Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Greentongue

As cities are built of the ruins of those before, how much was the terracing or change in height of the street taken into account?
Was the rise in street level of the older sections of the city important to the placement of clan houses and other buildings?
=

A lot. It was 'built in' to the planning. As for placement, you bet - everybody made sure that their portion of the below-new-street-level areas kept their areas intact. People tended to build right over the old site, getting the Imperium to pay for the new buildings as part of the Ditlana.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Well, I'm glad Umbreen got a decent broker... I was worried that somebody like The Tekumel Foundation would sling it up on Ebay.

Well, Ambreen called Sothelby's in London - Phil bought a lot of his stuff there - and they advised her to call Chris Poor: "He's the gentleman we use, madam." So she did, and Chris and his guys dealt with it all.

What we're carrying on here, for the benefit of our readers, is the huge collection of medieval arms and armor that Phil used to have. if you were lucky enough to be allowed into the dining and living rooms, it was like stepping back in time to an English manor house or the British Raj. The walls were lined, and I do mean literally lined - he used the plate rails - with all sorts of Indo-Persian weapons and armor, with a lot of European stuff mixed in. It was incredible to see and touch it... !!!

And it always amazed me when we'd get complaints from gamers that Tekumel weapons were "unrealistic", "bizarre", etc.; a lot weirder stuff was hanging on the walls! Phil had gotten most of his collection 'in the field'; he'd go down to the police station, when he was living in South Asia, after a riot and have tea with the police. He'd make a donation to their benefits fund, and they'd haul out all the stuff that they'd taken off the rioters the previous day. Tulwars, daggers, knives, throwing axes, maces, bucklers, helmets, mail, katars, you name it, it was in there. he would choose the best, and that was the basis of his collection.

Like the night where Arneson is navigating our ship, so Phil asked him if he had the 'astronomer-navigator' skill and could use an astrolabe. "Of course," says Arneson, and Phil pulls out an 1500's Arabic astrolabe and asked him where we were. Arneson doesn't even blink - he really does know how to use the thing, and gives an impromptu lesson in medieval navigation to us...

It was an awesome collection, and I'm sad that it's been broken up.

Rest easy; the Foundation didn't want any of it. Chris took care of it all.

Originally Posted by Big Andy

Since you touched on Ditlana, can you explain that a bit more? Was it a matter of every building being torn down and starting fresh or just fill in your basement, first floor becomes the new basement? How long did it take? Where did everybody stay while it was going on?

Would a city's map change dramatically, meaning even if Clan A has their clan house over top of the old site, would it still be on the corner of Main St and Martin Luther King Blvd or would the street locations all change but Clan A's clan house just still be on the West Side of town?

How long before everybody started tunneling down into the old sections?

'Ditlana', the ritual renewal process for cities, is supposed to be a totally new start for a city; in reality, of course, it's a lot less then total replacement of everything. Clans and temples will often raze what they have and start over, but they'll usually keep 'the basement' intact so as to not disturb what ever secrets they have down there. Normally, the 'top level' of a city's Underworld is made up of a layer of these 'basements, connected by illicit branches off the sewer systems It's very badly documented, in most cases, and a real maze to try and explore to find the entrances to the level underneath. A lot of temples and clan houses have multiple layers of 'basements' underneath them, which can get more then a little tricky to explore.

The process can take a few years, or decades, depending on how much money s being thrown at the project. People normally stay in tent cities outside the city walls (if any), or with local relatives on the family estates. The 'city folk' move in with the 'country bumpkins', allowing for all sorts of hijinks.

The city map usually doesn't change much, due to property lines being so fixed - and ancient. As an example, some of my friends in the UK have a farm in Wiltshire where the surveyed property lines date back to the Norman Conquest; the records only go back that far, but the property lines may go back even further to the Bronze Age. People do 'move house', but they often maintain ' ground rights' to the sub-surface levels; it can get very complicated, so I'd advise hiring some player-characters to go down there and explore the thing.

(Which is what Phil had in mind; he would regale us with stories of his adventures wandering through various places in India, like the Red Fort, and tell us about all the different levels and periods that he'd looked through.)

About five minutes. Many of the 'renewed' ares have the access tunnels built right in as part of the reconstruction process.

I just noticed that this thread has 1,345 posts! Wow! Who would have thought it - that so many people would have such great questions about such an obscure topic, much less have the patience to listed to some old fart natter on and on.

The book's up to 115,328 words tonight; I'm home sick, with a nasty cold and a flare-up of me gout - both big toes are afflicted- so I'm steaming away typing in between sneezes and hot water with Epsom salts.

I am now on vacation for a week, and I hope to get the Affair of the Malchairan Emerald written up for book four; it's the closest thing that Phil ever came to in regards a 'module' for Tekumel.

