Know Your Nature

You may be clad in glittering horse-crested bronze, a fated hero seeking your destiny that you might do deeds great and awe-inspiring, to die bathed in glory overthrowing the Great Name that has heretofore commanded you.

Or you may be a Dealer-In-Names, clad in the tattered rags of a mendicant oracle or in the name-inscribed brocade of a city’s priest. When you speak the Language of Names to the ancient tree whose roots reach the Waters of the Underworld; to the beautiful tiger, mistress of its forest; to the great ocean, its depths teeming with the dead, they will treat with you.

When you are either of these:

• describe your appearance, your expressions (what's a thing or two you often say?), and your actions (what's a thing or two you often do?).


You will do the following things:

--Pursue with vigor the Will of the Names of the World, from a simple cooking fire to the Great Queen and her twelve greatest hero-warriors.

--Describe with all the senses the world and the things in it: the expression on a face, the sweet herbs of honey wine; the touch of rain on desert-chapped lips, the sound of a ktesh-skinned viol singing to the wind that gives heart to your bright-eyed sea vessel.

--When you encounter a new people, describe their ways as you experience them.

--Describe the trophies of legend both known and untold that your opponents bear.



But right now, answer these questions:

1. How are you called?

Draw from the Well of Names (see below) until you have find found your true name.

But give this name only when treating in good faith with another. If another knows your true name, you must deal with them in good faith when so called.

2. So now, draw from the well of names also for the false name which you tell your companions.

But beware of using that name for too long! It may take root, and if you answer to it for too long to those who believe it true, you will be bound as if it were your true name.


Below, is The Well of Names. Draw herefrom until you find that which you seek.

a du il lu ne ti
ad e ir lug nu tu
ak en ka lum pa u
al fa kal ma ra uk
ar gal kin mard ri un
as gil ku mat rim ya
ash gish kur mni ru yog
bar gu la mu sar za
bi gue lab mum sha zi
bur hf lil na shu zu
dim hu lim nam siz zug




Examples:

The Spear of Ludug was beaten from the teeth of Ashti, the legendary hero of bronze from the people of the volcano Unak. The Spear of Ludug wishes to find itself in the heart of she who wrenched the teeth from Ashti's bronze skull, and will aid any who promise such a thing. But it is a vengeful name, and will not take betrayal lightly.



Namedealer question 1: If you are a Namedealer (skip this question otherwise): from whom do you flee?

--You can coax lightning from the clear sky; speak to the stony earth that it might swallow your enemies; seduce king and queen both. But you trade in promises, and one of these you have not well discharged-- or perhaps in discharging it, you may have found yourself the enemy of a king stoking with their rage the fire burning in their broken heart, or of a rival jealous of your success, or of the very sky itself, affronted at a lie.



Namedealer question 2: Tell your companions how you appear: your age or youth, your robes tattered or adorned.

Namedealer question 3: The Will of the Names of the World wishes something of you. What is it?

Namedealer question 4: What name do you know, that it now aids you?

A bronzesmith knows the name of a fine sword. A priest, the name of the broad sky of their city. A gambler knows the name of a proud-plumed ktesh, raised from its leathery egg to fight its kin with needle teeth and killing claw.

What name do you know?

Is the name: Old? Big? Beautiful? Mighty? Known to All? Inscribed?

Count how many of these are true, and remember the number.

These attributes may change as circumstance flows like a river; as names grow in renown, as they are written or forgotten.


Namedealer question 5: Namedealer, what does the Will of the Names of the World demand of you in exchange for its aid?




Heed this warning:
Beware the company of heroes, for those who are born with destiny often wash their blades in the blood of those found closest. And yet, they may be far mightier than those who pursue you, and the great name they follow may be persuaded to send them to your aid.







Hero question 1: Hero, what Great Name grants you your destiny?

You, who strives to die well, who are fast of foot or strong of limb; friends with death until it betrays you; feared by the wise, and challenged by only the mighty or the foolish,

Draw from the Well of Names until you have found that which you seek.

When you have found the name you wish all of your descendants to know, tell it to all of
your companions that it might echo through the ages.

Hero question 2: Tell them of your frame, your face, your attire and jewels.

Hero question 3: What is your fate? What Dealer-Of-Names has told you the will of a Great Name?

Hero question 4: What is the Will of the Names of the World?

Is the Great Name: Feared? Generous? Beautiful? Mighty? Known to All? Present in Eidolon?

Count how many of these are true, and remember the number.


