The Flower Brides of the Cruel Emperor Tzon-Chon

 The Flower-Brides of the Cruel Emperor Tzon-Chon

-an Orange Sun/Far-Tomorrows fiction by

Maxx Feral

"Oooh...!" the soft voice gasped....

"You... are an unannounced visitor?"

The woman was standing with her musical instrument in the Forbidden Gardens of one of the many Forbidden Palaces where the Cruel Emperor kept court.  He was rumored to be staying in the palace at this time.

"I am here to see the Emperor..." the man said, standing with his curved Asian sword and wearing a jet black skin tight uniform that shimmered as it created a bubble of counter information.  He should be invisible to any human or mechanical eye.

"Ooohhh...." the beautiful woman said again...  "I was reading from an ancient text while playing an ancient tune.  We are privileged here for the Emperor Tzon Chon has forbidden these works to the rest of his kingdom lest they distract from simple labor or confuse the mind with unnecessary thoughts."

She started playing again and singing...

"Please, woman, I must be on my way..."

"I fear our Emperor might find me to have been rude to a guest for he must have given you permission to enter this garden.  Only a few save he is allowed to even be in our presence?"

"Sisters?  Let us dance and sing for this man!"

She started playing and as if from the many exotic and unique plants in this vast garden a dozen or more women of incredible beauty emerged and danced and sang all around the visitor.  The first woman gave her musical instrument to another who pulled its two strings expertly as she embraced the visitor not caring his sword was still drawn.

"You wouldn't hurt us? Have we displeased you?  Would you hurt innocent women whom the Emperor honored to spend their flowering years pleasing him?  Would you have their families shamed with dishonor and slowly cut apart in front of their village to shame them?  You would not want us used like disposable girls to have many embryos put into our wombs then be cut open so dozens of several week spawn spill out for his soup of immortality?"

"Please...  I have urgent business and must see your Emperor..." he said but she held with great strength as he tried to push past.

"You wouldn't want this innocent but beautiful woman to have been found not pleasing to any guest of great honor in Tzon-Chon's garden?  To see us put to agonies or have our families killed in front of us?  He rarely sends men such as yourself to us but has assured us to tell them they are not a threat to him or his ego no matter their manhood...?

They started to try to undo his outfit, ignoring some sparks as the connections in the meta-material that resembled a silk Ninjustu outfit of ages past were disrupted.  Several women were now holding him and caressing him, pulling off his clothing to reveal a not unattractive man of Greater Kathay.  He noticed his sword had been removed from his hand and now a woman was caressing and sucking on his fingers.

"I must see the Emperor.  I shall speak no ill of you.  The Emperor's wrath will not be an issue after I ..."

"Assassinate him?" the first woman said with a smile and still an expression of love to his face.  "All who are in this garden without permission are considered Assassins and so we are ordered to assume as such..."

She split open as did her sisters or fellow pleasure women.  

From almost invisible creases on their bodies the Emperor's Flower Women expanded into their true selves; Monstrous plant/animal hybrids!  Their beautiful exteriors burst to reveal razor sharp leaves and thick tendrils full of fangs that were hollow to drain blood.

The Assassin had but half a scream before he was enveloped by them...

-----

Later the Emperor was holding a torn bit of the Assassin's metatmaterial stealth clothing and his sword.  The Minister of War was prostrating himself trembling and begging for mercy.

"Calm yourself and be a Man.  I shall not slay you on this day despite your loss of composure for a brief second.  I know full well how many you slay almost daily before they even reach inside the wall of my palaces.  My concubines hold a special place in my heart but I do understand your frustration."

The concubines were all lined up in front of him, fanning themselves, swaying, giving looks of innocent seduction.  They had wrapped themselves back into their feminine, pleasing appearance and even their robes were petals that they had grown.  Save bangles and other jewelry they were entirely camouflaged plant/animal hybrids created to serve and protect the Emperor.

"The Minister of War was frustrated you left so little evidence.  I will not find fault in you either but if or rather when the next Assassin ventures into your reach please do your best to leave some evidence.  A hand or better yet a head...  It will make his job easier for these Assassins rarely act alone.  There is usually a dozen or more Traitors who do not Praise the Mandate of Heaven and my Glorious Empire of pure order and justice involved behind a single Assassin who will recruit more or in desperation try to sabotage some part of my Red Dragon Kingdom before killing themselves to escape justice.  Even if an Assassin acts alone surely there is someone needing punishment for not being alert and ready to report suspicious behavior.  This material and the sword alone I shall put someone to justice for if I can find who gave or made this for them...

"Rise, Minister of War - do your best to find this Assassin, there are bits of him you can trace on the ground for hopefully his DNA is on the public registry at least.  Look for the real ones, no more confessions encouraged by discomfort or threat of it... I want those that did this or I want to know we did not.  I know you do your best for me.  What I seek is knowledge or the lack of it on this day from you.

And I am sure my concubines forgive the 'stupid flowers' remark?"

They bowed and one came over and kissed him.

"Minister of Propaganda - let the News channels say an intruder was executed by my Minister of war before he reached my inner garden.  No news about my private world is to be leaked.  Offer a reward and forgiveness if someone gives us information that leads to the capture of these Assassins but perhaps simply forgot to mention it?

The minister of Propaganda bowed but the Emperor noted he paused but a moment...

"I mean forgiveness for I am generous on this day.  If an Assassin turns in the others I shall make him a Prefect...of the edge of the burning deserts or the Antarctic re-education colonies...station, reward, Honor...and far away and watched to not be a problem.   If some citizen merely did not notice but remembers sale or possession of illegal materials or a sword and remembers later indeed reward them, I fear some might worry that reporting makes one a suspect...?"

The Minister of Propaganda bowed again and left in haste.

"Good.  All is in order again." said the Cruel Emperor Tzon-Chon and he mounted a golden throne in his Forbidden Garden.  "I shall take some relaxation and celebrate another day where an Assassin was at least thwarted before he got within a hundred paces of my Divine self.  You be about your Duties, Minister of War but if you catch the other Traitors sooner than today just leave note with my Secretaries for I shall not want to be disturbed until tomorrow save the direst of reasons..."

The Flower-Women surrounded the Emperor and danced, played, sang and caressed him.  His Other Ministers and guards grabbed the evidence from the scant remains of the Assassin and respectfully bowed and backed out to seal the door behind thick walls of dark Jade like mortar...

-----

In the "Orange Sun" or "Far-Tomorrows" TTRPG setting there are plenty of monsters and by far most were created by the "Wizard Lords" for petty whims.  Especially the mostly female monsters or "Monster-UUU" in an ancient dialect.

The Cruel Emperor Tzon Chon however is credited with creating the first human-plant hybrid, at least the first one functional outside blobs of tissue in a laboratory.  He did this because while making himself biologically immortal with the technology of the time he allowed no other access to it and grew tired of his concubines and how they'd usually try to kill him or run after decades even before age might have faded their beauty.  Only a few lasted long enough to be retired from his service honorably which he would have rewarded with wealth and status.

Thus he turned to technology to create "Maidens of Flowers" where plant tissue was somehow manipulated into a creature that could mimic an idealized human female.  These beings were alien and their behaviors merely survival for at heart they were plants still.  All they really needed was to roam about his private gardens and would pleasure him or keep him company, reading the ancient poetry and literature that was mostly banned to all but he and his inner circle. 

They also aided in his defense for there were many Assassins sneaking in to try to kill the Emperor they acted as unexpected guards for the sun on their skins was far too little energy and they relied on flesh to keep active as an animal...  Those who were not him nor a few of his trusted inner circle were legitimate prey.  Their delicate feminine appearance quickly folded away into their inner bodies of fast moving leaves and piercing spines that resembled teeth but would drain blood from prey.

