The over all realm is very Urban. The entire center province of the realm is a city... a massive spread out city with few buildings over 3 stories. It would take 3 full days(72 hours) just to walk from one side of the city to another. In the city itself there are "parks" where anything from small forests to farming takes place. There are also several rivers and even a lake running through the city that have rope and raft ferries. The terrain the city was built on is rolling hills, with small moutains blocking some parts. While the city might not see as "Dangerous" as a beast-filled forest, it does attract some very rough customers... and there nothing worse than people as dangerous as those beasts, as they can THINK. There are also a LOT of oragnised and unoransided crime. There is very little respect for the law here, though there IS a very very corrupt government (Federation of Neighborhoods) who every once in a while tries to stop it... until someone is assasinated or killed.

The people - known as "cityfolk" - are human in every aspect. They are greedy, risky, brave, and lack all conspet of humanity. They respect nothing but force(and money), but are pissed off when told what to do(unless you pay them). Gold is the ultiment form of power here. Don't have muscle? Buy body gaurds, Don't like someone? Hire and assassin. And of the City-folk there are five different types classified on how they get their gold:
Suckers are determined to be "better people", they work hard for their money until they die. Beleive it or not MOST people are Suckers.

What is Magic to the cityfolk? Everything is science my dear man... everything. Everything can be explained... infact my people are so "realist" that anything fantastic doesn't break their minds, but instead intreigues them... perhaps it is the lingering effect of their mad heritage.
The mysticysm of the realm and people has to do with The Circle of Subtlety... because "Illusion" is the most real of them, it is often the most common. Illusionist are infact considered to be "real" magicians. Those who claim to dabble in other things such as Chance, Mind, and Time... are often thought of as simple Con-men, seers, or wackos repectivly.

THE PEOPLE WILL NEVER ACCEPT TYCHE AS THEIR GOD OR MASTER. IN RETURN FOR THIS PENALTY THEY START AS A BALANCED REALM FREE OF CHARGE.

Tyche sighed and took another drink of his beer silently. What a lousy day, first he appeared in an ally with a killer hangover... and he didn't even remember drinking. Then some mugger decided to try and rob him, and he had to put a knife in him. He did get some money out of that, but not much, and here he was spending it all on some booze. Atleast the bar-hag was beginning to look good enough to flirt with... eventually.

The hag sidled over to him, hips waggling in a vain attempt to conjure a sexual appeal that was simply not coming. Still, to Tych's surprise, she looked a little appealing..

"Anything else I can get you, sexy?"

Her voice was seductive in a strange way.

He was running out of coin and he had better save some if he wanted to get a room somewhere, though he wasn't exactly tired... aww what the hell... He gave her another 3 coppers and the mug he had been using. "A little more of that piss water they call ale." After the mug came back and he drank some more he streached a bit and looked around to see if there was any gambleing going on.

There was a game of pakadashah in one corner, a game of dice in another, and in the center of the bar the most popular game was being played - Cunning Poker.

Card games, it relies less on the chance of something happening (since once the cards are suffled they are already in a set order) and more on what others had. He desiced to use the last of his copper coins to try and get a buy in to the poker table. "Greetings mates. Mind if I get a small deal in? A nice chance for you to steal my coppers."

Cunning Poker is reserved only for those who are initiated into the conjuring tricks, so pakadashah it is.

The three men playing paka look at Tyche, size him up. "Sure," said the biggest, scariest one, "We'll buy you in. Ten coin. You play pakashadah?"

"Not really." He says, "But I'm always up for learning new games, let me see a few rounds first." He says slightly annoyed that he hadn't noticed that before he made a fool of himself at the poker table. He listend a bit to their conversation as he watches them closely for a few rounds.

Pakashadah was a relatively simple game, Tyche learnt. Hands were dealt by a dealer who claimed to be entirely neutral behind a black cloth, so the players couldn't see. The deck itself was supplied by the dealer, who claimed ten percent of all winnings. Each card had two faces, and could be flipped once per round. Besides this, the game was essentially like blackjack, except that everyone could see all cards and the dealer couldn't play. The real secrets lay beneath the card faces.

"Flip," said the big man, "Second card."

The dealer flipped his second card - the first was the King of Swords - and the feeble Two of Coins became a Jack of Cups. The biggest man had twenty points, one under the limit, and the others couldn't match that. He won the game.

"So you want to play, stranger?"

Tyche smiled. "Absolutly, this is my type of game, though I do wonder about the card combinations, I mean if you had to have every single combination of two cards... there would be a lot of cards, eventually you must learn what cards flip into what?" He knew he could preform simple math but he didn't want to sound like a complete card-counter. He put his only silver on the table, leaving him with only 4 coppers left. He would need to win this round if he were to continue playing.

