Panther Skins and Golden Fleeces

I have, in the past, showed some interest in the Caucuses. I recently finished reading a copy of The Knight in Panther Skin, the Medieval Georgian epic. Here's some assorted thoughts.

Vepkhist'q'aosani ('The Knight in Panther Skin') was written by Shota Rustaveli in the twelfth century, during Georgia's Golden Age under Queen Thamar. I read the 1977 translation by Katharine Vivian published by the Folio Society (as pictured below); the Marjory Wardrop translation from 1912 is available online. Vivian attempts a freer, prose translation than Wardrop; neither is in the rhymed quatrains of Rustaveli. The name of the text is given variously as The Knight in the Panther's Skin, The Man in the Panther's Skin, The Knight in Panther Skin (these differences are not unique to English: 1889 saw Der Mann im Tigerfelle and 1975 Der Ritter im Pantherfell).

What's it about? Rostevan, King of Arabia has no sons, but one daughter, Tinatin. Avtandil is the son of his commander-in-chief and dear to him; Avtandil wishes to marry - and must go about this carefully. When out hunting with Avtandil, Rostevan witnesses a knight in a panther's skin crying by a river - who refuses human contact and attacks those sent to greet him. Rostevan sends searchers after the Knight - eventually including Avtandil. 

That's enough summary to work with for the time being. Why is this an interesting work? What's distinctive about it? Well, without dipping into the Boosterism one sees on the Wikipedia entry or the introduction to the 1977 text, it's neatly structured, with the stories of Avtandil and the Knight (eventually revealed to go by the name Tariel) mirroring each other neatly. There's a great deal of tension between social bonds - the bond of Knightly comradeship, the bond of lovers, the bond of King and Subject, the bond of parent and child, the bond of servant and master. The careful resolving of the plot without breaking these bonds is interesting to watch. 

Beyond that, this is clearly a book from a well-connected society. That the protagonist is an Arab rather than a Georgian is telling; Tariel, it is discovered, is an Indian prince. Characters from 'Khateati' - that is, Cathay - that is, China - appear. There is reference to Egyptians, Greeks, Franks, Russians, Persians - as well as African slaves and sorcerers. Rustaveli's own prologue indicates that this is a 'Persian tale I found in the Georgian tongue' that he has set in verse. One gets a sense of travel and the exotic: it would be reductive but not precisely wrong to refer to it as a mix of Chivalric Romance and the Thousand and One Nights.

It should be noted that Rustaveli's Arabia and India are not depictions of his own time. No particular depiction of the desert appears in his Arabia. India apparently has mullahs who recite the Koran, but who are unmentioned in Arabia. Likewise, the coronation of Princess Tinatin with crown, sceptre and mantle by her father is clearly European. The Epilogue calls these 'strange stories of kings of a far-off ancient time' - so don't obsess overmuch over such details. 

Vivian's introduction paints the poem as Universal in spirit: it does not sit in one tradition or overarching culture. The characters are not explicitly Christian - even if King David and the Apostles are mentioned, there are no prayers to Christ or the Blessed Virgin (apparently the poem was later attacked by the Georgian clergy). Neither are they heathens: a spirit of general monotheism suffuses things, with the sun as a symbol of the one God. Avtandil finds himself praying to the seven stars of the medieval heavens. Twelfth-century Georgia (which had been Christian before there even formally was a Georgia) had expanded under David IV (Great-grandfather of Thamar) to stretch from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea at Baku - capturing much land that had previously been Islamic, including the present-day capital, Tbilisi. It is not a stretch to associate Rustaveli with knowledge of a variety of religious traditions.

Speaking of Thamar, there are a number of redoubtable princesses in The Knight with the Panther Skin. More than in any work of courtly love? Perhaps not, but Tinatin's aforementioned coronation is a clear  reference to female royal power and position (however devoted she may be to her father). Together with passages in the prologue and epilogue, the shadow of Thamar lies heavy on this work.

Enough of that. A few things I wish to glean from all this.

Shota Rustaveli, apparently.

***

I've been interested before in historical or alternate names for the planets which can be used for a bit of quick worldbuilding when you can't really be asked to make up an entire new solar system. As I said above, Avtandil finds himself invoking the seven heavens of medieval cosmology (the planets as far as Saturn, plus the moon and sun).

Anyway these are named below, together with a brief extract from Vivian's text. The same section from the Wardrop translation is here.

Zual, whose nature is calamity - Saturn
Mushtar, supreme judge and arbitrator between heart and heart - Jupiter
Marikh the warrior and avenger - Mars
Aspiroz the fair - Venus (Hesperus)
Otarid - Mercury

***

The Terrae Vertebrae setting from which Punth was spawned had as a premise that each state in Vertebraea would be based on some medieval epic. I think I've said before that I wouldn't mind introducing some sort of mountain kingdom along with the rest of Punth's neighbours. Well, here's an obvious opportunity.

Marikylo, the Kingdom of the Eight Vales

In the mountains of the Spine of the World, there are the dwarfholds, the great peaks and plateaus only occupied by that stubborn, hardy and independent folk. But in the densest region of the mountain range, there are a string of valleys that have been the home of an ancient folk, who migrated there centuries before the Nirvanite empire ever rose. Marikylo.

Eight high but sunny valleys are joined by passes worn by centuries of use. At each of the handful of passes, a fortress lies: the High Keeps. These are in the gift of the King of Marikylo. Most of the nobility hold a position in their own right, as head of a clan or possessors of valuable estates - but the rank of Castellan indicates a greater trust, to say nothing of greater powers and privileges. Of course, not all High Keeps are alike. Some connection regions in the vales so long settled and so long loyal that the Castellan has very little in the way of active duties: these are regarded as a next to a sinecure. 

Others abut restive regions or passes to the outside world or are the sites of contact with the High Mountain Dwarves - these require a surer hand. The principal division among the elites, then,  is between those families that rely on Royal patronage and the profession of arms - the Panthers - and the stockrearers and farmers - the Rams. Naturally, ancient history and memory of autonomy as a petty kingdom animate a number of other interesting feuds.

How do the Mariklyne live? From the mountain herds of sheep - known for producing a very fine cloth - they take wool, milk and meat. In the sheltered, warm valleys they have citrus groves and vineyards. The Dwarves are glad to have an agricultural trade partner on hand and produce ironware for Marikylo. There is trade and carriage of items across the mountains - and here the Mariklyne prosper.

Marikylo lies between Nirvanite and Talliz and Punth: it has connections to Kapelleron lords and Ka-Punth tribes, to Fahflund merchant houses, to Talliz Boyar families. If you need to get something across the mountains in a hurry, you will be dealing with Marikylo. The necessity of trade and the security of their surroundings has produced a welcoming culture - so long as the High Keeps stand. It is said that Marikylo produces three things in abundance - Mountaineers, Middlemen and Masters (that is, scholars).