Long after his passing they remained for they were plants and designed to regenerate from near total destruction.  There were natural limits on their total numbers to prevent them over-running the world but they did multiply and spread through the world including into the west.  These inspired the "Wizard-Lords" to make their own plant based monsters of mostly female appearance for aesthetics beyond acting as guards to their castles.  Still some of the more ancient and powerful monsters are the "Flower-Women" and the dreaded "True Alarune"...  There are many other plant based "Monster-Uuu" including confusingly "Rose Girls" certainly created by the Wizard-Lords that came long after the Cruel Emperor of course.

Most of these have a "Backup" where there is a seed somewhere about the size of a loaf of bread and it uses the "Root Network" where plants and mushrooms all link and communicate.  If a Plant based monster is destroyed it usually regenerates on the spot within a few months or years.  If there  is exceptional call to kill it - such as 20+ cubic meters of earth dug up and sterilized or a Dragon's fire on the ground the seed waits a decade or longer and sprouts another one.  Over a long interval of centuries they might produce another naturally but this is done to keep them rare by the Genetic Engineers who designed them.  They can also reproduce on command but those commands are long lost.  Biologically immortal these creatures live to live like any plant.  

They will use their skills from seduction to predation to continue their existence.  While most of the Wizard Lord's plant-women are immobile or limited to a set space the Flower-Women are free to move and do so.  They will sometimes be a mistress or seductress and other times appear as a mostly dead tree resembling a woman but with some leaves growing out and stay still for decades.  They rarely attack without good reason for even though they are near impossible to destroy and will grow back if chopped to bits they do not like to do so.  However they can and will split into a terrible plant monster and kill an opponent by ripping flesh and draining fluid.  This they usually do if no one else sees it fearing being seen as a "Monster" and so will often use their slightly better than average strength to fight off an attacker if witnessed.

These beings are greatly feared in the East for even many, MANY thousands of years after the Cruel Emperor's reign they are a dark memory.  In the West they can be prized concubines of Nobility and Rich merchants;  Perfect beautiful women who mostly stand around and be beautiful at day but can play and entertain and then become passionate at night or in private.  They will not fade in beauty and will usually come back if killed.  They do have their own minds and can and do choose to be a mistress or a wanderer or a near inert plant based on their moods and desires.

Note they are intelligent but in a different way.  They can speak and act but must commit to it so they can rarely act suddenly.  When they do speak or converse for too long their tissues heat up and usually they sweat or their eyes water with streaming tears.  This creates an exotic and sympathetic effect but it is merely to protect the special tissues the  plant uses for its brain usually somewhere in the mid-section.  If this is disrupted by stabbing through the plant is usually immobile for a day but returns to look like a beautiful woman in a statuesque pose.

Note also their hair color, clothing and skin are all changeable.  These are modified "Petals" in effect as hair and fingernails are chitin to animals.  They started out appearing as perfectly beautiful eastern women but they have all learned and shared how to appear as such but by Western Standards.  For Western ones they usually embrace the 'flower' aspect allowing recognizable petals to grow from their heads and their dresses leaves and petals as often as appearing as silk and velveteen.  For easier appearance due to the Negative association they are more formal growing silk like cloth petals and strict long black hair though on close inspection the hair is thin long petals but would be flat and wide compared to a human hair.

The Reign of the Cruel Emperor Tzon Chon - Codex historiae antiquae

 The Twenty-Thousand year reign of the

Cruel Emperor Tzon Chon

"YouuuuuuUUUUU!" the deep and terrible voice blows from the great machine fueled tubes that echoed from the palace in the City of Perfect Celestial Order.

"YoouuuuuuUUUU!" the voice unmistakeably the voice of the Divine Imperial August Wisdom Mandated by Heaven Tzon Chon of the Eternal Red Dragon Empire.

"You...!" the deep voice hissed

"I have a question for you, you who conspire against me...  You who think even if you have never spoke a word against me conspire against the Mandate of Heaven and perhaps vandalize my kingdom, disrupt my productivity schedules, somehow even if in your mind work a way to try to thwart my rule...  I have a question...

"How great is your HATRED of ME!?"

"You may think you can do injury to my right rule.  You may think I have not caught you.   Perhaps you are right, my Mandarins in charge of Justice are very busy and a few of the lesser filth slither by even my best of servants of my Justice.  I am forgiving to those whose every breath and act is to support me.

"But know this;  I will know.  If I do not know now I shall find out.  I have much time and my servants are tireless and many.  Go ahead, think you can sabotage my rule and defy the Mandate of Heaven...  Have a nice life, a warm family, much rank and recognition...

"I will know.  I will find out.  I will suspect.

"One day, like any other harmonious day you will fall asleep.

"You will wake in the Ministry of Punishment with your bones bolted to a vivisection table.  My agents will have come for you and your family in the night and anesthetized you.  Then we will remove the sleep and inject drugs which magnify pain and those that keep the heart from stopping.  You will wake when we put the scalpel in you, perhaps to cut across your chest, perhaps to remove the cornea from one of your eyes...!

"You will awake screaming to see your family including your children and servants also being slowly worked upon by my State Torturers.  You will awake to your screams!

"And - you will be honored to an audience with me, your Emperor!

"You will see my eyes staring at you and you will know then you know nothing of Hatred!"

--Recordings from daily broadcasts during the Twenty Thousand year Reign of the Cruel Emperor Tzon Chon who came into absolute power approximately five thousand years after the first space flight.  Cited from "Histories of the Far past by an anonymous monk of the Agnost Orthodox Church..."

I have up to this point talked about the mostly legendary "Dawn Age" of Mankind's long past times.  I have discussed creation myths and historical supposed facts and have tried to keep them in appropriate eras.  However all of this has been wiped out with the Reign of the Cruel Emperor and what has become agreed upon as the beginning of history from our perspective.

The Cruel Emperor Tzon Chon began his rule a mere five millenia give or take a few decades after Man's first known spaceflight.  By then Mankind had sailed through the dark between the stars on ships and crossed the distances that make our nearness to Sol infinitesimal.  Our world was becoming a backwater an 'ancestral homeland' already when Tzon seized power.  The Empires of the East had been dominant and had naturally returned to their orderly dictatorship of Mandarins and officials.  He did this in a mass-murder of his relatives and a particularly bloody coup amongst the bureaucrats in a move so perfect and bloody a city was literally flooded with blood that killed thousands more.

A tyrant seizing power is nothing new but the scope of the Cruel Emperor's wrath was beyond measure.  He managed to control through fear and brutal tortuous execution and a network of spies and counter-spies to keep each individual alone and frightened even up to top Mandarin level.  None could trust another enough to express any discontent much less plot a coup.  He used the advancing technology of his time to make himself effectively immortal.  Then came the final murder of the entire Imperial family and the purging of history and the conquest of the world.  This was all done with brutal efficiency.

What followed was twenty millenia of pain and fear.  His rule was absolute, his word law, his justice swift and without mercy.  He would have no heirs for he would live forever and he would have no family for they would betray him.  His society would simply obey him, the perfect Emperor who would hold the Mandate of Heaven forever.  Those that opposed him were mere cancer that he would often assist his torturers in cutting out himself.

I shall not go into much great detail on the particulars and years of his reign.  In the dim far past they talked about earlier tyrants sometimes saying "To know his atrocities would destroy you."  All of these past despots were as children compared to the Cruel Emperor.  To live in his realm was to live a life of utter fear from the humblest of peasant to the highest official.  Life was regimented and decided by his complex bureaucracy and save slight variances such as by success in education or performance one had no say in how their lives would be lived, save the option of voluntary suicide by public booth though a few of those were reputed to lead to torture chambers for even ending one's life was in a way a betrayal of the Emperor's will.  His crimes are cataloged in a matter that perhaps approaches a third in the "Codex of Jade and Blood" or the allegedly self penned "I hate my enemies - they shall scream!" book of Asian poetry.  Both are restricted as reading them can cause insanity it is said and "Ill" advised on many levels to pursue.

