apart by weird demons, your military command ordering you to suppress a revolt three provinces away, assassins dropping in from when you accidentally insulted a high-ranking someone, undying wizards who have to be stopped *right now* from moving Tekumel back to Humanspace, silver men appearing out of nowhere to raid valuables, and finally you trip going down the stairs and land in a tubeway car that takes you to the opposite side of the planet. And that was after you accidentally drank the water downstream from the chlen herd.

Have I missed anything?

I am endlessly fascinated by your (and Gronan's) stories, and I can't wait to read the books you're writing!

You left out the politics of the Imperial succession, the disputes between Temples over 'turf' in the Underworld, and accidentally starting a war with the next-door country. Other then that, sounds just like the first four or five years of gaming we did with Phil.

And people wonder why we concentrated on simple survival.

Originally Posted by Atsuku Nare

Interesting. Is there any chance for a PC to win this genetic draw? Or is the only way you'd find out be by just *living* too long, which is probably beyond the scope of normal play?

Do you think they were wizards before becoming Undying? Or did they turn to tech + wizardry when they suddenly realized they had all the time in the world, and anything else would be boring?

(Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them took up art or music as well, in the style of Michael Moorcock's Corum's people, where they might spend thirty years on a single piece of music, only to discard it when it annoyed them or became boring to work on.)

Do the Undying have any interactions with each other? Beyond hiring adventurers to foil each other's plans occasionally. Is there somewhere a secret "council" of the Undying who meet to plot Tekumel's fate? And do they police their own when one goes a little _too_ far off the rails?

There's nothing in any of Phil's rules abut this, so I'd say that it would be a 'referee's special'. And yes, the only way one would probably find this out would be to outlive everyone - which is not going to happen in a game campaign, even one as long as ours was.

Yes, I think so. Back in the very distant past, of course.

This could very well be - we just don't know, as anybody like this is not advertising their existence. I do know of one Undying person who is not a wizard, but that's A Really Big Secret. (Got it from an interview with Phil, the summer before he passed away.)

They do, but it's all through minions. They seem to have an 'unspoken agreement' not to attack each other directly, but there's no secret council - none of them could agree on anything, anyway. The College At The End Of Time is held to be 'neutral territory', and that's about the only restraint that any of them show. Nyelmu was the sole exception - that we know about, anyway - and that was the doing of the Gods. All of them; nobody likes Nyelmu.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Any resemblance to Rialto the Marvelous and other high-level wizards of Dying Earth is entirely non-coincidental...

Might this have something to do with Phil and Jack Vance being friends, starting in the late '40s and into the '50s? Phil was the one who drew the first published map of The Dying Earth for Vance, by the way.

Originally Posted by Atsuku Nare

I am endlessly fascinated by your (and Gronan's) stories, and I can't wait to read the books you're writing!

Well, I'm looking forward to his book as well; Jon Peterson's book was very good - I knew a lot of the people he mentions - it's also kind of 'academic'. Gronan's book promises to be more personal, which I think is a good thing; a lot of the major personalities in the hobby at the beginning have become somewhat obscured by the mythology that's grown up around them over the decades.

I am hoping you'll be amused by my little effort. I am taking a different approach, and telling you about our adventures as if you were sitting in the marketplace listening to a storyteller spin you yarns about brave soldiers, fearsome pirates, mighty dragons, strange aliens, powerful wizards, distant lands, mysterious ruins, and beautiful princesses - who are for those of you who are not interested in pirates. (And this ancient joke exactly 'gets' the spirit of the thing.) I think we hit every trope known, with Phil's own take on them; his 'damsels in distress' usually don't need the help.

People seem to like the thing, what with all of our adventures and antics, and that's what I'm hoping to accomplish - to tell you of how we spent over a decade listening to an amazing storyteller tell us tales of wonder and awe.

The Little Girl, rolling up the sleeves of her tunic: "Yours is a very big story, my Uncle; I will need both hands to tell it." (From "To Serve The Petal Throne", Book Six - 'To The Distant Shores')