Of course, other things can be found in the mountains than Dwarves. Witches - Dragons - the bleached skeletons of ancient armies that still clutch antique swords. There are places where even the hardiest shepherd will not take his flocks. 

Punth: Vorsprung durch Technik

I once wrote:

Punth was originally conceived as part of a larger world (see Ch. 7) - the Terrae Vertebrae of my blog. Other than in that Chapter and a few scattered other references, I have tried to make Punth able to be slotted into another fantastical setting. The Babel-myth elements and Near or Middle Eastern basis makes it perhaps an odd fit if you were to slap it down right next to, say, fantasy equivalents of Vietnam or the Tlingit lands - both in terms of culture and environment. However, I would contend that the meat of Punth is in the Codes and the position of the Qryth: the specifically Babel-like elements could be reduced, reformed or repositioned, as could the Near Eastern portions.

What I didn't touch on there is technology: can Punth prosper next to (say) the gunpowder-equipped Tokugawa Shogunate or the railways and telegraphs of American westward expansion or the radar stations and bomber wings of the victorious Allies? 

Terrae Vertebrae was written as being something like High-to-Late Medieval Europe. 'There's been Marco Polo, but not Henry the Navigator.' The Novopolis is the Italian city states making a lot of money and asserting their independence so that they can (as it were) eventually have a Renaissance, not the Italian city states mid-Renaissance. Punth-as-written can resist Crusaders, even magically-assisted ones. 

So, what if the Dwarves start letting everyone play with their Firesticks? Can Punth resist Pike-and-Shot armies?

Frankly - you decide. Even if you say 'No, they can't: a joint force of holy orders and the Ducal Tercios of Kapelleron pay a massive fee to the Hydraulic Dwarves and sweep into Punth' the notion of the Northerners holding territory for any real amount of time the other side of the mountains would be a fascinating story. 

Punth-as-written is inflexible: that's the Codes for you. It might have maintained institutions mimicking the structure and functions of research laboratories before Edison ever got going in Menlo Park, but Punth is never going to make a Newton or a Boyle or a Faraday. That the Qryth have an existing love of marksmanship and big crossbows won't make creating a corps of gunsmiths any easier. 

But I think there's a useful bit of fudging one can do to say that Punth achieves some measure of 'parity', even if (say) The League of Civic Etiquette has managed to create hot air balloons or telescopes or clockwork before them.

1. Secrecy is difficult. Espionage would be damn difficult for Punth, but once they get get an idea of something, they would be pretty ruthless in acquiring it. (They might just buy it - Punth can be an attractive trading partner!)
2. The Qryth are able, over time, and using the progress of the neighbours to uncover more and more about their ancestors' artefacts.
3. The Roads to Nowhere. 'The first generation of Qryth extensively scanned Punth; doubtless somewhere beneath the sands is a great bounty of petroleum or the minerals needed to make DVD Players'. Punth isn't going to be the first place where powered flight occurs, but somewhere there's a rich seam of bauxite waiting to be exploited with far greater ease than most of their neighbours.
4. As referred to on a recent post, Punthite 'Chemic workshops' exist. This is in addition to the possibility of heavily ritualised research labs referred to above. The loose outline of industrial society exists: the makers of 'Punthite Alum' are considered (possibly trained as) Chemical Technicians, not Craftsmen. There's probably some interesting Fordist-Taylorist strains to the Codes.

All that said, if Punth has taken to its heart the repeating rifle and the telegram - it probably isn't really Punth-as-written anymore. A Punth of post-Napoleon mass armies may be possible, but a Punth that can smoothly accept and issue Codes for each new vital technology is probably quite far from Punth-as-written.

I suspect technological progress would remain firmly in the hands of the Qryth - who might have to take on an ever-more intensely military role. Picture a Beau Geste-style French Foreign Legion fort assailed by the Qryth. Legionnaire Lefebvre, a long way from his native Nicquardy, must face quatremanu warriors - who have not just great big ugly fighting knives, but jezails that will fire through a brick rampart and put a hole you can put your foot in through a man's chest - who can carry, fire and feed the belt of a water-cooled machine gun all at once - and all he has is a single-shot breachloader and a bayonet and the battlemage has le cafard at the worst possible time....

This is to say, I think that the Qryth: A) Need to remain dominant in Punth and B) Need to remain a threat: if you can outpace them in an armoured car and pepper them with a Tommy-gun without consequence, the Sky Princes lose something. No, by the time you've got the armoured cars, they've managed to extract enough Radium to power Barsoom-esque aircraft. Best of luck to you in the biplane-sunglider dogfights!

Produce of Punth

Following my own advice, I look to put down a little something about Punthite agriculture.

The majority of crops grown in Punth are quite like those found over the mountains in the North - be they varieties or outright different sub-species that prosper in the warmer, dryer climate. There are however some exceptions to this rule, a result of the tinkering done by the first of the Qryth that has resulted in that biome's particular set of circumstances. 

Some of their work merely produced larger, more nutritious, more resistant crops, accelerating the work that would normally take farmers (or nature, or the Divine) much longer. Sometimes, however, they produced far stranger cultigens. 

***

Awake, for morning brims in each bowl! Awake, for the service that brings plenty and the plenty that fuels service! Pour out the cup of correct ambition!

Phahk is grown largely in the hill country on the coasts of the Stained Sea. Phahk trees can grow as high as eight metres, have smooth red-brown bark and leaves that are usually a shade of slightly blueish green. It produces tawny or fulvous blossoms. 

After flowering, the tree produces thumb-sized berries, the colour of tortoiseshell. These are picked, sliced, dried, par-boiled and pressed. The resulting maroon syrup is diluted and drunk hot by the Qyrth as a form of stimulant: as wine is to brandy, coffee would be to Phahk*. 

Diluted Phahk is served in various concentrations. One part boiled and filtered water to One part Phahk is served to the Qryth in quantities like fortified wine; Three parts water to One part Phahk in quantities like wine or doppelbock; Five parts water to One part Phahk like strong ale. 

These are referred to as One-Over, Three-Over and Five-Over from the numbers generally shown on a Phahk service: 1/₽, 3/₽, 5/₽. Human beings can consume Phahk in small quantities safely but it is considered an acquired taste, as it is mouth-puckeringly tart. A good host provides ramekins of a smooth sweet custard or syllabub flavoured with fragrant herbs to go with it. 

When in the field, Qryth rations have been known to include a form of pre-prepared bottled Three-Over flavoured with aniseed, known as Campaign Phahk.

***

Let each function be marked. Let each mark be clear. Let clarity come from form and pigment. Let pigment be produced by the correct functions.

Along the main rivers of Punth, you will find occasional well-placed polders, blocks of colour in the dusty landscape. These are plantations of dye-shrubs. The dye-shrub grows no higher than two and half metres and requires plenty of water and care, but produces in the thick peel of its fruits and the thin curling sheets of its bark the ingredients needed for pigments. Punth architecture and custom tends to colourful symbols or decorations - this is where that comes from. 