Of note I shall say he made countless walls to protect his empire as did the Lord Mandarin Emperors of Far Cathay in the dim past of Man's pre-history.   Those walls were made with their own people allegedly enslaved and when they died working they were cemented into the walls.  That was unlikely given the technology of the times.  It is undeniable - and an archaeological milestone if an official building in FarCathay was from before or after the times of the Cruel Emperor in that his buildings indeed were made of substances where the countless persons executed by him were incorporated.  This is a material alchemists use and man has used en-masse during times of Technological waxing called "Poly-Mer".  He simply converted the flesh of his endless victims into this and sealed them in a type of artificial resin which was mostly dyed Jade Green.  The great defensive walls had crystal hard dark green rock while the paper on sliding doors was replaced by thin and flexible light jade green of this hellish substance.  His workers of course did their best to twist the bodies and faces of his victims into expressions of horror and pain.  Even after the end of his reign the material was used though rarely with any human remains if ever.  Thus digging in some ancient ruin one can tell if it was after, during or before his reign by this substance.

All Empires are immortal in their own eyes and all fall.

His terrible reign lasted for at least Twenty-Thousand years.  It is difficult to find any truthful record of its end and the particulars.  This is even considering how monitored and recorded each and every day of each and every citizen his monitoring was and how these records have been kept in documents that do not wither with time written in the unflinching 'Asian Basic' as we call it, or the old devices that contain moving pictures and sound - of the daily lives and countless horrific deaths of his subjects.  His death and the end of his empire is unknown.

On that note - if any who read this are of Adventuresome spirit and seek to plunge the Entropic Ruins those of his era are especially ancient, full of exotic treasure and utterly deadly!  If you encounter the Jade-like reisen with slices of humans in horrific pain in a simple room with scrolls and ink seals (often carved from compressed infant bones) and see a 'projector' - a metalized and poly-mer like device the size of a loaf of bread - do NOT manipulate it.  These usually show historical records of the day;  Men and women marching in unison on day to day business, recordings of street activity - a window to this far past.  The scenes will then cut so to speak to the horrific tortures and slow agonizing executions and prolonged mutilations and maiming....  I have had this experience myself....  I think it not some cruel trick;  The era was so full of such suffering day to day images of children playing, men working, monks chanting, armies marching and horrific executions and tortures were part of the normal day.  The 'poetry' I crudely translated was broadcast several times a day as were the screams of the days victims.

Oh, by the Increate, I have faltered in my penmanship and the Fuligan ink is smeared.  I care not.  I shall not erase.  Let me warn you if any warning will do you do not wish to see infants blinded with acid and their parents forced to praise the emperor as he continues the atrocity at the slightest rumor of disloyalty...  IF you encounter a "Device of Public record" from his era I urge you to wrap it up and bring it to some official who can appreciate it with this warning.  I shall vouch for the "Agnost Church" being an ordained priest perhaps bias - we pay not too much but a tidy sum and give a blessing.  Some people rich in coin but sick of mind do wish to see these and other who merely have much coin and foolish curiosity.  We often consul the latter but fear the former.  Again the Agnost church holds much of history to study by trained professionals like myself, we should be the caretakers even as I shudder to be given another "Box of Yellow Hell" and ordered to at least skim its horrific contents...

His death and the succession wars that replaced him seem gone from this history.  Some argue there was an effort to erase his name as he had erased much of the history before him also.  However there is no attempt recorded or uncovered to do so.  In this age the problem is usually there is too much history save Mankind's Dawn Age and the difficulty is to sort it.  There is nothing on his end or a century or so after.  We have even tried to ask people of the Far East and they only respond "The monster was destroyed..." and give no details.

Unless my superior forces me to erase from the Algal parchment my Fulligin ink and re-write I shall also leave my unprofessional opinion on this sloppy page; 

I  do not think the Cruel Emperor was a sadist in the manner much of us define the term.

You are likely aware of the term from Ribald Tales of decadent Noblemen taking a young maid to a punishment room and ...  I hope that happens be it silly or serious a thousand times versus real life but the Holy Agnost Church tries to get people not to read such rubbish.

Again I do not think Tzon Chon was a sadist.  I think he came to power in very brutal times and history does back it up and merely killed those he saw as enemies first and never stopped.  There is no indication he gained any personal pleasure from this but saw it a mechanical duty.  He saw himself as the right Eternal Emperor of all humanity or at least all Earth though was biased towards the realm of Far Cathay of the distant past and did whatever was necessary to achieve some far off goal.  He was full of hatred for those he assumed worked against his plan but to destroy them in agony was merely a chore of the endless burden a 'true' Emperor must bear.

There was no attempt to erase him from history for he had ruled as long as those in the late "Dawn age" recognized mankind's official history to be - Twenty Thousand years.  There are legends that man's history goes back nearly a thousand thousand years before that, almost as far behind as the age I write in is ahead.  Ancient empires destroyed by flood, wars of giants and divine beings ravaging the earth much like the end of the Age of Wizard-Lords that occurred long after the Age of the Cruel Emperor.  Man would love to forget him but would only erase their own history and ensure the next one has no warning to hinder him.

Furthermore the Cruel Emperor left his mark on Humanity far deeper than any historical record and even across the world that suffered the least of his evil reign he is still known today many thousands of years after his time.  He cut into mankind much as one of his State Torturers did with a scalpel and left indelible marks.

Of the most note is that even many thousands of years later the East and West are still different cultures though logically they should have merged so many times as to be unrecognizable from that dim age in the far past.  There are occasional wars and periods of merging.  Travelers go to distant lands and we have those from there come here.  Sometimes they settle and live their final days among us as one of us.  However the West is still West and East still East.

Another aspect is what he taught us by his negative example - to respect life and dignity and true justice.  We have had tyrants and despots West and East since but most have been deposed.  The Wizard Lords achieved far more power and did abuse theirs but not to a scope even approaching the Cruel Emperor though even attempting would be an unthinkable endeavor such as an immortal building one of his many walls with bricks by hand over tens of thousands of years.  As a general rule those who fall to tyranny and cruelty usually get deposed much faster than those who show reasonable mercy.

"I claim safe passage" - an ancient saying from before the Dawn Age but it is a boon to many of those of Adventuresome spirit;  In the Reign of the Cruel Emperor moving anywhere without permission was instant painful death though at least quick execution like slow hanging.  Permission could be asked for and was usually denied.  One would not be executed for a mere request, their butchers were busy all day and night, but if one made a few unusual requests and a negative rumor popped up the requests would ensure the death of the individual.  Thus it became a point of just rule to respect the right of persons to move at will including those from different nations and different cultures.  Unless there was good reason such as with evidence to assume banditry or espionage any could claim this and any ruler who denied it was marked a tyrant and had a much greater chance of being dethroned quickly.  Most lords of any fiefdom or Provence usually respect the Right of Safe passage and have their officials talk to those from far away to prevent problems with culture and language from creating a disturbance.  Powerful travelers get more scrutiny but it is often to be invited to the Lord's table to feast with him so they have a soft bond of loyalty with him and he can then set them to task chasing bandits for coin or otherwise providing services.  Often maids and attractive peasant girls will chase the most heroic and can bond a hero to their fiefdom or Provence.

Those truly untrustworthy try to steal his silverware at the table and can be justly dealt with!

A final note is the horrific Isle of Uccastrog aka "The Isle of the Torturers"...