These attributes may change as the tides of war build the honor of a city on bone; as foes crumble and the mighty lose their names; as the great are forgotten or the humble rise.

Hero question 5: Take a trophy.

The shell of the Great Tortoise of Gho, borne as a shield. A sword of bronze, forged by the volcano, Unak. The sandals of Zhafaya, the East Wind. What magnificent trophy, invoking awe and desire in those whose eyes fall thereupon, have you already won?

Is the trophy: Old? Generous? Mighty? Known to All?

Heed this warning:

Namedealers usurp the power of the names of the world. You might persuade one to use their stolen power in pursuit of your glory or reveal to you the Will of the Names of the
World, but their tongues often spin lies and false promises. Be sure of their loyalty.

Example: Lamat, hero of the city of Hu, flies forth on Paruk, the winged lizard she tamed in the northern mountains when she pursued a group of raiders to their home and forced them
to swear fealty to the city of Hu. Lamat's mother, the oracle Lusarya, has charged her to voyage into the world and return with the head of the giant Ashya that she might build a temple dome of his skull. She flies far from the eyes of the sky of the city of Hu into
lands unknown.



TO START THE STORY:

Where are you?

What are you doing?

Who else is with you?

Examples:
--On the Great Road, traveling with a caravan toward the Deepest Well
--In a wadi, hoping to remain unseen by the army marching above
--Astride an akum, flashing lance in one hand, singly charging the great hero of a city that quakes at the mention of your name
--In the last place to which you fled

--Do you travel in pursuit or flight?
--Do you prepare now for a confrontation? Will you face whatever comes next with a shrug, without preparation, for life is unpredictable, or will you aggressively face all possiblities?

--Are those around you others in the same caravan? Your enemies, who have lain in ambush for you? The obeissant members of the court, surrounding you upon your ill-gotten and undesired throne of the City of Ab?



When you meet one from a people yet unknown, describe what legend tells us of one such. If you come to know any of them, they will both satisfy and defy expectations.



What do the names of the world now present in the place where you are want from you?

A name might be a stele, ancient when the sky was the face of a child and the moon was
as bright as the sun; a fellow traveler at the caravanserai who seeks love in the arms of a companion; a cooking fire, young and brash, with a wish to grow as large as the world.


--There are no random connections nor coincidences. The will of some name has brought about every seeming coincidence.

--Secrets and mysteries wish to be discovered. What name holds the secret and wants to tell it to a namedealer, perhaps when wishing to strike a bargain?

--When a companion chooses a consequence that alters the will of a name of the world, you have learned something new about the will of that name.

--The will of all names is fickle, a mystery of the heart.

--When you attack a companion with word or deed, warn them that they will become harmed or shamed unless they take action.

--If their attacker is named, they may be harmed twice before expiring.

--If that attacker has chosen to die for the sake of victory, they may attack once more as they die.



Draw from beyond the borders of that which is seen.

--To the northeast, lies the Great Road and the First City where many settle from their travels. None have traveled the Great Road to its easternmost point and few have traveled to its westernmost terminus on the border of the Great Sea and the Waters of the Underworld.

--Far to the north, there are warrior tribes who ride to battle upon akum, the great and terrible flightless birds, toothy of maw. In their mountains live tribes who ride the kurka, lizards of the sky. The skin of these people bear stripes, like those of a tiger.

--To the west is the Great City, in which you might find Shuat, the Deepest Well. It is a port to the azure sea, sailed by ships of stout bow and keen eye, crewed by people of the islands of Ity, where their smooth and grey skin protects them from the sun and sea in which
they live. Their villages and farms of seaweed stand in the clear, shallow water of their flooded islands. The people of many lands join them in their travels.

--Far away, someone builds an empire of iron. No name of iron is old. All are ugly. No people you know speaks its language.

--Beneath the firmament lie the Waters of the Underworld.

--Above the dome of the sky stretch the boundless waters of heaven. The sky of all places
you know looks down with its strong right eye of the sun and its weak left eye of the moon.



The Monolith, known only by that epithet, stands tall and alone in the desert. It rose at the first morning, a manifestation of the Waters of the Underworld reaching up to the Desert Sky, that the world might begin. It was once the Great Name of a people of the desert who could read all things in the many words inscribed thereupon in the Language of Names. It wishes to be known to all again, that all earthen-beings might know the wisdom of the Language of Names.


Zikru was once a beautiful man, a poet of great skill. Drunk one night on a subtle wine, he boasted that his knowledge of the Language of Names was greater even than that of Ashlala, the Great Name of the People of the River Uklal.