He waited for the deal first observeing carefully how it was preformed, then once he had his cards he quickly when through all the possibilties of everyone's cards, knowing that quickly going through the numbers would turn out a 100% for the number that was on the other sides of the cards. Essencially giving him knowlage of both card faces of ALL cards on the table.

"The cards change each game. The dealer keeps the card pool, randomizes the deck between games. Keeps things interesting. This is to avoid counting. Every dealer has a different deck. Dealers must always be neutral, lest we stop playing pakashadah and start playing maloch."

He spat as he said that last word. Maloch: the cheater's game.

The cards were dealt. Bet's laid: ten copper to begin with.

Some phrases from the game of Cunning Poker: "Bluff.. you don't.. swap the cards? .. nice play.."

Some thoughts from the game of Cunning Poker: Bastard thought that he could hold an extra card up his sleeve and we wouldn't notice, huh? Huh?

Trey had two cards: An Eight of Swords and a Three of Cups. Beneath the Three of Cups was a Ten of Cups. Beneath the Eight of Swords was a Ten of Swords. He had a total of twenty, all up.

The others had: nineteen, thirteen, fifteen, six. They could, of course, be dealt another card.

Tyche thinks a bit on his turn, takeing a few moments to consider the ture odds of the game. He then turned over one of his cards (or both if he could this turn). Then stayed.

Tyche was on exactly twenty points.

The big man asked the dealer to hit him a card, and he went bus; twenty-three points.

The two other men attempted to match Tyche but both also busted, at twenty-five and twenty-nine points respectively.

Tyche won the game; he won thirty coppers in addition to his own stake.

"Nice play," said the big man, and the others agreed. "I can respect a play like that. You flipped 'em both. Crazy, but crazy just won you the game. Smoke?"

He offered a cigarette.

"No thanks, bad for the breath. Beginners luck I always say. I mean I was going to lose after I flipped that 18 anyway... and when there is no prize for second place... shoot for the moon. Well then boys lets have another round so someone can earn back there money." He went ahead put 10 of his won coppers out.

He would continue playing the game using his knowlage of the odds to better himself. He also went ahead and listend to the thoughts of the dealer, wondering how 'neutral' he really was. Also any time he won twice in a row, he would buy the table a drink. But he was also careful to loose on purpose 3 times in a row if he won more than 4 out of 6 games, no need to piss off people, or even make them suspect he was cheating.

And so the game went, for hours, the night dwindling on. The dealer was in fact neutral - he was hired by the tavern to deal cards and to settle disputes. He was a paid mercenary turned gambler, and enjoyed watching the cards flow very much. He used to only like playing the game, but now felt satisfied after watching the grace of a well-played game. He liked his job very much.

A few hours on and the big man was treating him like they were best friends, without ever sharing his name; two more people had been bought into the game, raising the number of players to six; the adjacent tables were filled with empty beer mugs; the Cunning Poker had stopped, and a few people were watching the game curiously; the stakes had raised to fifty copper a game, and Tyche was almost eight hundred up; finally, a tall, brown-skinned man wandered over to the table, and Tyche recognized him as playing the game of Cunning Poker before.

The man watched, smiling, admiring the craft. As he watched he smoked.

Tyche stroked his beard looking at the card infront of him. He and the big man were both at 17, a 3, 6, and 8 lay infront of Tyche. Infront of the big man sat a 10, 6, and ace. He had already flipped the the six over, a smart choise. But here was Tyche. He already knew that turning the ten would mean getting an ace, and in a normal game, he would have pulled that crazy stunt for the win. But this wasn't a normal game. What any sain person would do would be to split. A safe gambeler would turn the 6... which he knew he would make him lose from being too low, while turning the 3 mentbusting, but only a fool would do that. The sweat on Tyche brow was not because he was calculating the odds but making the touch choise: Should he win this one and take home another 200 copper (2 full gold coins)... the average sucker's weeks wages. Or lose the game...

And now its time to make my great escape with everyone feeling sorry for me because I only went home with a moderate sum instead of massive amounts.

He flipped the 6 and let out a sigh of defeat as he(and the rest of the table) saw that not a 10 or face card lay there, but a 3... leaving him at 14. Another hit came the face card and he shook his head just imaging the money he lost. He turned to the big man. "Well it was a good game, and I hope your leaveing a richer man, but I think I'll have to bow out now before I lose the rest." If anyone had been keeping strict count that would be 4 gold, 12 silver, and 26 copper pennys and but that was after ales he had bought the table plus tips to the oh so lovely hag but most of that. He head slightly blurred from the several ales he had gone through, but not nearly as much as an average human would. He streached and staggered purposely a bit nodding towards the brown skinned man. "Bit too much I think." He says with a drunken smile.

((Hey if you haven't gotten it currency is:
10 copper -> silver
10 silver -> gold

The gold coins are only about 6 grams (that of a us quater).))

The brown man nodded, smoke wafting around his face mysteriously. His eyes were deep and full.

"Cigarette, brother?"