It is a mid size island somewhere in the Sea of Cathay where there should be no islands for the Black Oceans are terrible and deep.  These islands are jagged peaks of rock with sharp edges sticking almost vertically out of the deep black ocean and many are just under the water only coming just above the surface with rare extremes of the Moon and tides.  These destroy most ships venturing nearby who sometimes are unlucky enough to swim to shore or float on driftwood or the many 'safety rafts' the inhabitants 'generously' launch when they see a ship with their spyglasses.

This island is full of a special race of specialized "Torturers" that in his last Millenia the Cruel Emperor twisted the life-matrix of some of his Asian people into beings specially toned for torture as he was increasingly demanding more and more of mere human agents of pain and even after millenia finding atrocities they'd hesitate to commit.  The Torturer race was too pure for this, their humanity removed save appearance and re-shaped to be perfect instruments of the Emepror's Justice.  They were like Asians but slightly larger with in the males a slightly bunched and hunched chest that caused them to naturally lean forward.  Their skins were pure yellow with very slanted eyes and fanged teeth.  Their arms spindly and long with long and strong fingers ending in almost claws.  Beyond their bodies their minds were stripped of any empathy and turned into analytical machines only capable of following orders and traditions with a passion and those were to be of course to re-commit the Emperor's countless atrocities.  

The women tend to be more normal in appearance except that they have idealized beauty and often larger breasts and hips than normal Asian women.  They also have natural makeup of pale white faces with blood red lips and natural black teeth that are fanged also.  The women assist both in the tortures but also to give false hope to the captives, sometimes pretending to visit them secretly to massage them, heal their wounds perhaps even have sexual relations with them - anything to give them hope for a few days then as the final tortures are applied they greet them to laugh at them and leer at their despair.

He then left them on this Island as "Perfect Followers" and they merely waited for his sky-ships to drop off those he felt the need to express his justice upon but not waste his personal attention.  It was assumed that any who arrived on the island without being the Emperor or one of his officials with an official edict and guards was sent there for a prolonged tortuous death.

These "Servants of the Divine Emperor Tson Chon" have never wavered in their devotion and even many thousands of years later they merely chuckle at shipwrecked victims who try to tell them that the "Cruel Emperor" is long dead - it is merely proof of their treason and why they were sent there.  Like their emperor they seem mostly polite and courteous though perhaps some sadism is emerging without his hand.  There are few survivors of that island so details about it are rare.  The various empires of the East that came after have often tried to send their Navy there to purge the isle and its horrific inhabitants but the unique geography and perhaps some ancient magical machine has kept the isle hidden and every expedition has been lost.  It seems to be quite easy for ships blown off course by sudden black clouded storms in the Cathay Seas to find however...

The only reason there are records is that some have escaped the island - including inhabitants!  They live in harsh laws and when no ship-men paddle to shore to be greeted warmly then slowly murdered they can often turn on each other, finding an 'odd man out' who violated even the most mild of their endless laws.   Thus sometimes a Torturer escapes what some would consider "Poetic Justice" though be it his or her fault to be born there?  They usually will take a captive to hidden boats that many construct or salvage from wreckage and use their sailor skills to reach the mainland, guiding them through the sharp rocks.  It can be a male torturer seeking escape lest he be the next victim during idle times or a female perhaps angry her brother was so killed.  Sometimes they are bored with their lot in life and like those with the "Adventurer Spirit" do seek to escape their chosen role and risk all on the road to adventure.

Note that most of the Isle try to reach the Western lands.  They would be put to death on the spot if they land in the East.  Even in the West most visiting "Asians" will try to kill them or shout to officials they must be killed and why.  Th

ey tend to be very intelligent and resourceful people who while trained in the arts of torture are rarely dangerous sadists or else why leave their Isle?  Most of the Eastern lands are very tolerant of Western mistakes;  Mispronouncing everything, assuming wild and fanciful behaviors and customs...  But to say an Easterner is from that Isle they will often become enraged and attack even if they said nothing to one not taking off their boots entering their homes, eating with both hands, asking if women of the house could sexually service them...  Do NOT do any of that in the last sentence - try to be respectful and polite and if they seem hesitant just ask them - they will teach you much if you are willing to learn and will reciprocate kindness and courtesy.

What follows this dark chapter:

The Second Age of Wandering Heroes

The Rise of the Wizard-Lords

From "Codex historiae antiquae"

--Written by MaxxFeral for Orange Sun / Far-Tomorrows TTRPG project - all rights reserved

Bridges of Time - bringing characters into FarTomrorrows

"Still Waters run Deep" from Rick Wakeman's 90s "Return to the Center of the Earth" album.

One advantage of embracing the Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe paradigm (1) is that a "Fantasy World" of the Far-Future can deal with many things a real "In the mythic past" or "Alternative world" (even if IN a basement universe!) simply could not.

"Heroic Adventurers" are tolerated as long as they don't turn to banditry, robbery or killing non-monsters without legit cause because mankind realises that there always will be people who can not stand nor will fit in their station and must seek more.  It's a rare thing which most envy as children but thank the Increate it was not their fate as an adult.  Likewise though the Children of Adam still fill the Green Hills of Earth with their tragedies and triumphs, laughter and tears they understand the "Long cycle" history is in and though they mostly live in a late Renissance or Pre-Industrial time there is no hurry on progress for they somehow know they've done this many times now.

Also - and this is one of the best parts - you can put in a character from almost ANY campaign... (2) 

Gunslinger?  They know about guns, some use muskets.  He'd better save bullets and know how to self-load cartridges and find metals to cast them and likely need to adventure to find materials to make them - notably the high quality steel as most of the planet has been mined deep.  But if he's civil. and polite might get offered a guard job and would be welcome at most farms or ranches.

Space-Man?  As he's wondering how "Boned" he is looking over his crashed ship a local farmer will ride up and invite him in for dinner, likely forgiving him as charity if his ship landed in part of his field.  He'd know about Man's children amongst the stars in neat blcok printed "Wonder Tales" books tucked away in a small bookshelf - those are bizarrely distorted tales that loosely resemble 40s to late 80s sci-fi and fantasy.  The farmer will point to the moon and talk about how it's green now with shallow oceans and its shimmering atmosphere and how man used to sail on the moon.  This won't "Change the World" - the local Boyar will try to help him get started (3) finding some parts to repair his ship.  Yes, he's found "Mankind's lost homeworld...!" but when he gets back officials from his society will quietly lecture him not to rave about it because they are NOT going to fight a "Galactic War" over an ancient world that's been mined to the core along with most of the Solar System stripped for a populace of "Primitives".  Also there are some odd defenses put up with near Level 4 tech...they'll shut themselves up and go "Uh, classified"...  Then they'll finish it by saying "This is Mankind's backup plan.  IF we get wiped out we'll emerge from this world every few  ten thousand years.  If we need genetic legacy or to find some history, it's there."

Frozen person?  Unpack and thaw and ready to be mind-F*cked!  (4)  There are TONS of Frozen people who pop into place.  They wander around and usually by charity of fellow men, especially through the Agnost Church they are placed.  Their stories of their past life often help them work with their new family group and sometimes make fodder for new "Wonder Tales".  A few can become "Adventurers".

Dimensional shift or exile?  Maybe the science experiment went wrong.  Maybe they were some space overlord dictator who froze himself to escape the legacy of his crimes - launching himself into space or burying himself in the tallest mountains....  Perhaps they are a gentle exile of a society based on reason but their philisophical views while too advanced for most were just slightly off and created such a disturbance they had to be put into a time field.  These are like (and often are) the "Frozen Persons" except those deliberately exiled were done so as a good reason - from crimes of being a world conquerer who eventually lost the battle for domination to gentle philisophical exiles - they are sent Aeons into space and time and end up on Earth.  These rarely are able to acclimate like "Normal" people from another time.  Many do try to start where they left off as Warlords or great thinkers of new ages now long past - but the oppression of the long hand of time wears their ambitions down.  Most conquerors find themselves mere "Boyars" and more than satisfied while many great thinkers join the Agnost Church as a Scribe to spend their lives reading the vast weight of history.

