World

The Pox Crain is a bar in the dusty streets of Dryer Mob. Steps lead down to the relative cool of a low vaulted cellar near the Ivory Souk in Southwarren. It smells of hookahs, fish oil from the small kitchen, and cabbage. Sounds of the souk drift in from the street above and mix with the conversations of old men playing tiles, washer women in the alley behind, and the talk of travelers, traders, and the occasional drunk.

To most people, that's all there is. But to some, the Pox Crain is a vexing series of half-seen pathways into the Veil, full of whispers and echoes of dreams, spirits and the dead.

Serpent Earth coiled herself to sleep after the Long Night in which all things came to be. The black sun Syr grew ever larger until it threatened to overcome the gold sun Hael. In time they struggled, as Serpent Earth slept on.

If there were such a thing as archaeologists they'd find remnants of forgotten gods as well as different interpretations of the current ones. There's Bachnel, the brother of Gahl who was god of night and dreams, and the Goat God of the Grasslands called Puknet. There are ancient Rayikian texts with references to Borgia goddess of seizures and possession. There are whole religions that are lost, like the Sanctum of the Four Winds.

A short stab at the world origin myth from the Lowlanders world view, which is one of many Westron variants of the Serpent Earth mythology.

Odom Tan is the 'great uncle', a folk figure who travels between the farms and towns, whose real identity as Tandim Ulgrasar is forgotten -- and unimportant -- to the rural Lowlanders.

Diagram of the Three Worlds: Prime (known world), the Embers, and the Listar (Spirit World). The Traum is its own reality, a greater embryo for the inception of the original Chimerums before the Diegesic Struggle and the Antedivisian world.

New region write-up for Rakshem: Khitagan and the Three Lands. This chunk of the world has been begging an overhaul to mark iv for a long time. Here's a teaser:

Image from Blackadder the Second

I just added a culture sidebar for the section on the Lark-Han citystate:

Last post mentions the de-elfing process, which led to a revisit of the world origins and the why/whats of the diegesis. The new vision rethinks the chain of events from the Dream to the Agon, which ushered in the Mythic World (Antedivisian) before the Fracture. From there it's the balancing act of the Ehtre: the struggle between the Course of Dreams and the Ascendancy.

As we rebuilt Telrhin a few years back, the impulse was a full embrace of nostalgia. The whole panache of beloved geek fantasy from our gaming years. But there comes a time to de-elf the world.  We may have re-invented everything top to bottom in Telrhin Mark IV, but the old names were still there, ripe with stereotypes and the stolen ideas of others before us. The backstory to the "older" races was re-imagined, history re-thought, origin myths re-invented. But as soon as someone hears the world elf, that's all out the window.

Tavern Tales is an appendice to the Field Guide that sums up popular stories and legends, the kind of things you'd hear and know about if you spent time in the Lowlands. Faierie tales, parables, myths and the tale of an adventurer or two. This is the latest addition: