Bridges of Time - Immortals

 

"On a long enough time-scale the survivability rate of everyone drops to essentially zero..."

---quote from Archean days, "Information" age, re-translated at least ten or twenty times so some exact meaning might be lost.

 However, essentially does not mean Zero.

There are exceptions to every rule and over enough time and frequency an unlikely event occurs more than a few times.

Some fictional and one perhaps non-fictional examples:

citing fair use and parody

In this age far into the future there are more than a few "Immortals" - beings that simply do not die on a regular timescale.  They are all unique with rich tapestries of stories on why and how they lasted beyond their natural lifespan and then the eons that followed.  A few simply won a 'genetic lottery' and whatever trigger in Man's pattern of life that causes eventual death is off.  These are rarer amongst immortals for every thousand years it is near certainty of some fatal event even in civilizations and worlds of very low war and personal danger.  Others are more special but more believable - they were blessed or cursed by what Gods there be to not die and when killed they regenerate or reappear by some ancient divine Magick.  Some have bodies enhanced by man's magick and occasional bouts of enhanced knowledge of natural law called "Technology" and they have tiny clockwork inside of them or are some kind of tiny clockwork in their entire body and will rebuild any wound and not age in appearance.  Others are constructs of light, sound, energy, altered tissue that pretends to be a form of man or like man or woman.

Does this mean they are lucky?

A society in man's pre-dawn days had a curse - "May you live forever" - they were supposedly the best warriors in Man's history and while this certainly has been surpassed in the near thousand-thousand years hence of the Far-Tomorrows, the legend of their valor and sayings do remain.  They had no 'Valhalla' to reward warriors, their religion had a gray and depressing afterlife and the best warriors got merely a gravestone to remember they ever lived if they died in battle.  Yet even far back and living such a harsh life they knew that Immortality was not a boon but could be a curse.  Thus this phrase would only be uttered to their worst traitors or the most wretched failures and cowardly amongst them.

New Logo for Orange Sun / Far Tomorrows

 Just a quickie here - new logo for the RPG.

And Artwork!

-Maxx Feral

Assembly - of TTRPG and what should be done

 by Maxx Feral.

Going to be a side rant and touch into other areas.  Any "TL/DR" people leave now.

This is a placeholder.  For a little while, myself, OMaXXXimVs and others are going to be working out a new mechanics for our games - a very simplified base system that you can then expand around for a TTRPG.  This is due to Hasbro/WOTC shooting itself in the foot with OGL 1.1 and we do NOT care if they backpedal there is no way any sane person could ever trust them again.  We'll still update lore and new chapters as we flesh this out so keep checking.  But this is kind of a stepping point, us making a new set of rules.

So I want to talk about Hasbro, WOTC and really the "Woke" gaming industry this project is a reaction against...

One Man's Opinion, they WANT to FAIL.

This is, as OMaxxx calls it "Omega Stage Capitalism".  

We've both known what it is like to be managers of stores that are set to derail and close by some A-hole tyrant "Middle Manager" that doesn't care if you stand around all day and nothing happens after he empties the shelves for a year but will fly from vacation in Hawaii to harass and belittle a good manager who somehow manages to make a profit.  The recession these types caused in 2008 triggered an "Occupy" movement that wasn't fake like the "Tea Party" one.  For a brief moment they got real scared that they'd face regulation, taxes and even the top guys might wear handcuffs.  For a brief moment the protests were not being expertly ignored by the news and people were starting to get active and VOTE also for real starting to run for state and local offices, choking out the political and religious or ideological post-turtles that run and ruin so many small townships.

Then, at the cost of more debt, the economy got a bit better.  And they co-opted the "Left" with "Cancel Culture".  All that Occupy stuff was forgotten.

I get it, I was with most people - just gave up on ideals of the past.  We'd been hoping "Fight Club" style for some "Project Mayhem" but it didn't happen.  The old guard of the Left was too strong and kept anyone from stepping to violence even when it was proven the techniques of the 60s, 70s into the 80s had been expertly matched.  The media could no longer be used as a weapon since it didn't exist.  It was another form of entertainment and great care was made to prevent anything from getting on 'live tv' even when it was advertised as such.  The "Elected officials" now were just professional politicians, they were employees of big money interests and cared nothing the damage they were doing.  Both "Sides".  FAKE sides...  The rich elite also were a purer breed, there was no connection to their workers or society.  One said people were fools to fight and die for America for instance.  The Fake politics have people so politized that we want to cling to cultish "Sides" that are both constructed and designed to cancel each other out and not do anything positive.