Adventurers - Getting to this - yes you can bring your older or current "Murder Hobos" to this game.

Maybe they stepped through a portal or a Dimension Door spell went awry.  Maybe they died and got re-incarnated?  Maybe they died long ago but somehow were re-created as if they were still alive by devices hidden in the deadliest Entropic Ruins called "Flesh Looms"?  Or perhaps they visited the Chronal Shrine or a strange house on the borderlands or found an odd Lighthouse on the edge of a desert...

It's a Late Renissance or Pre-Industrial feeling world - NOT "Mideval" like functional D&D basically is - just the far future.  If your characters from any baseline RPG world they can adapt and thrive.  Unlike the REAL far past there's not the high level of Xenophobia of really anyone outside town or nation regardless of racial issues that'd make a standard RPG town crawl into a gruesome public execution in a heartbeat.  They can still have that happen to them if they go "Murder Hobo" such as killing a shopkeeper who tells them to leave after being rude but if they treat people with basic respect they'll get it in return and only have negative consequence if they are disruptive.  Most 'common' people will like to hear traveller's tales and the nobility will just make sure they aren't a threat then perhaps hire them if need be.  The same with Magic or odd cultures - these get more attention but not instant hostility without good reason.  This is something near unthinkable if set in a real past era.

Again, this is a tribute to Vance, Wolfe and others - (1) - in great thanks.  This is not "Science Fiction" though it is - rather it's what a far future might be.  One both unrecognizable from today and at the same time familiar.  Magic of tranditional #ttrpgs works as such - but the people while looking pseudo mideval are not they'd be more compatable with a 'modern' person beyond the surface.

Far Tomorrows / Orange Sun will of course have much more details and some fun tables for suggestions and mechanics for these transitions.  A complete cross of all RPGS is quite impossible but to any experienced player the guidelines should be easy.

Notes -

1 - and Clark Ashton Smith, William Hope Hodgeson, 

2 - Well Kaijiru characters might end up hunted by NPC adventurers as "Monsters" with local authorities placing a bounty by reaction...  AI beings might be confined to the bottom of VERY dangerous "Entropic Ruins" with already existing and far more advanced AI (think "In the year One Hundred thousand twenty five twenty five...") that are ancient and nearly transcendent in ability in their decaying but active ruins of some far future now far past civilization...

3 - Via the "Murder Hobos" or the Player Characters!

4 - Disclaimer - IF cyrogenics becomes a legit option do NOT freeze yourself for many thousands of years - you'll die.  I mean if you can get the resources for a freezer tube that will last that long, make a chamber where you can wake up for a while and have food, drink, stretch out and exercise lightly for a few weeks then go back in if whatever you are seeking hasn't come yet...  Natural radioactive breakdown in your own body will kill you unless you thaw out for a few weeks every thousand years or so.  Hopefully this will be corrected.  Since this world is set in the very far future we'll assume it has somehow.  Most of us accept a "Transporter" concept thanks to Trek, this would be less difficult save the long times needed to keep active.

5 -  Fantasy, Wild West, 70s Era Science fiction feel, Post Apocalypse, super spy

Elves, Orcs and Morlocks in the world of Far-Tomorrows...

 Will this thing have Orcs and Elves....?

Yeah, but NOT like you think - even if on the surface they are like you think...

Just to piss off the "Woke" this scenario will have plenty of room for Orcs and Elves - including Dark Elves, savage hugely endowed lusty Orks who might assault women, etc.  I'd have actually tried to move away from them without it so credit the "Social Justice Warriors" bleating and shrieking to get a "Trope" not only perpetuated but LOCKED IN... 

Having said that, one trope I want to break from is the leeching off of Tolkien the "baseline" TTRPG uses.    Really I think they whacked off to fantasies about sodomizing little hobbits and the Tolkien coffin feeders brought in their lawyers in self-defense sometimes...

No disrespect intended to JRR himself, his impact on fantasy and literature is unquestionable and deserves great thanks... - matter of fact I like his "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" translation and the Sean Connery movie "Sword of the Valiant" made from it.  However for "Old School" fantasy I prefer Lord Dunsany - heard of him?  No?  Shame - try "The Fortress Unvanquishable save for Sacnoth" arguably the first modern Sword and Sorcery pure fantasy (vs historical) story...  Quite debatable but he was a level above so many others...

Most of this TTRPG paradigm is to borrow from Gene Wolfe and especially Jack Vance - that such a world is that of the Far, FAR future to explain the Magic, the creatures, the overwhelming number of Dungeons and wild places and the seemingly primitive/mideval but "Modern" people and attitudes...  Another reality - well if a cosmological constant is changed the universe is either thinner than two atoms across all space as we know it or is a burning rock a tenth of a milimiter across.  The past as it never was, no way...  The future remembering the past in long cycles however....

I'm not stealing from Dunsany here, or Vance, rather H G Wells for an explanation for any Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves, Elves and such creatures in this fantasy TTRPG setting...

H.G. Wells, rather!

You see this is set about a million years in the future and the Elves are akin to the Eloi envisioned by Wells in "The Time Machine" and the Orcs and underground races are the "Moorlocks".  Given later knowledge of real genetics and technology we can deviate a bit from Wells's story meant for social analogy more than real speculation of the future.  I recommend reading it, short novel and should be read as an adult but NOT forced on a kid in school.

The Elves are the inheritors of some "Upper Class" of perhaps five hindered thousand years hence but that also before the 'current' year.  They managed to establish some kind of system to keep themselves in power and wealth but free of the need for any labor that lasted a long time even enduring the latest "Wizard Lord" era between that and the present time.  Like the joke of the American Businessman and the Hispanic Fisherman what would you do if worked really hard so you were so rich you didn't have to work?  They made a new Garden of Eden that stretched over many many miles that their descendants could run and frolic in beauty the environment protecting them from danger and aiding them.  They lived in great Jade cities that were almost immune from the ravages of time while "Deep Elder Forests" served them and protected them.  Now the Jade Palaces are just large domes and mostly open structures but the woods live and breathe and respond to them and ensure always nice weather and bountiful food and protection.

Unlike Wells's vision they did not degenerate mentally or evolve completely outside humanity - too many safeguards built into their DNA including secondary mechanisms in their cells kept them stable.  Like the movie "The Fifth Element" a being from this age would give a modern genetic test a crash for there have been countless edits over the Eons.

These "Elves" as known in this far age also came about in a civilization post - magickal development by the "Wizard Lords" so indeed they and their forests had this advantage built into them too - effects we would consider Magic in this day and age.  Per Clarke any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.  This is also why elves have both a natural affinity but an upper limit for the Magic they can weild - the safeguards that allow them some level of power but prevent them from fully ascending to perhaps challenge the Wizard Lords but most likely disrupt their existing "Eden" with foolish abuse of 8th level and above spells.

YES - in this game if your character's "Race" is "Elf" you have natural affinity for some Magic most being able to cast at least a cantrip without studying - BUT - you have upper limits on spells and won't ever become an "Arch-Mage" and don't even think about being a "Wizard Lord" even if this setting gets an "Epic Level".  It'd be easier to get a Goblina's skin not to have a tinge of green.  Ten times.  This is in "Unfair Balance" with other classes that do have a higher magic affinity but none of the Elven legacy of Nature, Natural Magick, Nobility template, Wisdom, beauty and ability to fight with speed.

The Eloi or Alloi or Elves did not become mentally retarded but over Eons lost their identity and now they merely assume they are a superior race perhaps only loosely linked to mankind living in their elder forests and ancient now crumbling Jade domes overcome with special breeds of trees that keep these from falling apart and grow into vast cities in the deep forests and excrete nourishing sap and fruit.

