Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

I doubt it's a thing nowadays. Tekumel Prime no longer exists. But I do recall it being a thing back in the 90s, in the Blue Room and on the Usenet group, and in the Yahoo group in the early 2000s, when Tekumel Prime was still a going concern.

If I recall correctly, the helpful person was usually a TNG player flaunting their insider status, but sometimes, it has to be said, it was the professor himself. I think he felt quite strongly that there was only one real Tekumel, and it showed. Certainly he could be quite gracious in his responses to outsiders and take care not to deflate their personal Tekumels. Or he could be quite huffy. You never quite knew what was coming. It seemed to depend on his mood that day.

(or on his health. Certainly in the 2000s, he seemed tired and increasingly terse in his responses, and occasional crankiness would be understandable)

Phil's health was not good for a number of years before his passing, I am sad to say. The old saw "If you don't have your health, what do you have" is true.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Phil's health was not good for a number of years before his passing, I am sad to say. The old saw "If you don't have your health, what do you have" is true.

Totally. For me, the bright spot in those years was the language group. Nothing to do with gaming. Nobody bugging him to quantify anything (you could tell he was never comfortable with quantifying Tekumel and almost always regretted it when he tried). Just language. Something dear to his heart. Sure he was still cranky when our efforts didn't measure up but he shared information freely and generously, and he just seemed to have more animation, energy and interest. For me that seemed to be his last hurrah in engaging the Tekumelophile public in any significant way

Originally Posted by Zirunel

I doubt it's a thing nowadays. Tekumel Prime no longer exists. But I do recall it being a thing back in the 90s, in the Blue Room and on the Usenet group, and in the Yahoo group in the early 2000s, when Tekumel Prime was still a going concern.

If I recall correctly, the helpful person was usually a TNG player flaunting their insider status, but sometimes, it has to be said, it was the professor himself. I think he felt quite strongly that there was only one real Tekumel, and it showed. Certainly he could be quite gracious in his responses to outsiders and take care not to deflate their personal Tekumels. Or he could be quite huffy. You never quite knew what was coming. It seemed to depend on his mood that day.

(or on his health. Certainly in the 2000s, he seemed tired and increasingly terse in his responses, and occasional crankiness would be understandable)

Sigh....l remember those days. The funny thing was that in PM's he was always quite amiable, and I daresay quite supportive and helpful in what I was doing with my game. I guess because Pechano was such a clean slate and so distant from his main story arcs he felt that almost anything was possible, and I think he enjoyed steering me along a path that was developing a small corner of a large world.

Shemek.

Well, Phil WAS a linguist, so I'm not surprised he enjoyed the language group. Good.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Sigh....l remember those days. The funny thing was that in PM's he was always quite amiable, and I daresay quite supportive and helpful in what I was doing with my game. I guess because Pechano was such a clean slate and so distant from his main story arcs he felt that almost anything was possible, and I think he enjoyed steering me along a path that was developing a small corner of a large world.

Shemek.

Yes, I remember him nudging people to game in remote, unmapped Tekumel, where they would have carte blanche to just make stuff up without worrying about canon. Of course, Pechano is not that remote, but as you say, it was removed from his own core interests.

And yes, I too found him to be generally quite collegial in correspondence. He was even quite willing to incorporate other people's ideas into his own "real" Tekumel as long as they didn't conflict with his core interests or with subjects he had already developed in detail.

Although we think of Tekumel as a detailed, developed setting, most of the setting was only ever sketched in outline, with small localized pockets of great detail. There has always been vast scope for others to contribute.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

Most Americans know just as little about the European Middle Ages* as they do about the Islamic Golden Age. Why don't they apply the same cheerful ignorance to Tekumel that they've applied to Greyhawk?

*To the extent that Greyhawk is actually based on the European Middle Ages, which I don't think is a given.

But it's based on what they think they know about the Middle Ages, combined with some American Western Frontierism...in any case it's familiar, which is the actual point.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I've never even heard of Glorantha encountering the same issues as Tekumel.

That's probably a combination of me spending more time on Glorantha boards than I did Tekumel, so I don't know the full extent of the douchebaggery. But, when you ask "How can a newbie start understanding Glorantha"? and the response is "I've played in Glorantha for 20 years, I could spend the rest of my life studying Glorantha and not understand Glorantha."...Houston, we have a problem.

Originally Posted by CRKrueger

But it's based on what they think they know about the Middle Ages, combined with some American Western Frontierism...in any case it's familiar, which is the actual point.

So, now we just have to persuade people that Tekumel works like the Western Frontier, or maybe like USA just before the Prohibition?

That's probably a combination of me spending more time on Glorantha boards than I did Tekumel, so I don't know the full extent of the douchebaggery. But, when you ask "How can a newbie start understanding Glorantha"? and the response is "I've played in Glorantha for 20 years, I could spend the rest of my life studying Glorantha and not understand Glorantha."...Houston, we have a problem.

I can see now how easy I had it by talking with the Australian Gloranthaphiles that actually taught me about the setting.
BTW, that answer is just funny, and would make me laugh no matter which setting it is about

"The Tekumel you can understand is not the true Tekumel."

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

"The Tekumel you can understand is not the true Tekumel."

It seems the Green One is saying that, yes. I'm not quite sure he's right, but I'm treating it as a joking hypothetical.

Also, "Dao that can be put in words ain't the real deal".