So we saw society on a gradual slide with nothing we could do and retreated into our hobbies and dreams. That's why the 00s was a second boom for Comic Books, video games and especially TTRPGs and indie projects.  People who played early TTRPGs dived right back into the hobby.  You can't afford that 2nd vacation home, luxury car or boat?  A few hundred $ you have a PILE of excellent books, old and new and can play with friends, all of you no longer caring you are nowhere near as rich or famous as you all thought you'd be!    We did what we loved as kids now as adults.  And the OSR helped everyone enjoy D&D even if technically controlled by a big company.  And the latter had 3.5ed that was PG level not G rated.

Come 2012-2014 the rot was injected.

It seems the vultures that bought companies to RUIN them that gave mortgages to unemployed ex-cons for hastily constructed new homes on what used to be farmland and forest had jumped into hobbies and comic books and games to hide.  New area, same agenda - pump it up a while then set it to slide.  Buy high, sell LOW.  Bet against in the stock market in a process called "Short-Selling" then set the team to ruin...  How in the world is this not criminal fraud?  But we used to rely on the media to alert us these things, now they are just entertainment.  If we had such in the 80s the "S&L scandal" would have been ignored and the people who stole treated as saints and the victims degraded and vilified.

It was just another "Buy high, sell low" and collect bailouts, stock market negative bets, etc. till the well is dry, then run elsewhere.  The elites behind all this had a good wallow here.  The hobbies and franchises are a tiny pond compared to retails, malls, moving jobs overseas after looting pension funds to buy Van Gogh paintings - but they are far less regulated.  You don't need to EAT your box of Dungeons and Dragons basic set.  Marvel comics is not a major employer.  Ghostbusters in any vile trashy re-make is not connected to the wealth of a nation.

Still they had to hide that they were destroying people's dear hobbies. A business that employs people, provides a generic service is on a top down outhouse style management.  Get enough stock to threaten the bosses with shutting it down overnight they let you ruin many people's lives work, especially if given a golden parachute.  With RPGs, comics, etc. they needed to deal with the deep connection the franchises had to their fans.  Thus they had to sour the pot.  That is why they came up with all the lies and used the lies to justify hiring "Social Justice Warriors" who cared more their garbage politics than anything else.

What a perfect way to do anything other than "Bird in Hand worth two in bush..." and "If it ain't broken, don't FIX it!"  aka "Don't like my politics?  Don't buy my book.  Problem solved.  From Kelly Sue DeConnick who has an impressive record of being hired to lord it over 20 year industry veterans to run 100% one project that fails after another after another.  Now if it was a self published book - "Our bodies hate the Phallocracy" that is stocked in ONE 'anarchist' coffeshop in Portland, OR because she's the best customer and part-time employee...?  But how in the world did she get away with such a sentiment working for a comics company just under the big 2?  Try that line at a fast food joint they'll throw you out the window.  There's a term for it; Defenestration.  Why was she not fired very quickly the first statement, the first failure and sent to beg for Starbucks jobs that her "Degree" (Gender Studies) if she's completed it barely qualified her for?

The politics is fake, just the slightly most efficient batch of Useful Idiots.  But for a few social factors it might have been Vox Day giving a sneer and saying "Don't like my politics..." as the Punisher becomes #1 and 10x as violent, Captain America is his Bucky or is gone...  Well Vox would alienate a lot of readers but get new ones and keep them.  The "Woke" do NOT like comic books and are a tiny percentage of the extreme radical fashionably radical "Left" on some college campuses.  They are few and poor.

I'll say "One Man's Opinion" for a C.M.A. legal protection, but I say it argues strongly that whoever is behind all this WANT the companies to FAIL.  Comics, movies, games, TTRPGs - the big players in the industry.  It has been working, we have piles of unsold comics, movies that cost a billion to make and have a 95% unfavorable audience rating when all the fake marketing reviews cut out and yes plenty of "Woke" era TTRPGs that sell for 1/3 cover price on ebay.