A dye-shrub is not in appearance as colourful as fresh paint: the bark of a red dye-shrub looks about as red as a cinnamon stick until it is aged and ground.  The fruits are harvested in summer, the bark in winter and they produced different shades of the same colour. However, the processed peel is only seen by foreign buyers in winter and thus is referred to as 'Winter Red' or 'Winter Green', despite being harvested in Summer. Likewise, the processed bark is called 'Summer Blue' or 'Summer Orange'.

The dye-shrub is, however, largely produced for domestic consumption. Of far greater interest to Imperial or League merchants is the product of the mills and furnaces in Punth's chemic workshops, the fist-sized pearlescent clumps of 'Punthite Alum' that serves a superior mordant or dye fixative. 

***

The Beast feeds visibly. The Plant feeds invisibly. The Rock needs no strength beyond itself.  

The vast steeds and draft animals of the Qryth would take a vast quantity of regular fodder (to say nothing of more exotic dietary needs), and Punth is not provided with sumptuous meadows. Accordingly, a form of feed was developed for them, containing most of the substances that a Qryth mount requires in their diet. This is Twitchroot, named so for the quick and obvious responses it exhibits towards external stimuli, twisting gently to face the sun or shying away from a glancing blow. A common story in traveller's tales of Punth is watching an infuriated ox bash hard into a twitchroot - only to receive a blow from one of the plant's main limbs a few seconds later!

Twitchroot plants are faintly conical in structure, with between three and five thick roots visible entering the ground. Several limbs with thin needle-like leaves stand up straight from the top. The bulk of the plant is a sort of ochre, streaked with crimson, but the leaves are the colour of palm fronds. Twitchroot groves do not have to lie as close to the river as dye-shrub polders, but are still situated fairly close to watercourses or reservoirs. 

The bulbous roots are harvested one at a time. Each root has several large nodules on it: as long as the top nodule is left intact, the root will regrow. These nodules are heavy, almost melon-sized. They keep well in fairly cool conditions and are served to livestock roughly diced or mashed. Safely harvesting Twitchroot is done by splashing the sensitive uppermost branches with very cold water, which can stun the plant for an hour or so - allowing harvesters to produce the tough but slim saws needed to remove the roots.

***

For each man, two garment sets and two blankets. All else to be provided by the Servants of the People.

For every eight fields of flax grown in Punth, there is one field of the Sky-Princes' Flax.  This does produces broader leaved, taller plants. The cloth produced by these is whiter and finer than regular linen, requiring less bleaching and hackling.** Most importantly, however, it is free of several substances that the Qryth may be allergic to. Despite the first generation of Qryth's re-making of themselves and their descendants to better fit Terrae Vertebrae, the lottery of birth and bloodline does produce Qryth with greater sensitivities to the indigenous flora of Punth. The Sky-Princes' Flax is one way to avoid unpleasant rashes.

To a foreign cloth merchant, the linen produced by the Sky-Princes' Flax is merely a high-quality linen, of use only as a rarity (though it would rarely if ever be sold outside Punth). Most would probably take it to be merely a different grade of cloth or style of weave. A non-Qryth wearing the cloth next to the skin does stand a chance of an unpleasant but non-fatal reaction. Likewise, walking through a blossoming field of the Flax can cause more than the usual number of sneezes.

***

*I don't know if I care to speak ex cathedra on whether coffee exists in Terrae Vertebrae or not. I suspect the answer is 'not round here'.

**Again, I don't care to put the stamp of canon on it, but it's entirely in character for the Qryth to have produced genetically engineered crops but completely failed to re-create the mechanical cotton gin. 

Six Deadly Artefacts

 One

From the Travels of Clareta de Maisfeld, Prioress of the Order of St Rhadegund de Sanglier

... but that was not the only tale that the Dwarf had for me. The next day I returned to the conduit bunker where Graustern stood in a turret overlooking the watering hole, ready to defend the position he had bid for so ardently from the Masters of the Aqueduct. 

He told me of a prince of the unbelievers, the quatremanu, called by his own people Robust Tungsten, who passes for a captain amongst them. This Tungsten carries a blade of great size and length, but that is not its sole gift. It is a bearer of light - it does not flash in the desert sun, nor does it glow with the sorceries some enchant their blades with, but steadily and without dimming. The hilt is enclosed in a working of brass and garnets, and the long blade curves slowly, like the tail of a catamount. 

When I asked Graustern how he came to know this, he said that he had seen Robust Tungsten twice: once in the fourth compartment of the city, routing an attack: the glowing blade of the sword cut through a thick stone wall to make room for him to fall upon his foes from the rear - until bolts and hurlbats from the Aqueduct brought an uneasy peace. 

The second time, he had sold water to a party of the Punthites, who had been the escort of Tungsten. They offered no conversation, but he had seen the great stone-cleaving sabre and the writing upon it. An scholar offered a loose translation of what he took to be the name of this awful blade: Close and Few.

You may be shocked that a Dwarf such as Graustern would sell water to such a butcher, but as The Book of Other Kinds reminds us.....

Two

From The Life of Turbnoth, Envoy of Pharnaces, held in the School of Civic Etiquette at Rabbelisotor.

The Qryth are a people with a law, but not a people of law. I hope that they possess a law could be doubted by none of my readers, but this distinction may be lost on some. I have said already that I had made a friend of the magistrate Wonderful Zinc, or as much of a friend as any Envoy can be to one such as her. 

One day I was summoned to the Ziggurat. I was kept waiting while Zinc retrieved something from an inner room and then rode out into the desert with her and a band of the Qryth. They spoke animatedly amongst themselves. In time we came across a group of the bandits called the Ka-Punth. The cause that keeps them outside the harmonious embrace of settled society in Punth is unclear to me, but this desirable outcome will never be brought about by the conduct of the Qryth. 

Wonderful Zinc carried under her second set of arms a flat box, like a quiver patterned with many small stars. As the Qryth advanced upon the Ka-Punth, I waited behind with thier porters. I saw Zinc draw from the quiver a long rod, with a handle set square to it near one end. This she gripped with one of the upper arms, so that the length of the rod lay along her inner arm. One end appeared to be slightly padded with dark leather so that it could rest in the crook of the arm. The rod was ornamented with polychrome enamels, burgundy and emerald and copper to make it quite as colourful as the buildings of the Qryth.

I wondered as to its purpose when I saw it, for I could fathom no ritual purpose to it, and the Qryth themselves make no use of the arcane. It was revealed to me in good time, for Zinc lifted the rod and the Ka-Punth one by one crumpled.

Once I given an office overlooking the courtyard with the kitchens. There, I saw the palace servants preparing a feast for a visiting prince: a brawny man struck with a cleaver at the carcass of a pig. There was a sound much like that, the repeated echoing slap of force against flesh. A great number of the Ka-Punth fell with great wounds.