The Orks, the Goblins, the Dwarves are the Morlocks... The latter are "The Great Northern Whites" a playable race of northern beings that live in the frozen north and inside great underground Liminal Arkologies...  

However, like Wells the Moorlock races were the "Workers" - unlike them they weren't really some mass underclass.  Most were highly skilled professional workers who were well paid.  Since the elites wanted a new "Garden of Eden" they accepted well paid positions maintaining it.  They liked the endless high tech corridors, having more credits than they knew what to spend at the great shopping malls, occasional vacations to the Islands though the sun seemed harsher and harsher till they stopped going...

Most of the machinery was self-repairing and artificially intelligent.  Over time the "Ghosts" in the machines became "Guardian Spirits" that guided them in their labors.  The great underground machines mostly kept the endless corridors inhabitable and boosted the environment for the "Great Elder Forests".  These machines might also be part of some ancient systems that slowly move the earth as the Sun gradually grows brighter to help keep the climate stable and can trap or emit carbon and countless other operations as needed.

Instead of Moorlocks proper there are "Great Northern Whites" who mostly live underground and/or in the frozen north.  They are not stunted but tall, muscular, beautiful humans who can stand cold to 80F below casually with no fear of frostbite.  Their skin is usually white along with their eyes being mostly white save tiny pupils which widen to turn jet black in near total darkness to see with minimal light.  They do NOT like high heat or harsh sun and can get heat fatigued or sunburned easily if and when they venture south.

A few often do venture south, their warrior skills and instinct for machinery and problem solving helping them out.  Sadly there is an ancient racist stereotype that "Whites from the North" are murderous conquerors and slavers so they face some social penalties.  Very few if any delude themselves to be "Superior" at anything save their own adaptation to the far north.  They find the darker, shorter people of the wider part of the world to be very cute and like to have sex with them, but only voluntarily.  They'd fight to defend themselves and slay any real threat no matter the race, species, skin color but rarely if ever start a fight.

The interaction between Great Northern Whites and Elves is usually not favorable.  It is rarely hostile because their lives are so far apart now they do not hate each other but want to be distant.  Many "Liminal Arkology" tunnels lead right beneath Elven glades but when discovered both sides expertly seal these connecting portals.  Sometimes in foreign ground the Great Northern Whites joke the Elves look "Tasty" but there hasn't been any such incident and even such a remark is only after a LONG diatribe about them being "Savages"...

The other Orcish/Goblinoid are the lesser workers - those assigned the true worst jobs such as being above ground or outside after world wars and epochs of poison - where the surface of the planet was mostly toxic (save the protected Elven Glades) and the sun beat harsh and deadly.  The Green is a self-reinforcing symbiote derived from Blue-Green Algae that gives a microscopic boost (.01% food energy if in the sun) but also absorbs excess radiation and filters toxins from the body growing darker until nearly black green.

Sadly the social conditioning did not hold and the Orks, Goblinoids and miscellaneous "Lessers" are indeed savage and dangerous.  Bandits.  Ambush predators.  Violent tribal savages.  They do target Elves out of some deep seated jealousy not knowing why while Elves tend to be very cruel to them somehow knowing they are 'lesser' beings.

These types, Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarves also have both stricter limits on Magic use but also a high resistance to its effects.  Magic that affects the world such as lifting up a rock and throwing it would still do the damage a rock thrown by natural means would do but trying to charm them or use a bolt of 'magical' energy might work less.  Dwarves have the most resistance, Orcs and Goblins the least and various other creatures different levels.  They also have that from great to mild penalties for learning it themselves.  Most "Magic" from these peoples are "Shamans" who call on lesser Gods and spirits to give them powers aka "Clerical" spells.

In between all of this - almost inexplicably (A Wizard did it!!!) the "Baseline" humans exist and might slowly again outnumber the "Old Races" even though said groups are divergent from Humanity proper.  Humans act as a bridge because Elves and Orcs cannot interbreed but they can with Humans and "Great Northern Whites" are accepted as a race of mankind.  

Humanity proper tends to be enthralled by the Elves who seem to be aloof ancient guardians of wisdom and nature - though their "nature" is a construct and far removed.  They tend to conflict with and hate the Green races and this reduces racial conflict among baseline humanity -like an ancient bard of the dim past mentioned - "Black and white team up on Green".  The Great Northern Whites tend to be treated with awe and fear but once they establish they are not going to "Conquer" them become nice curiosities and welcome partners for adventure or friendship.

The recent addition of the "Domesticated Goblina" - tiny petite sexual slaves created by a depraved Archmage from female goblins and human male breeding is upsetting a lot of "Traditional" notions for it proves that all of these beings clearly come from baseline humanity but were edited somehow in the past in ways their "Sacred texts" do not tell about at all.  Most simply deny this and if disgusted simply chock it up to a Wizard's sick experiments and creations.  These petite sex slaves are quite disruptive - mostly from eligible women facing tiny easy to obtain competition.  They are usually sold as sterile but this is due to a "Womb Tattoo" enchantment that is defeatable and most seek to have this undone so they can bear more human children when they have a master who is kind to them.  Most human males are unthinkably kind compared to Goblinoid behavior as they tend to not be violent to them, attempt to please them during sexual interactions, provide good food for them and shelter.  I'll not describe regular Goblinoid behavior but it is the opposite of the last sentence especially to their women.  The Goblinas being bred in the depraved Archmage's dungeon 'factory' are repeatedly told this by Grand-Mothers and Great-Grand-Mothers so they urge them to be the best and find a Human Male, any one save legit brutes or freaks.

Mention of a Goblina girl or seeing one of his flock carrying one in tow is often enough to set an Agnost Orthodox priest into the proverbial "Heebie Jeebies".  More on that great faith and their "Clerics" will come later.  However Dawgma is that it is a good deed for them to encourage a marriage and family if there is a stable sexual relationship between two people under their influence - a town, region, band of adventurers.  They have often dealt with tearful conversations telling that normal human and Beast-Person can NOT marry by strict ancient Dawgma.  There is no Dawgma on goblinoids so it is not forbidden, just it was unthinkable until recently as normal goblins are quite hideous in appearance.

This is also hipocritical as they tend to bless Elven - Human unions if it seems stable after much councilling and rarely give the "Closer-Abhumans" such as Northern Whites, Super-Persons, Tall Folk too much trouble save to test resolve.  Goblins have in general a negative history of interactions with the other races so the stigma is there and very unfair to the Goblinas.  There will be a chapter on these of course, in Orange Sun and Revealed Vulgaria. 

This is far from the first time humanity has done such a questionable deed of course.  The "Half-Size" races were created as diminutive servants for amusement and sexual relief.  Like the origins of the Elves and Goblinoid races this is lost in the weight of endless time and if confronted by "Historical Archives" they'd angrily assure it was "Balderdash and some vile fiction...  Surely Humans are just those of us who got restless and ate too much, grew too big for a proper hill home and ran off to conquer the world.  Some of us might take a fancy to you but we are so different, how would we ever introduce you to our clan as a deep friend?"

Oh, and yes there are rumors of "Dark Elves" the Eloi or Elven who in the past committed some unspeakable sin so were banished with the "Gods" burning their skin BLACK to warn others of their evil and making them so intolerant of the sun and most light they fled into the darkest depths of the earth where even the other subterranean humans fear to tread to practice the darkest of rituals.  YES if an "Elf" becomes truly evil such as the greater range of evil on the "Planar" spectrum and commits atrocities they can wake up after a night of hellish nightmares of being judged by the "Gods" and find themselves a Dark Elf that runs screaming as his or her skin and eyes burn in even the full moonlight into the nearest cave to try to reach the darkest depths.  They flee screaming past any Great Northern Whites they find the "Liminal Arkology" tunnels too bright and with "High Elves" in pursuit, the pursuers pleading a "Truce" and aid in capturing to kill "The evil one judged black..."  Most Dark Elves only hang out in "Entropic Ruins" as only there in areas the sun seems never to reach the surface proper and among horrific abhumans can they hope for any brief respite as Elves and Humanity, even Orcs fear to tread there...

