01-04-2014, 11:04 AM
Havard Wrote:Thank you so much for sharing this story excerpt Chirine!
I love hearing abour Harchar, Chirine's and the others. It was interesting to see how Chirine didn't really trust Harchar at first. I wonder if this was to change through their adventures together? I liked reading the exchanges between Chirine and Vrisa. Tekumel sometimes seems like it is all about social hierarchy and exotic forms of etiquette, so I like seeing these friendly and sometimes even humours dialogues between them.
I didn't realize Chirine was able to pull of such powerful magics. Are there stats available for any of these characters anywhere?
Looking forward to reading To Serve The Petal Throne when it comes out!
PS: Happy New Year!
Thank you for your kind words! I enjoy telling stories, and I enjoy telling people about the fun we used to have! Let me see if I can answer your questions...
1. Chirine knew better then to trust Harchar *completely*; I (if you'll forgive me speaking as my alter ego!) always figured that Harchar and his crew of merry buccaneers had their own objectives and goals, and I always made very, very sure to allow for that; I always made sure that my goals and objectives marched alongside theirs - we were all friends who liked and respected each other, so we made sure that we all avoided any conflicts of interest. We were firm allies, and this relationship grew and deepened over the years. For example, as an Imperial official, I could have arrested the whole lot of them at any time, and pocketed a huge reward; I didn't, as they were just too useful as allies and friends - and think of all that paperwork!
They stepped in and helped Chirine and his family many times, and he did the same for them. In one chapter, Chirine breaks them out of prison, in what I thought was a neat little bit of rescuing. (If I do say so myself, although everyone made fun of my false beard. I thought it was a fine beard; I paid good money for it, and I wanted to get some use out of it.)
2. I liked your comment on etiquette! Yes, Tekumel does have very elaborate and formalistic social norms, but amongst good friends they are generally not used - there is a huge difference between 'formal', 'public' usage, and 'private', 'informal' usage. For example, when Chirine's Senior Wife meets Nyssa, Chirine's Junior Wife, in a public / formal setting, she will greet Nyssa by saying "The Senior Wife greets the Junior Wife." and bows to Nyssa; Nyssa returns the bow and the greeting with the 'pronouns' reversed. Back at the palace where they both live, the private / informal greeting is on the order of "Good morning, sister!" with usually a touch of hands, fingertips to fingertips.
A party of player-characters would presumably be friends and be informal amongst themselves, and only formal when talking to a patron or other socially superior person. When we played with Prof. Barker, we enjoyed exploring the social structures we encountered - it was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed playing the nuances. I could go on about this for hours, but I'll not bore you to tears...
3. Chirine is a unique player-character; I was the last PC rolled up at the Professor's in EPT. I had very high dice rolls for things, with the exception of Comeliness; I think the numbers went like this (I don't have my card handy, sorry!)
Strength: 86; Intelligence: 98; Constitution: 97; Psychic: 00; Dexterity: 89; Comeliness: 12
In EPT, this makes for a *really* good magic-user. So, I became a magic-using priest of the Temple of Vimuhla, the war-god aligned with Change. Because my stats were so good, I specialized in the military branch of sorcery; I am not all that useful a member of a dungeon party, but really useful when the chips are really down. I have a few of the 'normal' spells, as given in EPT; the one I used on the Hlyss nest-ship is the very powerful - but the personal version - Doomkill spell as given in EPT. It's a nice spell, but you can blow yourself up on a bad dice (2d6) roll. I also have a number of really high-powered spells, the Swords and Glory "M" series, but these are powerful battlefield spells and are not something I can use for anything else. I tended to bash people in the head with a mace, most of the time.
What made me unique was that I was the only military magic user ever rolled up in EPT at the Professor's. I made it up to fifth lever as a Priest - mostly because I spent most of my time out on adventures and not enough time in the Temple's politics - but due to my ability as a magic-user I was a tenth-level magic-user; off the charts in EPT, actually. (You want stuff blown up, I'm your man.)
4. I am working away on the book, and will have more for you as soon as I can!
Does any of this help?
Thanks again!
yours, chirine