When Wonderful Zinc returned to me, making the gestures of contentment that pass for a smile, I saw a few words on the rod-case: Close and Many.

Three

From a letter found in the papers of the Nizam of Rokunna:

...but the fifth section lies deepest of all, behind several broken corridors. The sands moved fitfully above me as I crawled through such spaces as one can find. However, in one chamber deeper than any other I found a device quite unlike those now in Punth.

It was one pace long, and made of a three bands of metal, those on the outside being white as tin, where the inner band was black like jet. Gold patterns, a little like the cramped text of Imperial scribes, covered parts of the black sections. When I touched it, it grew in length out to a length of five paces - while remaining as light as before. A square pattern on the first segment extended from the pole to the thickness of a feather. When I pressed it, there was a constant humming or droning and indigo light covered the tip of the pike, for such it now seemed. This fire left not a scorching on the walls, but the rock was hot to the touch, smooth and filled with purplish streaks like marble. If I pushed the tip against the stone, it entered it smoothly. I made out some words on the shaft: Near and Few.

Excellent Lord, I do not doubt that this was once a weapon of the Sky Princes, nor do I think that they know of this now, or they would have taken it. I could not smuggle it back through the tunnel and past my guides, but there is time enough to return to that lonely place...

Four

A nautical song found in various forms around the Inner Sea and the Traitorous Passage.

Men stood in the fo'c'sle, harness on their backs
Seeing there the shoreline, closing on the crags
Haul! Haul! We're getting very near.
Haul! Haul! Each mariner here. 

A vessel out of Punth nosed into the bay
Painted like a lady, going to a play
Haul! Haul! (&c)

On that other ship, something caused alarm
A great green bastard, with four arms
Haul! Haul! (&c)

Now one against a dozen is hardly ever fair,
Even if of limbs, he's got an ample share
Haul! Haul! (&c)

Yet green-boy didn't waver, or call for all his friends,
But he wasn't looking his life to surely spend
Haul! Haul! (&c)

Hanging on a strap, looking like a keg,
An eldritch thing, thick as your leg
Haul! Haul! (&c)

The snake it winds around the drum, glowing awful red,
A gout of fire it bursts out, send to make men dead
Haul! Haul! (&c)

That many on the fo'c'sle near soon were made as dust,
A pall of smoke hung over it, coloured all like rust.
Haul! Haul! (&c)

Yet all aboard who saw this so, hauled and held tight
Their course was laid such that they would strike upon the right.

Haul! Haul! (&c)

A ram thrust upon the foe, and brought them down to ruin,
Sundered thus, green boy's fate can read'ly be assumed.
Haul! Haul! (&c)

The snake it winds around the drum, but winds now in the deep,

And if it stays sunken there, we all may soundly sleep.
Haul! Haul! This song shall now be ending.
Haul! Haul! Oh, go: to your work be tending.

Five

The Gesta Tancredi, Chapter XXXVII, Section Six

On the fourth night from the City of Aqueducts, camp was made by the low pool of Three and Seven. The pool was called so for the men of Punth had numbered it in their avaricious manner as Pool 3067. But in the Fifth Crusade, a band of squires had taken a hammer to the low plaque so that only the Three and Seven remained: for that crusade was conducted under the blessings of the Third and Seventh Aspects. 

Johannes of Turquine conducted prayers that evening before the knights dined. Now all men slept with their arms to hand, and three patrols of five circled the camp, each patrol bearing two tocsins. 

Now, towards the end of the first watch, there was a noise like thunder, and a single thread of fire that came from the mountains to strike a sleeping Serjeant. There was the sound of the tocsin, and the camp rose. Again there was thunder, and the fire struck. Men, who would have ridden against the cursed champions of wretched Punth cowered at the sound, and desperate prayers began. The bonded mages began to chant, but their charms seemed to find nothing to respond to out in the hills. But one man, Yago Lacceter, a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Seventh Aspect covered himself in the dark blue cloak of the Order and snuck into the night. Six more the fire struck, but then it ceased, and he returned out of the dark carrying a long tube of strange construction, with a crooked flat surface at one end, like the leg of a destrier. The tube was the height of a man.

Lacceter had fallen upon a quatremanu out in the dark, and slain it before it could take another life with this enchanted weapon. Those men who had seen the beam likened it to a sailor approaching a dock, throwing a line from a ship and thus called it the Nautolocrian. Others who saw the tube called in the Cowardly Hoof, for many had been slain at great distance. In time it returned to the Citadel of Garrowain in Kapelleron, where scholar read on the tube that the men of wretched Punth had written Far and Few. 

Six

Story told by a veteran at a Sodality Campfire

Brothers, listen. You'll need to hear this. Strangers, listen if you care to. 

You know that there's the northerners and the strange northerners. The big ones. Our plains and trails meet their stones, and they insist we must walk on those stones. Sometimes we don't care to, and we are pursued. 

One summer I went north with a train of goods. I was an eager young cub like you, Brothers, except better looking. We went north from Donja. I had to carry two water-skins and a bag of meal, along with my weapons and cookpot and ornaments. 

The first stone road you meet north of Donja doesn't lead to their southmost city. They call it Twenty-Three, and don't ask me why. But it doesn't go directly, and the twists it make add at least day to your journey. Why follow this path? We're men of Rawhide. We don't need a road. So off we went to Twenty-Three. We'd rejoin the road half a day's march from the city, to make ourselves look right to their pye-powder officers. 

So we tramped off. And we crossed the sands, and finally crossed the line of markers they scatter like aunts with fripperies at a wedding. So we crossed that. I'd say we didn't even look at them, but I had a look. I'd never seen one before. Everyone else just kept walking. Apart from the one who needed a piss. 

Another day up the trail and there was a shadow on the rise. One of the strange northerners, except he looked even stranger than normal. Well then we saw that he was riding something, much like a horse or one of our onagers. Except strange men get strange horses. More legs, horns where horns shouldn't be. 

He got off his horse and pointed at us. He might have said something, but I didn't hear it and it wouldn't have made any sense if he did. Then there was something in his arms, and there was a bang and something flew at us. It didn't fly like a javelin, and it didn't fly like a hurlbat that the swine from Terracota use and it wasn't a slingstone from the Brazen because he wasn't whirling his arms around like they do, you know. It didn't just fly funny, but it burst. Didn't quite hit us, but fragments did. Hot, cutting fragments. 

The beasts panicked and so did we. More things flew at us, and men fell.
Old Brothers, Lost Brothers. Pt-aah!

I saw one of the things he shot. They looked like knucklebones, things you were playing with not five years ago, but made of metal. He shot from far, and many of us fell with less than a dozen shots.

That time, we took the winding stone path. If you go north, know what to expect. Know what you plan to do.

I'm thirsty. Brothers, give me a moment. Strangers, you can fill my bowl.....

***

I've been rereading Harrison's Virconium. So that's where these tales of futuristic weapons come from. The minimalist 'Close and Few' names seemed to work and to tie it all together.