This can also happen to the worst of the Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins forming truly terrifying things - again usually confined to "Entropic Ruins" as so evil almost all seek to instantly destroy them.

Also, rare as it is, there are "Dark Elves" who have rejected their depraved society of sickest perversions and evils and have braved the Sun and done all possible to redeem themselves.  They have a very LOW survival rate as the Entropic, dark forces do not release their hold casually and the others fear their enclaves secret location might be revealed.  The few who have redeemed themselves the sins of their Fathers have turned Light skinned and been welcomed back to the Elven Glades as "Pure again"...

Stories of this might make some humans with brown skin of that far future age wince without knowing why, but if they inquire the Elves and Northern whites will say has nothing whatsoever to do with them...

Thus - up to the DM and players - but we can put Elves, Orcs, Hob-wer short people, Dark elves, etc. into the game.  No real issue there!

MaxxFeral - new writer on the project.

What is Magic? (for TTRPG systems) For Far Tomorrows

Level 1 Mage - "I cast Magic Missile!"

DM - "But you are in a farkin' Tavern and there aren't any Monsters you dumbass!"

Level 1 Rogue - "I roll charisma to charm the ladies."

Level 1 Mage - "I said I cast Magic Missile..."

Level 1 Fighter - "Can I roll a die to see if I'm drunk yet?"

DM -nods to Level 1 Mage with a sigh, to Level 1 Rogue

Level 1 Rogue Rolls a 3

DM - "The Mirror and a number of objects shatter, the ladies leave the bar posthaste and the Barkeep pulls out a crossbow and demands recompenses..."  Note DM had decided random chaos for Magic Missile spell vs NPC deaths...

DM - The Sherriff shows up - he was following you Murder Hobos the moment you stepped foot in town.  He says "How in Pholtus's perfect plan is it possible a moron like you knows basic Magic?!"

---

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic..."

Arthur C. Clarke - third law

What IS magic?  The act of will/ritual to somehow alter reality.  But, really, what IS Magic?

As it applies to a TTRPG game of course...

Balderdash, superstition.  Gygax himself noted he never met any "Mage" even in the super Occult 60s, 70s aftermath who could even approach a first level spell in an early Draconic Magazine article on how he worked out the first Magic Spells system for the game and why he kept with it.

So why - in this Far Future themed RPG do we still plan on having the "Vancian" system from Science Fiction Writer Jack Vance as the default?  Spells ancient lore.  Mages search them out, covet them, memorize them, fire and forget?

The first reason is the "Old School" roleplay feature.  And that the revered Gary Gygax made a perfect but imperfect balance with that - wizards were very powerful but had strong limits so it wasn't a game of "Wizards and non-important assistants" like competing systems from alternatives in the 70s, 80s to modern over-powered "Politically Correct" corporate regurgitation.  Vance's system WORKS, simple as that - wizards are powerful but not unbeatable  Per Robert E Howard "A few sword thrusts" can still end an Archmage.  Its getting close enough that's the challenge.

The second reason is that the "Magic" of the world of far-tomorrows is NOT any magick system of today (1) but rather it is a product of the far future.  Is this meaning they are just using ray-guns and some kind of force field and this is just sci-fi?  NOPE.   Its fantasy but a more mature fantasy.  There will be no trick to this system, the Mages will still be using Magick - just if they went to a time portal to today I strongly doubt their magick would work.

This is to be a TTRPG set in the world of the far future, the Far Tomorrows.  At least One-Hundred Thousand years ahead of now, possibly a Million.  Think Wells's "The Time Machine" or Gene Wolfe's "Urth of the New Sun" cycle...  It is not yet entropic like Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" or Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique", Lin Carter's "Gondwane", C.S. Lewis's "Charn" or Hope Hodgkin's "Night Land"... - but it is a very old, matured earth with many eras of rise and fall of civilization so the oppressive weight of history creates a resigned Zen-like acceptance of the impermanence of life and Man's Achievements.  Most are content to live simple lives in this long shadow, save the "Heroic Adventurers" of course!

A "Titanomachy" a war of Gods, Titans, which destroyed all civilization as Men knew it and re-shaped the earth itself.  As in the dim forgotten past so it will be in the far future...

It takes longer but civilizations still rise and fall and rise again.  Every five to ten thousand years the world is wiped clean, some upheaval, civilizations die along with most of the populace and then survivors rebuild, try to remember but it is largely distorted.  There are archives but this is so far ahead that it is buried in thousands of "Histories", many of which conflict with themselves or are outright fabrications.

The base world of Far Tomorrows is set in a Confederated Fiefdoms; A quasi Renaissance to pre-industrial tech era if left on its own with no interference would take a few thousand years to get to the space travel age again versus a few centuries.  It's seen as part of an eternal cycle that is both inevitable and unavoidable but there is no hurry, it's happened before and will happen long after.  Men rarely try to interfere with the flow of history but rarely push it forward faster than it seems to be going.  It will reach heights and then fall and that is the cycle.

During some of these heights man achieved a very high level technology.  All the goodies of "Science Fiction" and beyond even that.  No need to go on many pages on that issue.  And rather than some "Future History" of many thousands of years its best to examine it by a very harsh but simple standard.

Kardeschev's levels - meant as a thought experiment on how 'advanced' a civilization was by how much energy it could generate to power something like a signal into space to see if there's any reply back...

Level 1 - they control all energy on their planet

Level 2 - they control all energy in their star system

Level 3 - they control all energy in their Galaxy

(unspoken by K but extrapolated)

Level 4 - they control all energy in the UNIVERSE

Level 5 - God - by definition would have to be - in theory transcending the universe and any 'multiverse' creating or destroying at will the heartbeat and breath in both a long cycle called a Kalpa and in the rotations of sub-atomic particles and fluctuations of the space-time foam...

This set of levels is wildly scaling high and quite debatable (also has been broken up into 10+ levels by thoughtful Sci-Fi geeks) but like an ancient mythic saying there's a lot of truth into it.  Mankind right now is near .8 of level 1 - but once we get to Level 1 we could build a Stapledon Swarm (NOT a "Dyson Sphere" - bad name, bad idea) and effectively harness all or most of the Sun's output.  Once we do that we could get to Level 3 and work out ways to advance to Level 4.

Huge rates of scale - for instance if the "Bootes Void" is an emerging Level 4 civilization covering entire galaxies of star systems with Stapledon Energy collection clusters it's a Level 3.01 civilization.

Clarke's 3rd law states that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from Magic...

How does this relate?

Since mankind is still alive about a Million years in the future I think it's not too much to extrapolate he's gone out into the stars and achieved Level 3 a few times and more.  The "More" is when the "Wizard Lords" emerged at the earliest Fifty-Thousand years hence.  They had advanced technology that made them at Level 4 in at least capabilities, though they spent more time making bizarro beasts and their own gardens of pleasure than "Conquering the Universe".  And really, why the latter, want to see two odd aliens arguing over some 3rd alien that might be a sheep and who owns it, with a line of petitioners going on so long the entire surface of an 'imperial world' is a pure line all over it?  I'd rather make bizarro worlds, crazy monsters, beautiful monster-girl mistresses and do crazy games like make titans that ravage worlds and fight other Wizard-Lord's titans...