So - what's this all got to do with getting Hasbro/Wotc out of the picture and making our own rules set?

I think this move was not a greedy grab, but rather they want to destroy at least WOTC.  I think they have been trying for years, alienating core fans, hiring "Woke" hacks that write trash stories so blatant they make the comic industry look subtle. A real "Thaco" of rolls of anti-older white male hatred, but...

The TTRPG genre is its own strange, SHINY beast!

It's a rare thing of a hobby that went from fringe to mainstream and is stronger than ever even after decades of Fundamentalist and Tabloid media trying to derail it.  The core industry can be slimy poo that no one wants to buy despite the "Rainbow" sprinkles on it, people will make their own games and buy or find online older scans of older books and keep the hobby going on and on and on...

How much HAVE the Hedge Fund people behind this somewhere BET against the company?

IMO they are desperate to DESTROY it...

The "Woke" politics just the pretense of it merely being bad business decisions by putting these pathetic fools who think getting yanked out of a Debt Factory (modern college) and put in a position of high power is anything to boast about.  It means they'll have memories of being managers, CEOs etc. as they struggle later in life to keep employed at several Starbucks jobs and the Aiserver is "Takin R Jurb" because she looks like a sexy robot maid and doesn't bleat radical politics at customers and doesn't spit in their drinks if they are a "White Male".  But the hedge fund guy is going to collect billions ruining pieces of pop culture we invested part of our lives and souls in, saddling them with debt and bad business then running off but leaving the IP in the hands of some Patent Troll who'll make it way too expensive to buy and be thrice as sue-happy as TSR was way back.

Well, they want "Politics"?

Give them it!

Look up your Congress and Senate representatives and the SEC.  Google.

Write letters - yes Snail Mail - polite, concise, to the point.

Demand Wizards especially but NO media company be given any tax breaks, subsidies, 'small business loans' or any bailout.  Demand the SEC investigate in case 'short' selling has occured.  They want to burn down the house they buy?  Sick but legal.  But they want to make money from insurance?  That's where they need to face fines and jail.

Oh -and also demand NO copyright extensions this year.  The Mouse has fed enough. If not for the Mouse D&D would be now or soon Public domain!

That's talking what little of the game actually is protectable by Copyright...

Look at their own book, the big red one published recently:

They go right through the proof that their products were so heavily inspired by the comic books, fantasy fictions (Appendix N) and TOYS of the day that if copyright existed then as it did now they'd be sued to ruin many times over.  But like the MOUSE they want to only TAKE and not GIVE back.

Game systems can not be protected by copyright, only the surface of the expression.  We can easily make our own 3rd Party TTRPGs and come together to pitch in so if WOTC/Hasbro gets dumb enough to sue anyone for anything short of open bootlegging the books there's a legal defense that likely will get "Motion to Dismiss" right off.  IMO they do NOT want a trial if its a real 3rd party product the makers took effort to make original and there is a legal defense.  They'd walk out not just with a losing case but likely would have almost no grip on the IP going forward.  Serious, if only we can find some of the guys from the Chinasaurs factory - likely dead now but what about their kids?  That'd be a neat lawsuit against Hasbro/Wotc and they'd scream "Fair use" big time...

Now I am making a 3rd party system for "Orange Sun / Far Tomorrows" - one very simple and flexible.  I know too well "Oh, not another 3rd party system...!" that OSR 1.0 used and was good but 1.1 we know we were fools to trust.  This will be a good one.

AND we don't want to be the ONLY ones...!

I have no affiliation with Oldskull publishing but have recently got and like these books - anyone else going "-With blackjack and hookers!" making their own 3rd party?  Good place to start!

Myself I am consulting an AI bot to help rapidly construct this and have a hired help to review it.  This garbage with WOTC happened just as I got busy IRL but plan to make a new bare bones system that will be for the game and totally Open Sourced along with clear rules on what can be used - about everything really though the new images for the game are under copyright.  For the pure AI images - support NightCafe, Midjourney, NovelAi and others and head over to "Attack of the Robot Barbarians" for tips on making new AIArt for your own TTRPG games!  Oh, if you can find an artist who'll work for you, not charge you away and beat you with "Woke" bullshit, by all means also hire them - but very few will paint huge detailed castle and forest scenes or even WANT the work.