Links into Punth: A Primer, obviously, but is a little more explicit about the wider Terrae Vertebrae setting - some of the oldest posts on this blog. Contrast with these posts.

Terrae Vertebrae: The League of Civic Etiquette

A desire was expressed in conversation for more details of the world of Punth; Terrae Vertebrae. While the continent of Vertebrea is detailed in some of the earliest material on this blog, its neighbours - Punth excluded - have only been roughly sketched out. Following said chat, a few ideas occurred for at least one more exception. 

****

Welcome, traveller, to the cities gathered in the League of Civic Etiquette. Welcome to thousand-celled markets and busy counting-houses. Welcome to courts where the fountain plays and libraries with the muted footfall of slipper-clad scholars. See the munificence of the prince and the receipts of the chancellor. Hear the call of the poet, the grunt of the wrestler and the questions of the metaphysician. Look closely for the woman with the hidden knives or the man with scroll-cases under his robe. Seek out traders in a hundred different goods and services, teachers of a hundred different faiths and disciplines - but keep an ear open for the news from the municipal herald or the decisions of the district magistrate.

To the west of Vertebrea across the Inner Sea, with its nearest portions at about the same latitude as the Imperium, is Near Rhakhia. The name Rhakhia, same as the modifier 'Near' derive from Vertebrean use. A well-travelled person or a scholar from Near Rhakhia might acknowledge the similarity between Rhakhia tongues, or the proximity of the states, or the forms of culture - but still think of themselves as a Cascaran or an Agogi.

Numerous states exist in Near Rhakhia, their interactions governed by the League of Civic Etiquette. The Faith of the Eight is prevalent but not dominant in Near Rhakhia. The two institutions are not unconnected. 

The earliest tales of Rhakhian society - that is, stories involving rulers and people rather than the creation of man from clay, or fire, or the spittle of goats, or apes cursed with the hearts of lions and the tongues of serpents - describe only two offices of note beyond family heads and village headmen (not infrequently the same thing). These are literally translated from the dialects of Old Rhakhian as 'Judge-Chieftains' and 'Captains of the Host'. 

    The former was a single, supreme role within a region, granted (as those old stories actually collected and recorded tell it) to a wise householder with enough personal wealth to have the leisure to judge disputes and enough clout to enforce their pronouncements. The latter was a role gained by charisma and wealth sufficient to head a militia, and many Captains would reside in the region of one Judge. A Judge-Chieftain would not bear arms, even if they had once been a Captain of the Host. Neither role seems to have had a specifically religious function, and the presence of a specialised priestly caste varied from region to region.

Both roles diminish or transform in the histories as the cities of Rhakhia emerged from hillforts, river crossings and oases. Trade and agriculture brought a concentration of wealth and the production of oligarchies. Occasionally some potentate would gain enough prestige and might to make themselves a tyrant, but such rulers rarely lasted long enough to produce a dynasty. 

    The conquest of one city-state by another was rare, but not unknown. Far more prevalent was the economic subordination of one state by another, or the withering of fortunes in plague or famine, or alliance leading to one-sided hegemony. 

Then across the sea in Vertebrea (somewhere) rose the Faith of the Eight, as the Sybil of the Rocks communicated her revelations. The man recorded by both the Manifest Rite and the Unified Rite as  Confessor to the Rhakhians was St Euthydemus. The first convert he made was Gamilat, from then his constant companion - at least, as The Book from Across the Water gives it. There may have been converts to the faith in Near Rhakia before this, but their names have been lost to men. 

Alongside oligarchs and cities had grown an administrative caste. Records in papyrus and clay attest to this, as do inscriptions and seals. Tyrants and the more unscrupulous oligarchs would when pressed use these as scapegoats: my decision was just, but the corrupt scribe altered it. The foolish clerk failed to record it. The petty magistrate was too wedded to protocol, and let that beast go unpunished. The corrupt vizier took the money for herself. The enemy bribed him. My advisor did not bring that to me. Our troops are loyal and strong, but went unfed and were thus defeated. Even where clerks escaped the wrath of a tyrant, the chances of mob violence or social ostracism and penury were high. Such purges may not have been regular, but had sufficient chilling reputation to slow or disrupt administrative work, including the licensing of trade and the gathering of taxes - which reduced the ability of the state, which led to more rulers seeking scapegoats. The historian Shabilat, writing two centuries after Euthydemus, records this practices as 'The Abuse of Viziers'. 

Huldo was the cousin of Gamilat, and if not a vizier, had escaped just such an abuse to arrive in the port of Rabbelisotor, where Gamilat dwelt and Euthydemus had arrived. It is still, frustratingly, unknown if he was a convert to the Faith of the Eight. The Book from Across the Water gives his name only twice in lists of other people and such letters of Euthydemus that have survived refer only occasionally to Huldo. What does seem likely is that he was desperate, embittered and in want of friends. Bureaucrats and converts found common cause at this time: a foreign faith could be cursed and despised in the same fashion as a wicked, scheming functionary. Euthydemus, along with Gamilat is recorded as having fled a city in fear of his life at least twice. It may be supposed that Huldo was with them.

The years of this life that Huldo endured do not seem to have been ill-spent. When finally St Euthydemus gave the Sermon in Pharnaces that would establish the Faith of the Eight in Near Rhakhia, he used the burgeoning assembly of converts to circulate the text later called the Fount of Civic Etiquette. This was, in so many words, a plea for the end of the Abuse of Viziers - together with a series of suggestions to strengthen the work of administrators in service of rulers. The principles of broad flexibility, limitations to taxes and a series of suggested, predictable limits to policies (if never to rulers) were suggested as renewing the ancient roles of Judge-Chieftain and Captains of the Host. Demagogues would be replaced by statesman-teachers, despots by wise leaders. Religious tolerance would be the rule, exercised through a licensing system. 

The Satrap of Pharnaces (a ruler in his own right, wherever the traditional title came from) endorsed not only the new Faith, but decided in time to try the new method. Even if Huldo is recorded as more of a dialogist than a rhetor, it is clear that the example of Euthydemus had been meaningful. 

    The revitalising effect on Pharnaces - be it through the busy new community of converts or the new codes of Civic Etiquette or smoother trade with coreligionists in Vertebrea - was obvious. The Cathedral of Euthydemus rose, as did Huldo's School of Civic Etiquette. The next decades would see the spread of the Faith, and the composition of the Codes of Civic Etiquette - along with several books of maxims.

****

If the Faith mimicked the provincial structure of the Nirvanite Imperium without taking on its full range of administrative functions, the League of Civic Etiquette grew to inhabit the functions of an empire without the drive of an Emperor. There was no single burning cause: just the unspoken request for predictable, orderly government. A ruler could be harsh, but harsh in a certain set of pre-arranged manners. Local weights and measures could never be standardised across Near Rhakhia, but a certain bracket of comparable units could be compiled. 