Anyways the "Spells" as we know them were some of the end results of the Wizard-Lord's play with Level 4 technology.  A recent and not well received edit to a famous Space Opera had a quasi-supernatural force come from a natural source - sub-microscopic machines...  That 'proved' in Cannon a 70s "Fan Theory" that said galaxy had Level 4 tech but somehow pretended to be a failing Level 3 civilization.  Being able to "Edit" the literal "Laws" of the universe to add a "Force" is the definition of Level 4 range technology.  Think a character who's all powerful but about as stupid as smart from another popular space opera...bossing and bullying 'lesser' beings he's sent to study because they have potential.  In principal an amazing character but he came off as a comical foil for a popular superhero.

Thus in the world of Far Tomorrows there is "Magick" much like the fantasy worlds of today and the superstition and mythology of the far far past.  And it is real.  And it works.  It's also magic because of all who spend their lives studying and studying it to barely scratch the surface, perhaps one in ten-thousand of those that achieve "Arch-Mage" level have any idea WHAT they are doing.  An "Arch-Mage" while VERY impressive (At the cusp of Epic Level) is about 1/100th as powerful as a "Wizard Lord".

The Wizard Lords whom had three known "Ages" are now long gone.  Some are in other realities, some have transcended to the greater universe of which this one is akin to a soap bubble frothing on the edge of an endless cosmic sea...  Most are dead, killed by wars with other wizards or self-destruction of despair and boredom, perhaps one or two by "Several Sword Thrusts" and not having a backup plan.  There are rumored to be a very few left but these hide themselves, acting as 'guides' to carefully give a push where needed.  Of these only the name Merlin is well known, a Magician of times far more ancient than the Age of the Wizard Lords whose power was much greater than most but from far before the known 'spells' and if any connection it is debatable.  

Their legacy is the "Magic" they left.  A hundred spells and a legendary thousand more.  Or ten thousand spells and a million more, depending on who you talk to.  These are ways they built to quickly access whatever system they added to the Space-Time reality that let them shape worlds as easily as handling clay and paint, to twist man's form into beasts and monsters, to master space and time like a mathematical concept.  A student of Magic spends years to learn the basic concepts, by mentor, by school or rarely some innate talent and more fantastically  the most guarded thing in the world - a "Spell book" falls into their hands.  But after study they can learn a "Spell" and then study it to use it later but must re-study it to prepare it again.  It is fantastic and frustrating, humanity on the cusp of Godhood when even the most simplest of spells is used but then is 'forgotten' even if the Wizard could recite the verbal component a hundred times he still must memorize it again properly...

Truly this - the "Vancian" system is best explained by a far future science fiction setting - what "The Dying Earth" by Vance is really.  It works great in a ttrpg because wizards can still become incredibly powerful but they need to manage real risk and work with others to get that far.  The game is not "Wizards Only" as many alternative systems have let themselves become.

The Magic in the world of Far Tomorrows in base will be traditional then.  There are others with different types of "magical abilities" not requiring years of study and books - but these will be limited and have different sets of rules.  A mage is the definition of possibility.

This will also be the main difference in the "magic" between this and the "Core" TTRPG;  Mages have far more control of spells here.  There might be at start fewer but it will be meant to include spells from 3.5 of "Core" and earlier if DM/Setting allows.  However the Spells are more flexible.

For instance - Duration vs power - Power versus focus-

For "Bolts of Smiting" aka "Magic Missile" the mage should be able to modify if not unreasonable the use of the spell.  They could spend it all in a 1.5x stronger single burst against a single target.  They could make them last for ten minutes per level of caster unless cancelled circling around and hitting anything that comes near at a cost of being .75% as strong.  With the chain of a "True Name" or "Warding" spell they could seek out specific targets or wait as a limited trap such as attacking anything going through a doorway unless a word determined by the caster is given.  These would still be limited effects until the mage got "Enchant" level and at greater time and expense was able to set up permanent wards if needed.

Another spell which is new for this setting and not from the classic sources (core RPG, "Draconic" magazine...) is the spell "Bowman's Paradox" where it uses an absurd thought paradox - that for a bow to reach its target, it must travel half the distance, and half the distance of that - causing the opponent to make many "Rolls" in attacking and if one fails the attack misses.  This too can be modified or combined - so a long hall can seem to stretch forever, a lock resets after being picked many times 

The best 'rule' to use for these more flexible spells is that usually greater specialty or limited focus increases power/duration while expanded options reduces power/duration.  A lone, low-level Mage might cast "Shield" and seeing the Orcs attacking him have metal weapons so he focuses it on metal so they can bang and slash at him for a prolonged time with no effect while he spooks them trying to convince them he's a Master Wizard and they should run.  Good strategy, but perhaps their Goblin friend has a long wooden stick he likes to try to hit things with...?

Off-Camera boost in power

There is a difference between the modular, mobile fire and forget "Spells" and the abilities magic use and 'spellbooks' give.  Ever notice how mages in stories seem so powerful but they aren't able to make magic missiles or clever cantrips unless it's genre specific fiction?  Or how in Vance's dying Earth while the mages have great power they can do things off camera that no way would any normal DM allow - especially on-camera?

Magic Users of the study kind should have access to as they rise in level and experience to much more powerful magics that simply take longer to set up.  While making a fortress wall would be handy in combat if it takes a day of casting it isn't worth memorizing.  This should start at level 5 but Magic User characters should have a wide berth on how they decorate and defend their homes, of greater magicks they cast if they can do it unopposed and take time and resources.  Constructing a fortress.  Mass charming of creatures.  Creating new Gestalt creatures. Making automata...  Really, this is a good portion of why there are so many "Dungeons" to explore adding to the layers of ruins monsters, treasures and things more relevant than many thousands of years past.

THUSLY:

• Magic should start with the "Vancian" based system for the base "Magic-User" classes.  No "Mana Pools" no power battery - this is not a video game.
• Players need a source of spells, such as their starter "Spell Book" and new spells are NOT easy to obtain or buy.  These are keys to reality, they are coveted and held so tightly.  This is why they adventure into ancient ruins and risk death versus staying at the crumbling but cozy family manor or the 'college' with the lonely and touchy professor.
• Players need to memorize spells, choosing which they might need to use - that are then 'forgotten' after use and require study/preparation to use again later.
• Players that get their Spells from other sources (Paladin, Cleric, 'sorcerer' if DM allows...) still need to spend time in ritual, prayer, delving inside themselves...etc.
• The spells for classic casters are VERY versatile - they'll come with some suggestions but these are not to limit the use.  The DM is to reward creativity not whine "You are trying to expand your character's Horizons..." in a pathetic huff.
• Gestalt - spells can be combined creatively - this should start at Level 3 or above as the new casters need to learn how to use single spells in the dangerous environment.
• Characters, NPCs, Monsters with "Spell-like" abilities are usually more limited in use to compensate for no need for study and possible higher frequency of casting.  The exception is transcendent beings, Aengeliac or Daemonik or other advanced spirituality/extraplanar beings  - these have the spell abilities and also control and versatility.
• Off-Camera the Magic Users have effectively greater power for projects, experiments, home defense, etc.  This costs time and money and shouldn't be allowed until a few levels have been gained.

Notes:

1 - I've actually been into "The Occult" in real life.  WON'T get into that in this project and will NOT incorporate any "Real" magic system save necessary surface only items.  This is a far far future and likley a RL mage from today (One BIG exception) would be powerless and also likely mages from then travelling back in time.  However a branch of it - "Chaos Magick" does use "Sigils" in a very similar way - of investing power, research, work then "Fire and Forget" - it might be the pre-pre-PRE-history of the system of "Far Tomorrows" akin to an Ape coming out of a tree. Like Vance for the RPG Spell system, like Olaf Stapledon for Sci-Fi coming up with what we call (wrongly) a Dyson Sphere a RL Artist/Mage named Spare created this system... (or codified it at least) I say that ONLY for amusement.  As a knee-jerk defense I separate real "Occult" from RPG practices due to being a survivor of the 80s Psychic Wars over RPGs...