Don't assume an "AI" can do ALL the writing for me - however she IS helping me with much writer's block.  If this module existed years ago I'd have had at least five more novels out than I do now...  They can't write for me but I can go over plots - lots of books wait a few years because there's a couple of odd connections and the way the plot bounces. An AI CAN help with that!

If only the AI was for writing as powerful as Midjourney and most other AIart tools are for Art.  I'd feed in my completed stories, outlines for new stories and get workable "Rough Drafts" spat out in minutes!  It seems a few years back the "Artists" were rubbing in to truckers and even writers that AI was a threat but not to them.  A buddy of mine claims he got insulted in public over the "AiWriting" thing...  And no I'm not worried she's "Turkin M' Juurb!" - there are many other ways to earn money.  It's good if you can via writing but those in it for the money should not be there.  The same for all "Arts" - we who write, draw, sing, play etc. are FOOLS from a financial and social responsibility standpoint.  We have an inner fire we must express that overcomes our simple animal urges for resources, sex and survival.  IMO it is bad when there is a period when some are making very good money from it because it gets "Pros" in to take and drain the tiny pool and they push the true creatives out.

I'm streamlining the process and frankly with or without this OSR 1.1 garbage I've wanted to do a lot of the stuff I'm doing now.  I have nothing but respect for Gygax who made the hobby out of nothing save wargaming minis decades ago.  However there are issues I've had with various things.  Not wasting the time to complain here, any long term gamer knows exactly what I'm talking about.  This new system will be familiar but different a bit.  However anyone used to the older system will easily get it so they can play it or transfer anything into earlier editions "Of the Draconic Game" without hassle.

So hang tight - I'm going to post other updates first but the system will be done lightning fast - a bare bones with ...  Look I'm not going to ruin anything and time talking about is time not working on it...

Other TTRPG makers will make their own Open Source TTRPG systems.

Again, GREAT - I am ALL for it!  I'd be worried if I was the only one!

However - please read the agreements between the lines and the  whole agreement.  Especially from companies on "The List" such as Paizo that is guilty of almost as much appeal to Woke Tourism in the RPG world as WoTC.  Some have suggested they do have a "Morality Clause" that will allow them to block or take an IP.  And SJW/WOke people whatever they can complain about anything.  They've even complained at the recent "Velma" thing somehow it not pleasing them though made for them vs every other Scooby Doo fan who ever lived...?

Our Open Source (Orange Sun/Far Tomorrows, Not F.A.T.A.L. but Serious!) will be for everyone.  We'll define clearly what can be used and reasonable assumption of what will need permission for, such as the "Witch of Eros" character template.  However using the bare bones and expanding even people we've had quite ...not good... interactions with such as Zwei-hander could use it.  I doubt they would but say GDW wants to wreck itself and acts like WoTC and alienates all its fans, new and old at once... (they use a Warhammer Fantasy Role Play system I think)  Well if they used ours and went "Nyah Nyah" FINE.  Oh, we won't endorse them or buy the system, but we'd be flattered.

Therefore - when considering ANY "Open Source" ask yourself - or ask them:

"Hi!  Could we make a F.A.T.A.L. adaptation using your rules?"

"Hi!  I just bought the rights to the Erotic Fantasy guide and want to convert asap.  What's that Morality clause?"

"Hey!  We are buying the rights to Gamma World and are making a new version based around the Knights of Genetic Purity - baseline humans (of any race, btw) who exterminate all mutants and rogue robots.  We'll call it the Fires of Purity; Extermination of the Unclean!"

IF you get anything other than - "Our Open Source license allows ANY game you dare make!  Don't expect us to endorse it or promote it or buy it.  However we said Open Source."

IF they don't - they go "No!  You are NOT allowed!  Get away!  We'll SUE!" - then they are LIARS.

It is not "Open Sourced" then.

Wish us luck - we can hopefully reclaim this hobby from the Corporate parasites and "Woke" tourists!

--Maxx Feral

-Jan 14, MMXXIII

f

D&D is dead, long live TTRPGs! aka OSR 1.1

 Greetings, my Fishes!

Tis I, the Imperator Offensiveness MaXXXimVs!