Cities might be ruled by a Bashaw, or a Lord Protector, or a Prince, or a Nizam, or a Supreme Functionary. But they will be staffed by those schooled in the Civic Etiquette and taught at one of its academies - and sent far from home. Armies are led by local aristocrats and filled with the troops of the region, for those schooled in the Etiquette are nigh-on pacifistic; the highest paid mercenaries in the wartime are thus pioneers and quartermasters. In contemporary Rhakhia war is rare. Conspiracy is more usual than conflict and discreet, dedicated operatives do more than a host at the gates.

Unification of Near Rhakhia is nigh-impossible; federation highly unlikely. The simultaneous preservation of the cities and defusing of national and ideological tensions reduces most drives for this. Huldo is recorded as having said that were a reef in the Bay of Rabbelisotor to rise to the surface, and the crabs on it to gather in council, and appoint ministers and magistrates, they too could be admitted to the League. This was likely in jest; there are sufficient cultural peculiarities to Rhakhia that limit the League of Civic Etiquette - structures of inheritance and the choices of taxable goods and services. 

Of course, the sheer weight of the League on the cities of Near Rhakhia has also brought its own set of cultural changes. A common tongue unites many of the city-states of the League, with many language barriers eroded down to dialects. If Etiquette-trained clerks are not constrained in the manner of a monk, the form of their education and displacement furnishes them with a certain approach to the world. Local aristocrats and elites actively develop forms of culture set against the League - flamboyant manners to set against the self-effacing servants of the Etiquette in their un-official non-uniforms. Great lavishly costumed performances compared with the word games and technical poetry of the Civic Etiquette. Aside from the sword-drill and manoeuvres expected of the governing class, shows of physical prowess in the pursuits of wrestling, horsemanship and falconry.

Another product of centuries of the League has been public works. The wealth of trade and the ease of communication has swelled coffers. Local rulers wish to differentiate their government from the codes of Civic Etiquette to which they are bound and will do so by financing and completing works above and beyond the requirements of the Etiquette. These shout their patron's status, by ornament or symbol or unique function. 

    Public baths, libraries, viaducts, avenues, plazas, observatories, study halls, fountain courts and ornamental well-houses crowd the cities of Near Rhakhia. These are unlike the self-consciously simple buildings associated with the Civic Etiquette - one could not speak of a single Rhakhian style of public architecture, but some of the most impressive features include palaces of many apartments, Solomonic columns, tiled surfaces (placing an emphasis on shape over colour; tiles interlock in numerous points or curve and drip in extravagant scallops), carved window screens, millefiori domes, gilded grid structures and numerous ornamental gardens. 

    Scholars flourish in the League, either falling into the patronage of a luxuriant elite or the smoothly furnished path of a student of the Etiquette. In either case, there is a desire for and satisfaction in innovation. Mathematics, music, poetry, logic and metaphysics abound. Public performances or expositions are popular events.

Defiance of the League can meet - and has met - with a number of penalties. An entire corps of civil servants can disappear from a city, most famously in the story of the Flight from Cascara. Every city under the League will have a thick-walled inn near one of the gates with a full stables, secretly (or not-so-secretly) belonging to the League. Anything that has even a whiff of the Abuse of Viziers may meet with work stoppages, barbed letters and infamy. A city that united fully against the League would be left to its own devices. The League plays the long game.

    The fate of one trained in the Civic Etiquette who openly counsels against the Etiquette is unknown, but the fact that Schools of the Etiquette are kept particularly clean has been noted, though servants are never seen.

Diplomatic relations between the states of the League and nations around it are perfunctory. The business of the League is the League; a merchant may travel, but those learned in Civic Etiquette should remain in places where that Etiquette holds. The League rarely acts a single entity, preferring to respond as necessary to explain its internal processes to incomers. 

Yet in the last years, several responses to the League have emerged. Banditry flourishes in the backcountry, between the jurisdictions of Rhakhian city-states. Unsatisfied young lords chafe at the restrictions of the Etiquette, proposing bold new theories of governance and modes of leadership. The Codes of Civic Etiquette have after all never been framed in explicitly ethical or religious terms - their breach could only ever be a venial sin. The toiling villagers of backwater Sanjaks long for some of the fruits of urban life and the balance of ethnic and religious rivalries, long carefully poised, might be tipped by mass migration or a wave of missions. 

    And there are always whispers of warlords, witch-kings and ethnarchs in Central Rhakhia that might finally be willing to cross the hill country and descend on the cities of the coast....

The Monastery on the Sword: Part Three

First, a few things to mention:

Apologies for a month or so's absence. Things got away from me - and I had to devote a little time to back up the contents of this blog (it comes to over 150,000 words!).

During this time, there has been a massive spike in views, largely from Sweden. I'm not sure why this should be, but Swedish readers are, naturally, very welcome. 

Also, a recent entry - Tsoldiers of Tsymric, which is part of the ongoing 'Fantastical Enlightenment' material I've been putting together.  Other popular posts are reviews or based on something more famous - so why one of my setting posts should be so attractive is beyond me. Perhaps it is some sort of code?

Readers may also wish to take a look at the recent Kickstarter from Patrick Stewart of False Machine: Demon Bone Sarcophagus. There is also the first instalment of David McGrogan's Fixed World to consider.

Signals boosted; bulletins announced. We return to the usual content.

This is the - much delayed - capstone (figuratively and something like literally) to an older project of mine, set within Terrae Vertebrae. Here are the first two parts: One, Two.

We look now to the top of the Sword, as detailed in entry No. 3 in Part Two. The Abbot and several monks live at the top of the sword, lowering baskets for supplies, waste disposal and the occasional visitor - as well as to accept deposits. Several gantries are laced with rigging, offering a place for the favoured monks to make their devotions and for the storage of some few necessities. The Abbot is given a favoured spot, in the shape of an open pavilion on the very pommel. 

The height of the monastery means that newcomers are at a constant disadvantage from the height and winds. Vertigo will not only through off a swordsman's blow, but also a spellcaster's charms. 

In the map below - 

Black indicates the outline of the sword.

Red the timbers and platforms around it.

Green certain mechanisms.

Blue ropes and rigging.

Orange the hollowed-out vault in the hilt, as well as the Abbot's pavilion. 