It was all about saving the Imperial dynasty from The Ultimate Peril, and once again the Seal Imperium's Chief Errand Boy got stuck with the job.

(Edit: If I may I'd like to mention how often music played a part in our games. We fought Third Mar while a tape of martial music played softly in the background (The First Maryland Volunteers on parade at Versailles for the anniversay of the battle of Yorktown), and we still have 'swashbuckling' music going in the game room when we play. My players are amused that the music uslaly manages to fit in with what they are doing. So, if you'll permit, here's my book in something like three minutes - and my apologies is this is a repeat of an earlier post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqPgbwHdn0A

And for the 'end credits':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSvnxv_Mh2A

Every time I hear the latter piece, I think of the scene in "The Right Stuff" where the seven Mercury astronauts are walking down the hallway towards the viewer in their silver pressure suits, and the "Right Stuff" march theme is playing. I keep seeing in my mind's eye all of us player-characters, whose adventures you've been reading about, in a similar group walking towards you. As the camera angle widens out, you see all of us, in all our finery and glory - and with Phil in the middle of the group...)

Thank you all, once again - I'm really enjoying your questions!

Originally Posted by Hermes Serpent

I recommend Colchicine for a gout flare up myself and take Allopurinol as a preventative measure against its ravages.

Nigel

Ah! Thank you for this! I will run this past my doctors to see if these are workable in conjunction with array of medications I am taking post my brian bleed - there are six of these, currently, and I have to be careful about adverse interactions.

The really annoying thing, today, is that I have a massive head cold at one end, and pain in both big toes at the other. Everything in between is just tired, but that's why I'm on vacation! A lot of rest is indicated, says the Lady of the House.

And good news, today! My new laptop that was ordered for my birthday has arrived, so we'll be getting that into service this weekend. Massively faster then the old G5 'billboard' that I write on, and it even has the Intel chip set so I can get back on Skype and other video sites. PBM, here I come!

Thanks for the advice - it's very welcome!

Originally Posted by Greentongue

This is the latest update in my game by a character:
"Seems the only thing being validated here is slavery, poverty, and squalor. A man can not dream or become what he dreams of being, because his station will not allow it. Being a victim of circumstance is not a privilege."

"I am surprised that things continue to function in this city. The impoverished, destitute, distraught, and discarded, easily outnumber the opposition 10 to 1. Maybe I need a change of vocation."

"It is a heavy weight to bear the death of a friend, I could have lost you to the Chaskeri. More importantly, the deaths of those I didn't know. I mean the porters, did their jobs well, but seriously they risked their lives and for what, to set on the steps of a shrine and watch another man die? Our actions aren't enabling or empowering them, they are entitled. How can we continue to improve society, if that is the mentality we encourage?"

Have I portrayed the world correctly or am I doing it wrong?

Is this how you envisioned it and were able to overcome/thrive?
=

I like this; I think so, myself. It sounds like something I would have said, standing in the ruins of the Palace of the Realm in Hekellu after we'd had to fight our way into the city in order to govern it.

I can echo the sentiment. A lot of the locals got killed as we fought our way in; I had 600 Vriddi clan-guards, all armed to the teeth, and I wasn't particularly worried about killing anyone who attacked us. The rest of the table was held back in the train, and I went in with just Narkhodlan and the Vriddi. We hit very hard, and very strongly, and after some we crushed some initial resistance everybody just got out of our way and ran for it. My major concern was not getting any of my people dead or injured, cut up by the mob.

Yeah, I think I could have said these very words. Good job; I think you 'get' Tekumel.

For background:

http://chirinesworkbench.blogspot.co...-storming.html

Originally Posted by Greentongue

This is the latest update in my game by a character:
"Seems the only thing being validated here is slavery, poverty, and squalor. A man can not dream or become what he dreams of being, because his station will not allow it. Being a victim of circumstance is not a privilege."

"I am surprised that things continue to function in this city. The impoverished, destitute, distraught, and discarded, easily outnumber the opposition 10 to 1. Maybe I need a change of vocation."

"It is a heavy weight to bear the death of a friend, I could have lost you to the Chaskeri. More importantly, the deaths of those I didn't know. I mean the porters, did their jobs well, but seriously they risked their lives and for what, to set on the steps of a shrine and watch another man die? Our actions aren't enabling or empowering them, they are entitled. How can we continue to improve society, if that is the mentality we encourage?"

Have I portrayed the world correctly or am I doing it wrong?

Is this how you envisioned it and were able to overcome/thrive?
=

Sounds like the Glorious General after third Mar, or yet another battle around Sunraya. "It's not my place to question the Emperor, but this shithole isn't worth dying for."