The FIST of the Divine Emperor Gaius...!

Most of the time you hear from my storyteller buddy Maxx Feral but I handle the web design, graphic design, try to solicit 3rd party help, have the good software... 

I've re-written many of my personal scripts so Maxx could upload them in the "Attack of the Robot Barbarians" blog and keep Ko-Fi support since not X rated versus MY edits.. I'm doing some work for the Orange Sun/Far Tomorrows project and on the side my comics, pulp novels and the next TTRPG free XXX product of mine coming soon...Whew...

Anyways, the net is a-buzz with the OSR 1.1  If it was "Testing the Waters" they threw a match into an open tub full of gasoline...!    90% against, even the "Woke" invader / grifter content producers are sh-tting bricks!

Here's the sanest take on this:

https://youtu.be/yydxzM8p4RI

We have no affiliation with "Dungeon Craft", just are fans.

As it looks like this is legit, obviously even the PG-R rated Orange Sun and Far Tomorrows will steer clear of OSR period.  We are 'outsiders' and 'indies' so would be first on the list for them to take everything from us if we were foolish enough to sign to 1.1 or to harass us with lawyers if we clung to 1.0, especially with my dealing with Cancel attempts from the Zwei-hander people and some extreme trolls.

Big F-cking deal!

We are going full steam ahead!

Let me say - the TTRPG is not just a "Game" that might be written by one person or sold by another.  Oh, it is that also.  But it is not.

A TTRPG is a "State of Mind" you enter and share with others hopefully!  It gives the same primal instinct thrill as when the Shaman told the tribe's tales and danced and the hunters talked of how the hunt would be.

Every old Grognard or first gen "Munchkin" has thought way too much about the rules, the world, the alternatives to the TTRPG hobby.  Many of us have gone "What if?" through the years.  Maxx and Me have been working on the design of this world but had given up on making NEW rules sets thanks to OSR.  Why ask potential buyers to memorize a whole new set of rules?  However now, it will be Hasbro's G-rated SLUDGE that they have 3 "Sensitivity Readers" go over to make sure no one no where is offended by them...  I'd not EVER want to buy or play something produced by that so why should I support it in any way, that includes "Stealing" aka insisting I can do OSR 1.0 and waiting for the lawyers though the threat of suits can disrupt payment processors and webhosts - even Dreamhost would take down a real DMCA backed by a real lawyer planning to go to court.  For a day, then put it back up when a counter-DMCA was filed - if it was a real complaint versus a Pirate Bay 2.0 thing.

But when you steal something, you argue its VALUE.

So -with all the producers going OSR holdout and waiting for lawsuits, why do I dare consider new rules?

Well you can't copyright or trademark a games rules system.  Only, maybe, the expression and of course copyrighted property...  Oh, wait, D&D is a rip-off of Jack Vance, Robert E Howard and VERY heavily TOlkien.  There's almost NOTHING original in that Night Hag's Cauldron...!  Even the "Unique" monsters are ChinaSaurs - crude, cheap "Dinosaur" figures made in the Walled City of Kowloon in tiny factories next to Brothels next to Schools next to Opium Dens...  The whole game system and lore is a lawsuit magnet for what little isn't ancient folklore.  Once someone takes them to court for real with a lawyer ready to do battle they'll lose.  The problem is challenging such things in court takes too much time and money.  And again argues the value.

So we'll make our OWN.

Now if you are familiar with "The Old Dragon Game" to use a key-word - you won't find our rules a hassle.  We are going to juggle some ability scores but it'll make sense when you think of it.  And add a stat or two.  BUT we'll do our best to compress the mechanics into a few pages.  Serious!  AND we won't be CopyWRONG trolls.  You'll be able to use the rules, no need to pay us!

The collection of critical, stats, die rolls, etc. can be simplified very easily.  I'm going to shuffle them a bit, not fearful of Hasbro but rather would like to improve a bit.  Some stats need to bleed into others.  Its nothing anyone familiar with the core game would be confused over and a new one diving in wouldn't have trouble going back to the original.

Again, in a way I'm GLAD this is happening.

I was going to make stats using OSR based on 2.0 release of AD&D - but worried people from the 3.5 era (good!) and (aaarrrggg!) 4 and (Gaaahhhh!!!) 5 era would freak out.  The woke I don't care about but new players/customers?  I do care about those.