1. Spare coils of rope for the winches at 9 and 13, and for the scouring mechanisms.
2. The shaft of the sword. Nigh-on impossible to climb.
3. The storage platform - access to 4 and 1 from here.
4. Thick, abrasive scouring pads hang here, to be used to clean the shaft of the sword. 
5. 5 and 8 are sides of the access platform. People and items raised up from the ground are received here, and other utilitarian functions performed. 
6. The cross-guard of the sword. Ancient, solid wood, pitted with monkish scrimshaw. 
7. A treadwheel here can used to raise baskets from the ground or drag scouring pads. It is powered by Patience the mule. Patience works harder than you. Patience deals with heights better than you. Patience might fundamentally just be a better person than you are. 
8. 5 and 8 are sides of the access platform. People and items raised up from the ground are received here, and other utilitarian functions performed. 
9. A wheel here guides a line dropping down to the ground. It can either be powered by a counterweight at 13, or by the treadwheel at 7.  
10. 10 and 12 are sides of the widest platform. In so much as the monks assemble with their brethren on the ground, they do it here. 
11. Two extended beacons are set here, together with flammable materials. These are the most obvious emergency signalling system on the hilt.
12. 10 and 12 are sides of the widest platform. In so much as the monks assemble with their brethren on the ground, they do it here. 
13. A wheel here guides a line dropping down to the ground. It can either be powered by a counterweight at 9, or by the treadwheel at 7.  
14. Prayer platforms extend from either side of the hilt at 14 and 16. At 14, a bore-hole four inches in diameter leads into the vault as a deposit slot (one of the monks has a staff with an appropriate scoop at the top). 
15. Here lies the main vault, carved into the hilt over generations. The treasures stored here are far from mundane - this is not a bank, being too far from most merchants. It is the rare, the dangerous or certain last-resort stashes that you find in the numerous cubby holes and niches of the vault. 
16. Prayer platforms extend from either side of the hilt at 14 and 16.
17. The pommel of the sword. 
18. The Abbot's Pavilion. The entrance to the vault is here.

Occupants of the Hilt: 1d6+2 monks, the Abbot, Patience the Mule.

The monks and Abbot can be treated as low-level and higher-level clerics/Prophets. They carry no weapons as such, but many long iron-bound poles used to assist with the winches or the business of scouring.

All occupants of the hilt do no suffer from the adverse conditions caused from height, exposure, &c.

The monks spend their time at 5, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16. 3 is not regarded as a place for regular use - like a  cellar. 

The monks consider themselves less a religious community than a 'conglomeration of hermits' - a little like the real-world Carthusians. Individual tasks, prayer and contemplation are more frequent than mass worship.

The Estates Immaculate: A Partial Hexcrawl

The Estates Immaculate: the province of Imperial immediacy, personal grounds of the Emperor. Where sit the Palaces, Chancelleries, Academies and ritual Colleges of the Empire. 

A thousand separate foundations and freeholds, ten thousand ancient charters, a hundred thousand stipends, sinecures and pensions. An Emperor yet to earn the name that will be awarded by his death. 

This is but one segment of the Estates. Two gates sit in the ancient walls, with their extramural settlements, barbicans, formal thresholds, and internal customs houses. At the base of the map, below 09, is the sanctum sanctorum. (Eventually.)

The walls themselves mimic military forms, but have lost all military function long ago, serving as a proclamation of imperial power and a boundary marker. Eclectic features bedeck the walls, most famously the great Pylons. 

Things to remember about the Estates Immaculate:

• Most laws, however ancient, are still in effect, and most laws have an exception.
• Most things here were built for what seemed to be at the time a very good reason, and as a matter of policy.
• Everyone has a better right to be there than you, and can back it up.
• Everyone has a right to appeal directly to the Emperor's Person. Legally, the Emperor has a very big person. Such appeals still take a long time.
• Everyone steps on everyone else's toes. Chances are, you're probably on somebody else's property.

It will be supposed (both by the author, and by gate-wardens asking for letters of transit!) that those entering the Estates have a good reason to be there, and will be heading for one destination in particular.

Map made using Hexographer.

00.00 Gate of Lawmaker IV

Those passing through this gate are taken immediately to 00.01. 

01.00  Wall

The Walls of the the Estates are maintained by hereditary clans - joint masons and small-holders. Those in this stretch go by the sign of a red trowel.

The wall here is well maintained, if ill-policed. The wall is studded with ornamental prows, some bearing absolutely no resemblance to anything a self-respecting sailor would ever take to the waters in.

02.00 Wall 

The Walls of the the Estates are maintained by hereditary clans - joint masons and small-holders. Those in this stretch go by the sign of a red trowel.

The wall here is well maintained, if ill-policed. The wall is studded with ornamental prows, some bearing absolutely no resemblance to anything a self-respecting sailor would ever take to the waters in.

03.00 Wall 

The Walls of the the Estates are maintained by hereditary clans - joint masons and small-holders. Those in this stretch go by the sign of a coiled green plum-bob.

This stretch of wall is less well maintained. It is easier to cross, but the clan know all the accustomed crossing points and make a pleasant living extorting wall-jumpers. The wall is covered in numerous ragged green banners.

04.00 Gate of Crusader VI

Those passing through this gate are taken immediately to 04.01

05.00 Wall 

The Walls of the the Estates are maintained by hereditary clans - joint masons and small-holders. Those in this stretch go by the sign of a coiled green plum-bob.

This stretch of wall is less well maintained. It is easier to cross, but the clan know all the accustomed crossing points and make a pleasant living extorting wall-jumpers.  The wall is covered in numerous ragged green banners.

00.01 'Taxed portal'

All goods passing through here are subject to a fee and a light inspection, in accordance with the present scheme of taxation.

Past the customs house, numerous officials, vendors, tastemakers and well-wishers jostle for the attention of travellers - especially those heading straight for the Court. Lawmaker Northgate is a key stop for those on imperial business.

01.01 Military Road

Built to support the Estate walls and move troops rapidly along them, those on this road not possessing the titles or documents of sufficient importance may be subject to the seizure of tools and building equipment and impressment into the Corps of Muraleers. 

The Estates Immaculate have not been threatened militarily for centuries.

Many of the Road encounters below would fit here.

02.01 Military Road

See 01.01.

03.01 Military Road

See 01.01.

04.01 'Untaxed portal'

Goods passing through here are subject to no formal exercise duties, but will be painstakingly inspected and a fee of indefinite size potentially levied by the Assayers of the Passage, in accordance with their ancient charter.

Fewer travellers pass by Crusader Tychogate; it is held to be somehow less respectable. Those who do are still targets for the townsfolk.

05.01 Military Road

See 01.01.

00.02 Sacred Cattle

In the pastures here are cattle descended from the herd blessed by an ancient saint. They have grown accustomed to their privileges, and do not have their horns removed or blunted.

The White Cattle of Chillingham, by Landseer

01.02 Road

See below.

02.02 Monastery

This Monastery has produced a fine crop of theologians and professors of the faith. It maintains a fine library and a busy scriptorium, and is accommodating for visiting scholars.

03.02 Folly

On top of this hill is a big statue of a heron, incorporating a many-turrerted tower within itself. A number of eccentrics re-enact ancient battles and religious tableau about its feet.

04.02 Road

See below.

05.02 Road

See below.

00.03 Wheat

Fields of wheat are maintained in an elaborate raised set of fields under conditions of ritual purity. Those who till the soil are quite willing to turn ploughshares into swords in order to maintain these conditions.

01.03 Road

See below.