Ashlala itself rose from the river, water gushing in cataracts down the reeds of its hair, its horns piercing the limb of the moon above, and demanded that Zikru persuade the mighty Great Name with his skilled tongue, or bow down and pledge himself to its service forever.

Zikru asked what Ashlala would offer should he so persuade the Great Name to spare him.

Ashlala’s words dripped with contempt: “I will make your tongue the greatest in all that floats above the Waters of the Underworld."

The poem Zikru composed moved Ashlala, indeed, coaxing tears of pearl from its many eyes. In shame, Ashlala fled the River Uklal and made good with its promise, saying, “You shall have a vision to see into the hearts of earthen-beings, and the tongue to move them.”

The people of the River Uklal, having already seen the horror of their Great Name, stood frozen as Zikru’s beautiful face erupted with a third eye, his smooth brown skin became thick and scaled, and his tongue, the treasure of his people, grew forked.

Zikru lives among them to this day, commanding them as a Great Name might, unable to cry for his own lost beauty.



The City of Guruk tells its future in the deaths of its gladiators. Each match is observed closely by oracles who tell from the splashes of blood whether the Queen may conceive this year; from the cries of pain of a victor whether the Northerners may raid again; from the pattern of intestines on the ground whether the barley might rise early.

The city’s four gladiatorial families, fecund with adopted slaves, grant the arena their purported offspring at each festival.

Amegh of the Family of Nur stands for three years now the champion of the Guruk. To aid in the foretelling of good fortune for the Family, Amegh fights with the bronze, double-leaf-bladed weapon, the Wind that Blows Both ways. He will, if the oracles decree it necessary, supplement the weapon with others, but it is the Wind that Blows Both Ways that finds its home in his palm and in the breast of his opponents.

In his dreams, and with the tongue of his trainer Nur Geshur, the ancient voice of the Sun of the Sky of the City of Guruk lends him purpose. It drives him to a truth written in
blood — a truth that ever further glorifies the future of those who believe they own
him.

Around his waist he wears the grimacing Face of the Sky, the harness of the champion of
the city.

But Amegh has interests beyond those best sought in the arena. He finds in his hands the fate of the city that enslaved him and drives him to kill and, eventually, to die.

He would seize that destiny for himself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:37, Fri 07 Aug 2020.

You have three stats: BODY, MIND, and WORDS.

BODY: all things purely physical.
MIND: insight, logic, noticing things, realizing things.
WORDS: persuasion, communication

HEROES have +1 in Body. Then they either have 0 in Mind and -1 in Words, or vice-versa.

NAMEDEALERS have -1 in Body. Then they either have +1 in Mind and 0 in Words, or vice-versa.

HEROES: Once a day (resets each dawn), each TROPHY you have can be used to give you +1 on a roll.

NAMEDEALERS: When you roll and call upon a Name you know, you may add +1 to a roll.

--HOWEVER: The NEXT time you call upon that Name, it will give you +2 to a roll.
----The next time after THAT that you call upon that Name, it will give you +3 to a roll, and so on.
----BUT IF THE ROLL RESULT IS EVER 13 OR HIGHER, THE NAME WILL BREAK FREE OF YOUR CONTROL.
----If a Name breaks free of your control, it will not be happy. At the very least, it will want something from you. At the very worst, it may harm you or take something from you against your will-- your name, your sense of smell, your good looks, your left hand, your memories...


When you roll to resolve a conflict with another as powerful as yourself (or more):

--on a result of 6 or lower: do as your opponent demands, or they may harm you at their whim! If iron here met bronze in battle, it has bitten deep, destroying the bronze.

--On a 7 to 9: pick one consequence of the action you have taken. Your opponent may choose to defy any consequences (see below) you have left unchosen.

--On a 10 to 12: you have succeeded well! Choose two consequences (see below) of the action. Your opponent may choose to defy any consequences you have left unchosen.

--On a 13 or better:
----Choose three consequences (see below). (If a Hero, you will perform a great feat worthy of legend!)



NAMEDEALER CONSEQUENCES:

Offer What They Desire
• They give you what you ask.
• They demand no more than you offered, refusing otherwise.
• The agreement they have made with you will endure.

Coerce
• They agree, or you may harm them.
• You remain unharmed in the exchange.
• No other is harmed.

Thieve
• You gain what was theirs for your own.
• You remain unharmed
• They do not know you took it, for now.