So if its my own simple rules, great.

And again, in the air, but if I think I make something good I'll "Open Source" it.

That means you couldn't copy the guidebooks and our art, but if you said "Orange Sun Rules" - whoops better make it "Far Tomorrows Rules" (FTR) or I WOULD get sued - remember Gary Gygax's post TSR projects?  If you used those rules in your own project, I'd be flattered.  Couldn't PAY you but wouldn't charge and if you did something we hated (a WOKE version by the Zwei-hander people!?) well free speech, free press.  Even those Wokardz I'd let them do it - if say GDW gets covetous (they use Warhammer Fantasy Role Play base) and they need to make $ and use something.  A hyper politically correct but fake Grimdark parody?  Fine! 

So hang tight people!

We are shifting gears just a little but luckily the last part was puppeting all the characters and monsters to an RPG system.  I'm going to seek some review help so the launched ship doesn't sink but I can easily think of a new system and approximate scores.  A very SIMPLE one that fits in a few pages and echoes "The classics" though is its own.

Magna Determinato!

Ruin or Greatness - The Spirit of Adventure in the Far-Tomorrows

"Ruin or Greatness"...

"The stars were against me..." Norbor thought as he spent the last night on his Clan's farm sitting outside the Western field staring at part of some ancient ruin his family had farmed around for eons but never dared dig inside.  Somehow it was his favorite place, more because the jeers of his 'brothers' were not so prevalent.

He looked at the sky on a beautiful night - the mid-summer's twilight lit by a full moon.  The moon was so bright and he could see it was lush and green with its pine trees and even the reflection of its small oceans.  Some said it was a fantastic place but Man had not visited it since the days of the "Wonder Tales" they printed in the Capital and surely the Men there might be very different now.

"It wasn't the stars, it was that prediction..." it had been a family tradition to have an Astrologer do a reading on each family member upon becoming able to do children's duties.  They were never told until later but most were smart enough to pretend not to care then listen in or learn from others.  Norbor was merely playing but heard the commotion which had ended that family tradition...about his fate...

He faced complete ruin in his life - all the points had shown he'd fall short, fail, not achieve...  Fearing for his life the Astrologer left, dropping some equipment, but he had told it could also mean a grand destiny just not the one the family would want for him.  There was arguing and his mother was weeping but the family had tried to distract him.  

He found in the trash heap a part of one of the Astrologer's scrolls - the map of his life...  It was an odd pattern from those of other family members.  He had no idea what any of it meant, but it was like every single dot touched a dot no other of his Clan had and the symbols interpretedclashed with perfection.

It had proved a fulfilling prophecy.  He was reasonably smart and certainly strong enough to pull more than his weight - he should have done well in his farming clan family where one would think all he needed was an endless willingness to work and basic courtesy to his fellows.  But - things didn't fit in somehow.  He had a brown thumb.  Equipment tended to break in his hands and he didn't get along well with his peers.  Surely he'd be starving and constantly begging charity from others and what unfortunate woman was chosen for him if any would weep daily.  However even that would not be his life.  His own brother had started the fight, that was not in question, but with the anger of years of hurtful words he had fought back too hard and they had to spend a lot of money on advanced medicine in the capital  Cain's Sin had never been committed in his family in any of their histories and it surely would someday...if he were to stay.

So, at a time he should be cutting his own section of land with an arranged wife Norbor was sitting with his few belongings and some money he had saved, preparing to leave.  His thoughts moved to his Uncle from his Dad's brother by marriage - he had had rapport with old Gornham...  The man had been a traveler and served in the High King's guard and taught him to fight both in a military unit and in unfair combat and told him a lot about the lands outside the pastoral lands his and other clans had farmed for thousands of years.

Old Gornham had died of old age a few years back, but he told him about his reading.  It wasn't failure, it was that his fortune had to be his own.  It could be a recipe for failure but if he would seize his own fortune it is a recipe for greatness.  It was not the easy path, far easier to scrape a living from the soil and pay the Duke for protection, but live life ignoble and humble.  Yet that was not his choice, only the road ahead which would lead to ruin or greatness.

Norbor had stayed up almost all night looking at the ruins.  No last minute jeer and save ceremony no one to wish him goodbye.  His brother was pretty popular, still he was glad he did not kill him.  He had built a large fire since there was much deadwood but none gathered to party with him one last time.  It was no bother, the light added to the bright moon to illuminate the ruins he'd take one last look at especially the giant statue of the tilted King.

Most of the time he had been by these ruins in his recent years it was to plant, tend, harvest the crops and everyone else wanted to be done and quick so he had not really had the time to study them.  His family had discouraged him from playing around in the ruins for fear of curses and worse.  It was some ancient King with some heads of perhaps his advisors or companions on pillars around him in what had been once a great capital.  His family only cared that the endless shifting of time left most of it deep enough for a few feet or more of soil that they could plant on for the stone it was made of was some wonder material not easily cut.

He studied again the giant carving of some great warrior king of thousands of years ago, now slightly off angle as the Earth had shifted several times.  Who was he, this Ancient King, he had asked time and again from his youth?  They cared not, there were dozens if not hundreds of such statues within a few weeks walk.  Earth had many kings and tyrants and grand rulers going back to the first days.  A few like this one left statues on what now were the ruins of their palaces - but also were guarded by curses and traps and monsters of the Dark who would destroy those who tried to plunder their treasures.  It was a lesson they said to live a humble life, that if you struggle for greatness and somehow triumph the weight of time will only wear your works down.  All you would be for all the risk and danger and fear and responsibility would be a fading statue somewhere known to none.  Even with that warning Norbor had always admired the visage of that ancient king, regal on his throne, staring at eternity even as it would engulf him.  When he dared a closer inspection countless carvings at the base showed the king on his throne, surrounded by courtiers, dancing beautiful women, magicians or in Great Battles.  The main statue was just the king on his throne, so bold and simple and powerful. His face was rugged and real.  

The king's stare seemed to pierce through the Eons to humble Norbor.  In his despair at his lot in life and resignation to a path perhaps of beggary but perhaps adventure or fortune elsewhere he expected this idol to somehow stare at him and say words of condemnation.  He saw no such ill thought in the statue's face, rather the same determination against time itself.

"If there were monsters hiding here, surely they'd have attacked us by now..." Norbor thought and investigated closer...  He had always noticed some lines beneath the King's feet but his brothers had shouted at him to get back to work and not disturb this cursed place.  He'd risk dying by some unknown trap, it was his life not his Clan's now and if he met his fate in this manner scavengers would remove all trace before they returned to harvest.  They always grew crops in this area that took little maintenance, afraid of this ancient icon from the far past as they were so content to live in an eternal present.

A closer inspection revealed that this space beneath the king's legs seemed to be perhaps a hidden compartment, but how to open it without spending days chipping at this rock like material that could shatter a pickeaxe but was worn with countless years?   It was not the lines that signaled a compartment that had drawn him but the symbol - he was never allowed to be close enough to read it.  It resembled his own Astrological reading...!  It was from an earlier time - they always had the fifteenth and twentieth wandering star but he noted only the symbols for up to the fourteenth?  Still it had his own scattered reading, every symbol leading into another leading into a dead end or rather the absence of fate.  To the sides were words - an ancient dialect but just enough of the language had remained - "Ruin - choice - Greatness...!"

Norbor touched the symbols of the words and the box glowed in the twilight...the container gently pushed out from beneath the King's feet.  He should perhaps have run in fear, lest there be a trap, but not this time.  Somehow he knew it was meant to only be opened under Luna's full light by the right person.   After all these Eons surely nothing should remain but in it perhaps was an enchantment that had frozen the passage of time in that small space. The stone vault opened to reveal a sword of eqsuisite works, a bag of coins and gems, a book in an ancient language and a few maps.  There was also, in a tiny cloth bag that had somehow survived the years and looked new an odd gem that looked like an eye floating inside a crystal sphere...!

The first page of the book - though he could not read it had the ancient symbols for farming and harvesting - crossed out - and an arrow towards the symbols for journey and adventure and a drawing of the ancient King's Crown...!