02.03 Faun Commune

Fauns dwell here, living their mild, Epicurean lives. They are remarkably hospitable, especially to visiting noblemen after a taste of the Caprine life.

03.03 Temple

The shrine here was once a heathen temple. The uncharitable (and the enemies of the incumbent priest) say that it still is.

04.03 Horsebreeders

A notable stables and several paddocks dwell here. They rear and train patient, elegant horses for the Emperor's Household.

05.03 Cemetery hills

The hills here hide the ritual sites of the Enshrouded Order of the Eighth Aspect. Behind every spur, a graveyard, a barrow, a mausoleum.

00.04 Village

This village offers to the visitor the perfect vision of life in the Estates: the benevolent gaze of the Emperor, the rich fields, the comfortable homes. It's not quite a deception, but they do play it up for the tourists. 

01.04 Road

See below.

02.04 Citadel - The Custodian Knights of St Castrum

The crusader's Commandery here is less a fortress (for all that it has high walls and strong gates) and more a political outpost, to agitate within the Imperial Court for men, supplies and gold.

Beyond that, however, it is a posting for the exhausted, wounded and combat-fatigued to recover in the salubrious surroundings of the Estates.

03.04 Road

See below.

04.04 Road

See below.

05.04 Vineyard

This vineyard is mounted on the terraced slopes of a hill of alchemically enriched soil. The high terrace walls are arranged in an angular fashion, giving the impression of a lush ziggurat. 

The fauns from 02.03 are a source of occasional labour here, frequently taking their payment in kind.

00.05 Ruins

Within the ruins of an ancient town, the Order of the Steel Suns practice warfare. Surely the ghastly cries that come from within are only the sounds of the melee?

01.05 Road

See below.

02.05 Road

See below.

03.05 Elf Grove

These woods are a diplomatic enclave of Woodland Elves, who keep an ambassadorial facade with a 'more Sylvan than thou' attitude.

They are perennially bothered by missionaries from the Monastery at 05.06.

04.05 Memorial

A column here is set in memory of an ancient battle. The guardians of the site would love to tell you all about it.

05.05 Tower

Atop these hills, the Swift and Resplendent Order of the Fourth Aspect maintain a tower with numerous vaults and safe-rooms.

00.06 Monastery

This Abbey is a wealthy and well-appointed foundation, known as a favoured destination for the pious aristocrat.

01.06 Road

See below.

02.06 Pleasure Grounds

This is nothing short of a remarkably pleasant parkland. Walking on the grass whilst wearing armour is strictly forbidden: the turf here has been carefully kept for five centuries. Two hundred years more and it might start looking quite good.

03.06 Lake

A narrow lake, used more for boating than any given industry. Jetties, islets and other little features of passing interest line it.

04.06 Elf Grove

These groves are more private than the Embassy, and the place any Elf of taste would actually care to visit.

05.06 Monastery 

This monastery is known for the rigours of their chosen discipline, a fact reflected in the architecture of their cloisters and stark, square, carefully whitewashed cells.

00.07 Flowerbeds

Here are fields and orchards, producing flowers and blossoms of every hue to serve in the floral offerings and decorations for the rites and banquets of the Imperial Household.

01.07 Road

See below.

02.07 Reed beds

The edges of the lake are kept as reed beds to form a home for waterfowl. Hunters can be found here in season.

03.07 Lake

See 03.06.

04.07 Sculpture Gardens

Several statues sit in sculpted avenues here. A favourite meeting place for wizards, who enjoy contemplating art that has no magical origin whatsoever.

05.07 River

Beside the river is a beautiful network of marinas, holding pleasure boats that see on average one outing each year. Numerous sand paths on twining quaysides with trimmed grass verges. 

00.08 Proving Grounds

A series of parade squares and meadows, maintained for the training of the Imperial Cataphracts. 

01.08 Road

See below.

02.08 Questors' Stronghold

Questors of the Manifest Rite have a fortified manor house here for privately holding trials of the faithful. They do not appreciate having their deliberations interrupted. 

03.08 Reed beds

See 02.08.

04.08 River

The river here is clear of boats, flowing swiftly to the lake.

05.08 Village

A charming community of former Imperial intelligencers and inquisitors, all seemingly going by obvious aliases. The whole set-up is monitored and governed by an avuncular wizard, wearing many different faces and possessing a terrifying spherical familiar.

00.09 Proving Grounds

See 00.08

01.09 Village

The inhabitants of this village are rustic philosophers, who gather in the evenings to discuss the workings of the cosmos and the joys of country life. (They rely on the generous subsidy of a Prince of the Blood for their continued good fortune; he finds them amusing.)

02.09 Dormitory of the Scribes

This is less a village than a barrack-block: modern, planned complexes of stone buildings. Scribes, clerks and lesser secretaries of the Imperial Court dwell here, trudging from their offices each evening. It is utterly deserted during the day, but has a surprisingly active nightlife. 

03.09 Real Tennis Courts

A tight quad of tennis courts, kept in pleasant grounds for the benefit of the Imperial Court.

04.09 River

Beside the river is a beautiful network of marinas, holding pleasure boats that see on average one outing each year.

05.09 Villa-strewn hills

These hills contain numerous pavilions, lodges and getaways for denizens of the Court seeking privacy.

Road Encounters

1. A party of pilgrims
2. A travelling noble (and escort)
3. A convoy of petitioners
4. A troop of Imperial troops en route to an award ceremony
5. An urgent emissary
6. A ritual guardian demands that you face him in a joust before you may pass!
7. A clan of charioteers mimicking what one chronicler's description of the distant past demand meat, strong drink and entertainment from you.
8. A friendly man, eager for conversation. He is an Importer of Ideas, who looks to recruit by fair means or foul, fresh talent and novelties for the jaded palates of dwellers within the Estate.
9. A party of roadworkers, repairing the ancient highways in an immensely awkward but completely permitted fashion.
10. This is a party from the Ephorate of Conductors. A recently established group in the Estates Immaculate, unlike other guides, escorts or transit officials they are strictly permitted to only accept gifts or extort bribes from people when they have arrived at their destination. 

As from previously on this blog: 

The Estates Immaculate – The Imperial City, Pleasure Grounds, Centre of the Manifest Rite.

Surrounded by The Pylons of Macrobius. Boundary markers.  Gets weird inside. Ancient dynasties of seneschals, ancient rituals. Very Gormenghast.   

Inspirations include Virconium. Julie Taymor’s Titus - a city set about by ruins and ancient customs, where the past overwhelms the present.  Marco Polo in the Court of Kublai Khan. The Pillow Book. An edge of Warhammer 40K or The Book of the New Sun would not be inappropriate.

Ancient religious elements still exist. Rumours of infidel cults. Imperial Cults, &c. exist – spun off from ancient, less than entirely Church approved beliefs.

The Estates Immaculate are meant to be the size of a county (perhaps two), rather than the equivalent of Habsburg Austria within the Holy Roman Empire.