Escape
• You get away.
• You remain unseen.
• You may take a free +1 to save for a future roll!



To Treat With a Name
Speak or write the name of the thing in the Language of Names — a tongue spoken by all names, forgotten but by mortals, save those who have dedicated themselves to its study. Speak to the name in a tone that befits its nature. Surely, to give a false name now would bring you doom, though the name with which you treat may not yet know of the falsehood.

Discuss with the name what it desires in the Language of Names, spoken in the space between breaths, as silently as a whisper, or in a voice as great as the sea, or written as boldly as blood on a banner of whitest linen.

If you wish, you may make an offer to the name and so take action; or it may make to you an offer, to which you may agree if you like.



A Dealer-In-Names finds peace by discharging the duties they have agreed to, or by escaping the consequences of their failure, as judged by their death.


Departing for the Waters of the Underworld:
When you depart for the Waters of the Underworld, take action on the names of your descendants and witnesses to your life to learn how you are remembered. Speak to them from a dream or through signs, or through those who knew you in life, or through a record of your deeds.

Roll the dice.
Add +1 for each promise you have fulfilled or had forgiven.
Subtract 1 for each promise currently unfulfilled.

If your result is 8 or better, you reach the Waters of the Underworld, and you will rest there in the cool and dark for all time.

If your result is 7 or worse, your name will be restless forever, tormented by the names you defied.






HERO CONSEQUENCES:

--Coerce
• They agree to do what you demand, or you may harm them.
• You are not harmed in the exchange.
• No other is harmed.

--Lead
• Those who follow you remain unharmed.
• You are neither harmed nor shamed.
• Your followers adore you. You may take a free +1 to save for a future roll.
• You achieve that which you promised.

--Test Yourself
• You are witnessed! You may take a free +1 to save for a future roll, and take followers from among the witnesses!
• You succeed in this trial!
• You cause no harm to others.
• You are neither harmed nor shamed.



When a Hero has more than three trophies, a great name may become jealous! It may make a demand that the hero must follow in order to prove their submission to the great name!

If the Hero refuses that demand, the great name may harm them at their will, and/or send their enemies against them.




A hero finds glory in their own death, overcoming the Great Names that have made demands of them sincebefore their fated birth.

Departing for the Waters of the Underworld:
When you depart for the Waters of the Underworld, Hero, roll...

--on a result of 6 or lower: Pick one consequences from the list below.

--On a 7 to 9: pick two consequences from the list below.

--On a 10 to 12: you have succeeded well! Choose three consequences from the list below.

--On a 13 or better:
----Choose four consequences from the list below.


• Those who witnessed you remember you.
• Those who remember you speak of you with admiration.
• Those who remember you speak of you with fear.
• Those who admire you raise their children in your image.
• Those who hear your name uttered in fear know of your bravery.
• Those who raise their children in your image preserve you in eidolon.
• You may return from the Waters of the Underworld as a Great Name to speak with those raised on the tales of your bravery, and those who present themselves to your eidolon to guide them against the Great Names who tormented you in life.






When you face a trial at the behest of a Great Name, they may grant you great abilities of speed, of agility, of endurance or leadership worthy of a tale told to the grandchildren of those who witness it.


When You are Harmed or Shamed: describe the result: a long or deep cut or scar, a ruined possession, shame at your failure to save the life of a friend.

They who have you at their mercy may opt to take something else from you, rather than harm your body or name-- a possession, the credit for something great that you did, your confidence in your abilities or your judgment or your creed.

When you have two terrible wounds (presuming the first one has not been healed), you will die.





Two years have passed since Emakesh rounded the bend of Mother River to see the village of Adur Em burned to a smoldering cinder. He asked the boat — a simple canoe carven from the stout bowsprit of the warship whose stories you already know — to beach itself that he might look among the ashes for clue or treasure. What he found was much more than the fi re-eaten remains of a village.

Within the crinkling charcoal of the town, he found a holocaust. The smoldering skeletons of its peaceful fishing inhabitants littered the town in heaps where the marauders had piled the bodies to denude them of valuables. Here, he found a bent leaf sword like those carried by the soldiery in the mighty City of Dur who now marched the length of the Mother River in search of cities to subdue. And there, lay a feather, such as those worn by their captains.

But why, he wondered, would such an army attack a village so small and peaceful as these fishers? He saw signs of battle given, but also that the village had expected no trouble; the everyday fish market still stood, its wares scattered and dirty. Flat loaves of bread and fruits littered the ground, as though morning shoppers had been taken unawares. It appeared that the militia of the town had roused itself hurriedly and incompletely, giving fight only briefly.