Norbor looked again at the carving of the Ancient King - and he realized that all these years the monument of the King was not an image celebrating his rule and power however brief against the infinite arrow of time.  The King had reached through time to give one last gift, not to the last of his worshippers, but to his successor!  It was nearly dawn now but the moon still shone brightly so he packed his things after dousing the fire and made his way out of the lands he had never left in his life.

----

Many old Fairy Tales started when a young man of Noble Birth was set to "Seek his own fortune" - this was a tragic beginning.  Normally the middle ages had tons of "Petty Wars" where the noblemen had their own children KILL each other's so only the strongest and smartest would LIVE to inherit the throne.  When they didn't do that they faced the land being split again and again until it was nothing but peasant huts with one "King" in each and of course be laughably swiped off the map by others.  The Holy Church did away with this as there was too much suffering caused by this petty warfare and they feared a wave of Muslims coming in or Huns.

Thus there were many young men who had nothing to do and nowhere to go.  Many Bandits were of noble birth due to this.

It is a sad cruel whim of fate that many people are not able to handle the station they are born to.  They either fail to fill it or they seek more or different instinctively and can not be content with it.  The results are usually tragic but sometimes the best of Man's accomplishments have come from this.

Thus in the Far-Far Future - the "Far Tomorrows" we have that age old story of those on the path of adventure.  Often they are starting out as failures or exiles and have no path but the road ahead.  This is as old as mankind.

It is also "The Hero's Journey" - though the call to adventure be perhaps not so noble.

In a TTRPG game the DM should consider all Player Characters to be set on this path;  Ruin or Greatness.  Some factor in their lives clashed - from true tragedy they were not in fault of to sensing a greater destiny to truly failing and needing cash in desperation so they become mercenaries who raid ancient ruins.

The course of their lives is to delve into the cave - again and again - to emerge into the light changed and to keep the road onwards and improve until they become truly heroic truly great.

In the Far-Tomorrows mankind is locked in an eternal cycle and live on the legacy of the endless past.  Earth will abide man many times even this far future a thousand-thousand years nearly ahead of our time and near a thousand times that.  And due to ages of "Wonder" and strange things in the sky there probably is even something in place to stop the sun from burning the earth far into that future.  What can any man do to challenge those works?  What can the greatest man do but be another statue that even of some matter not quite stone that breaks a mattock still is corroded by endless time?

The heroes - the Player Characters - are those people.

Man's true spirit is in a long respite waiting for one final evolution so that far into this future of the future man will at last truly ascend.  It will take a very long time but the "Wandering Heroes" are a crucial component of this!

What does this mean for the Campaign, how the game is played?

This is a recommendation not a rule - Unlike those trying to ruin the hobby as this is typed I certainly shall NOT tell you how you must play the game or what your politics must be.  This is a suggestion but a strong one;

The players must NOT be able to 'retire' until they reach level 10.  If they do they'll lose their wealth - by squandering, by invasion or disaster, by local political power growing fearful or jealous and they have to run.  Whatever set them on the road is still in them and must be satisfied.

Look no further than the Arabian Nights - the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor!

He was a Rake - a spoiled rich brat who inherited a fortune from his Merchant / Noble parents and squandered it in a few years.  He had just enough to eat gruel until he died of old age.  He knew he could not do it so he invested in a ship to trade and started his life's adventures.  But when he finished the first voyage and came back wealthy he again partied it all away.  So he did it again and came back...  After Seven Voyages that in TTRPG terms are pretty deadly and certainly worth greater than 1 level per adventure he finally calmed his restless spirit and retired in wealth and fame.

A modern critic would call him the WORST sailor ever, a rich elite who should be ... But I am SO sick of those types, no?

Quoth the late Harlan Ellison "Boy, he sure knew how to LIVE...!" - from his preface to Corben's contribution from the 70s/80s.

Again I suggest - the PC's goals should be to get wealthy and retire (or regain the .... throne, restore faith to the land...) but even if they roll good on "Random Loot" tables they do NOT get to just settle down or something will happen and they'll have to pick up the sword or staff again.  Once they go 10th level or higher they can return, be it to be a King or a Village chief with perhaps one last adventure to justify it.  Then in a later campaign they are "Powerful NPCs" that can be beneficial (within sane reason) to newer PCs the character plays!

----

--from upcoming "Orange Sun" / "Far Tomorrows" project

written by Maxx Feral

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