Tekumel

Categories: Fantasy, Campaign Resource, Tristat Derived, Tekumel

This set of pages relate to the MAR Barker's world of Tekumel, as depicted in the online game 'Shrine of Petrified Wisdom'.

What is Tekumel?

Tekumel is a planet far, far away in a very, very distant future.

After much of dear old planet Earth got nuked civilisation was re-established by people from Central America, India and the Middle East. The civilisation that followed acheived interstellar travel and, with its alien allies, colonised numerous worlds throughout the galaxy. One such was Tekumel. When it was discovered it had two intelligent native species and was barely inhabitable by humans. The Humanspace Alliance wanted this world however and conquered and terraformed it with relative ease. For many centuries Tekumel was a luxurious pleasure planet and centre of interstellar trade. Then matters changed - the stars went out. Tekumel was wrenched from mundane reality and placed in a pocket universe of its own. The Latter Times followed, an age of chaos and destruction during which the high-tech culture of Tekumel decayed and faded from memory and finally became myth. Thirty millenia later Tekumel still struggles in a medieval quagmire of superstition abd despotism, but here and there the ancient ways survive and the nature of the catastrophe and the universe that the planet have been thrust into are remembered.

Tekumel owes comparatively little to the European cultures that dominate most FRP settings, the inspiration came from Professor Barker's interest in Indian and Central American languages. The Empires of Tekumel are more like the Incan, Moghul and Chinese empires than a European kingdom, its religions are reminiscent of Aztec and Hindu beliefs and the monsters are bizarre Lovecraftian nightmares. This is a planet that will bend your head.

For more details see Tekumel.com

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House rules and General Background

Hiking

The Tsolyani Day

Provinces and Protectorates

The Instruction Skill

Natural Healing

Criticals and Fumbles

Major Battles

Chaigari Sunrise Campaign

A new PBM, being played on RolePlay OnLine.

The action starts in the mountains between the Dry Bay of Ssú'um and the valley of the He'éka River. The mighty Illakma tribe are in trouble, their hmélu have been going missing without trace. They know it must be one of their neighbouring tribes, but who? The pathetic Uchúmun, from whom the Illakma stole much of their flock and two of their pastures? The crazy and theiving A'úl, desertmen from the north who stole the valley they now inhabit? Or the aloof Kraikmá, fine warriors who allegedly worship demons? Or have the Hláka revived an ancient war or the fat priest of the God Under the Mountain from the south invented a new way of exacting his mysterious 'tax'?

Who are the Illakma?

Places

Illakma Valley

Clans

Illakma

A'úl

The Shrine of Petrified Wisdom campaign

A group of priests from the Temple of Ksarul in Tumissa have been given a task; re-establish a shrine lost in the wild forests of Do Chaka centuries before. Given the propensity of the Temple of Ksarul to lies and subterfuge, the recent spate of wars and rebellions in the area and the mercilessly hostile nature of the wilderness this is not going to be a straightforward task.

Update: Sadly this game had to be abandoned a long way short of the Shrine itself, and the motley set of priests are in limbo in the small town of Zechni on the Turina River.

Places

Tumissa

Do Chaka

Yi'ita

Zechni

Temple of Ksarul, Tumissa

Clans

Black Stone

Black Monolith

Long Tail

Black Hand

Deep Basket

Ito

Dark Hood

Player Characters and their Henchmen

Vinchan hiMeshkutane of the Black Stone

his slave, Üsc

Kepet'tk of the Long Tail

Omel hiAshkhulai of the Black Monolith

Mízhotl hiSenkolum of the Black Monolith

Okhir hiSsa’atli of the Black Hand

his subordinate temple guards, Ekuyan of Flat Peak clan and Oemei of Square Stone.

People

Tlatlu hiDzai of the Dark Moon

Iusi hiJakkash of the Black Hood

Joruna hiHuru of the Black Stone clan

O'ocho hiJurunai

Hursai of the Dark Hood

Kir'él, merchant, Black Stone

Hakkusa hiVaisura, merchant, Black Stone

Dzai hiJurunai, Clan Elder, Black Stone

Kalume hiMeshkutáne, Clan Elder, Black Stone

Ormai hiVaisura, Clan Elder, Black Stone

Ili hiMeshkutáne, clan girl, Black Stone

Zuthau hiTlekku of the Dark Fear clan, member of the Cartographers of the Luminous Pylon

Aubshoi, alchemist, member of the Cartographers of the Luminous Pylon

Hereksa Yugyaya hiArsine of the Red Star clan, Tumissa city watch

Juruthne of the Deep Basket, caravan mistress

Pravu hiTankotle, Black Monolith clan, major domo and house manager

Choa'kei hiTankotle, Black Monolith clan, teenage clansman

Lekte hiUlu'untle, Black Monolith clan, merchant

Tsokokh hiFadhnoi, Archivist

Rashangto Oizichi hiAiya of the Weeping Stone clan, Chief Priest of Ksarul, Yi'ita

Ptp'tk'tk, clan mother of the Yi'ita Long Tails

Ssta-ktak, a Long Tail apothecary in Yi'ita

Dmaq of the Eye of Flame, Hereksa of the Sakbe Road Guard

Vrog-n'gha, Priest of Ksarul in Yi'ita

Ishvi hiOtol, priestess of Ksarul, Yi'ita temple

Eyon of the Black Hand clan, guard at the Ksarul temple, Yi'ita

Yuli hiAska'ath, clan elder of the Black Hand, Yi'ita

Pola, clan elder of the Black Hand, Zechni

Creatures

Pe Choi

Gods and Aspects

Ksarul

Cartographers of the Luminous Pylon

Stalkers of the Indigo Night

Uthi'in, Spirit of the Mind's Eye

Mentutékka, Lord of Blue Shadow

Kettek, Prophet of the Dark Old One

Guruash of the Nine Eyes

Ey'un, Knower of Skills

Ghulggr, the Wise One of the Pachi Lei

History

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