As Emakesh explored, though, he found one alive: an old woman who called herself “Lal,” her face smudged with greasy soot, one eye sealed shut with a wound, her clothes and hair burned away. “The name,” she said, “is true. The time for falsehoods has passed. They will save
me no more.”

Emakesh, moved, gave to her his true name, a long and lilting name in a language from far away; a name from a people whose every child learned the Language of Names that he had made his life’s study. “Promise me,” said Lal as she held out her open palm, wizened with age and crooked with recent violence “that you will preserve this flame.” In her hand danced a tiny spark, a fire no bigger than a failing light perched on the consumed wick of an oil lamp. “Its name is Shumal. It is the fire of the first sunrise. It has sustained our people since that first dawn, but now we are dead. Take it with you that it may light the way and another people may remember our name, now that we are gone.”

Emakesh nursed her through the night, speaking sternly with the evil names of suffering that sought to increase her misery in her final hours. They recoiled at his word, but in the morning, she was dead.

The flame spoke with the name of a small child in a small voice. “Will you protect me?” it asked in the Language of Names.

“If you protect my life, if you cook for me my meals, if you let me see in the darkness and burn those who would see me harmed, I will carry you in my hand and nurse you to health and see you safe in the hands of a people who will do you honor.”

The two agreed.

In the years since, the Dawn Flame has grown. Many now know the wonders of Shumal, from the City of Bhat to the northernmost port on the shore of the Sea of Loss. It now lives within an iron ring, stolen from the King of the City of Cloud, that Emakesh wears on his right hand. He has heard of a sea people who worship the dawn and now travels in his canoe to their port city of Daghra, that Shumal and he may part ways, the flame to be worshipped by a people who love it — a people to be forever indebted to Emakesh.


Healing and Recovering Honor
Take appropriate action to heal the wound! You will forever bear the scar of the wound.

Shame may be healed only be proving one’s honor. If you have so regained it, those who persist in believing in the dishonor of the hero must remain silent or face the anger
of those know of your greatness.



Burdu Adak, Long-As-An-Arm, was cast, forged, and ground by Nanam, called The Clever-Hand.
He traded a promise of marriage to Uluk on the shores of the Waters of the Underworld for the copper, and stole tin from a Northerner who had carried it far on the Great Road as a tribute to the empire builder, Gash the Wielder of Bone.

But that is long in the past. Now Burdu Adak wishes to stop the spilling of blood by earthenbeings. It is old and tired, though its beauty is undiminished. It has cloven skulls for a thousand years and now wishes for the earthen-beings of the world to build gardens, to care for one another, and to make amends for the misery wrought with its fine edge.




Ahuj, as she’s known by Captain Kwajr’s brave crew, is friend to Djafaiya, the East Wind of the Sea. At a word from her lips, city gates discharge their duty to her by opening. Fair winds vacate the sails of their quarry and swell their own to overtake their prey. The Mighty City of Po invites her with gritted teeth and will see her unharmed in its rough streets and halls of intrigue.

She was borne by the great namedealer of the People of Hab, Iiyetueh — Iiyetueh, about whose traveling student you have read in this very library. The few who knew both are scattered to the winds, to turn the interests of the names of the world to their own or die at the whim of those they would control.

Captain Kwajr, Fury of the East Wind, holds Ahuj in high esteem and relies on her relations to the mighty names of the world. But she has, in return, promised to never constrain Ahuj’s freedom, and thus far has always returned from errands dictated by her own heart.

Ahuj wears in her hair many names indebted to her on strips of parchment and papyrus. On her head are strings of glass coins from the City the Fiiyah, as required of her by the city itself. Her face is dyed with indigo in the style of her people of Hab, though her people use henna, instead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:41, Fri 07 Aug 2020.

                       mountains. Moa riders, striped drake riders
                                                                             great road
 the great sea                                                               the first city

                                        The Monolith

 islands of Ity                                                                 empire of iron
dolphin people            great city
                    Shuat, the Deepest Well

                                                        the River Uklal


                 The City of Guruk, gladiators


City of Bhat
the Sea of Loss.
the City of Cloud,
a sea people who worship the dawn and their port city of Daghra
Burdu Adak, Long-As-An-Arm, the blade
Captain Kwajr’s brave crew  Captain Kwajr, Fury of the East Wind
The Mighty City of Po
strings of glass coins from the City the Fiiyah
people of Hab, use henna