Year 50,000: Exile Of The Swift Hand Tribe

Previous history

     Year 0: The Uman's six-fingered child is saved
          Year 30,000:  The Mannut discover mining

(To give the players the proper background for this scenario, I gave them The Tale of Uman the Hunter and the Feast of Four Stones.)

The tribes of Mannut have mined the original veins of copper for thousands of years, off and on.  One tribe or another attempted to extract useful ore from the site until the lode was played out.  That location is now long abandoned, because the clan, now called the Evanu, haven’t the technology to remove copper from ore.  They did learn the basics of mining, which taught them how to search chalk beds for flint, and how to mine for salt.

Salt, of course, has many uses, and must be found everywhere that humans settle.  These tribes use salt as a meat preservative, and use salt to consecrate the graves of their dead.  It is, however, much easier to gather salt along the sea, for the sea also provides food.  The tribes gradually moved away from the mountains and onto the plains.

The priesthood class has become powerful, backed by the warriors — the two classes which received the gifts of the necklace and the spear-point, and told to guard the secrets of the tribe.  Now they must deal with the changing environment, as the seas rise, and old hunting grounds vanish.  As the plains of the north become ever warmer, game becomes smaller, and the larger game moves to higher (colder) elevations in search of food, and many tribes follow behind.

A small tribe of hunters, the Swift Hand clan, has encroached upon the salt mine of the Spirit Fox clan, who are righteously horrified.  You were extracting minerals without a medicine man?  Are you trying to cause earthquakes?

The Spirit Fox clan, mighty and numerous, has decided that the Swift Hand clan must be punished for their crime, and exiled.  They are given two choices:  we will exile you into the Stony Pass, where only the phantom trees grow, or we will seal you into the Tomb of the Silver Serpents, where the caves go on forever and only the suncap mushrooms grow.  Each of you will be allowed to take one animal of your choice, male or female. 

The Locations

In the Stony Pass, high above the plains (and therefore out of the hair of the Evanu miners) grows the phantom tree.  Phantom trees are magic-wielding plants that, during the blooming season, use illusion to project delicious fruits, fragrant blossoms, brilliant colors, and whatever else it can do to attract bees, birds, insects and the like.  When it is not in blossom, the illusions disguise the trees so they cannot be found, either projecting false images of trees or shielding the trees to appear as stones.  They are fruit-bearing and surprisingly nutritious.

In the Tomb of the Silver Serpents, caverns deep under the mountains, grew the suncap mushrooms.  Suncaps are thaumovoric fungi that consume ambient magic and produce heat and light as waste products.  They only grow in areas of high magic concentration, and they can be toxic to any magic-dependent creature such as the silverhead, a snake that hibernates inside solid rock, near geothermal vents, by transforming itself into a a vein of silver.  The light produced by suncaps is sufficiently close to the brightness and cycle of sunlight that surface plants can grow in it — in fact, many plants already grow in those caves.

The Animals

Keerfoxes are small, black-furred canids that hunt at night.  Their fur gives off a faint magelight, about equivalent to bright moonlight, visible only to those who have Magery.  It is quite intelligent.  Generally they eat small prey, such as birds, rabbits, rats, and vermin (plentiful everywhere).

Rock goats are large, slow-moving goatlike beasts with thick, almost metallic wool.  They are difficult to hunt with bows or spears, have almost no nutritive value, and few predators.  Their use to the tribe is as a pathfinder, because they possess the ability to turn the inedible edible.  Rock goats graze on sand and gravel, but their droppings are almost pure rich loam, perfect for frming.  Within days, often, plants will grow from the droppings, seemingly spontaneously.

Slime boars are tusked pigs that excrete their waste through their skin as a foul-smelling, slippery goo.  Not surprisingly, few predators try to bite them.  The slime boar’s wonderful trick is to cause a rapid healing effect in the things it eats, animal or vegetable; it can graze for days on one small patch of plants, which regrow only to be grazed again.

There are five offenders:  two men and three women.  Their names are not important here, except that there are two with Magery (one man and one woman), two (or three) hunters, and a toolmaker (or two).  The Magery-talented woman also hunts; the Magery-talented man also makes tools.

I presented the players with two questions:

1.  Where will the people be exiled to?

2.  Which animals will they take with them?

What The Players Decided  

The first thing the Players wanted to know was whether I was asking them to pass judgment on these people.  Were they guilty?  How could they possibly argue against a tribe that had been caught red-handed?  What were the rules of law?

I clarified:  the offenders had already been declared guilty, and all that remained was to decide upon their punishment.

They then turned to various ways they could break the rules, and offer the offending Swift Hand tribe a little extra help.  They could sneak some additional animals into the caves later, perhaps.

It occurred to them that perhaps after all the trouble they'd had to introduce mysticism back into this tribe, perhaps it would better serve the culture to enforce the rules fairly.  They then turned to ways they could merely bend the rules.

"Do we have to send five of the same animal?" they asked.

 No, you could mix and match.  One animal for each exile, that's the rule.

They talked it over and realized that, at best, they could send two species:  a male and a female of one, and a male and two females of another.  Even then, the breeding would be pretty thin.  Two males and three females of one species would be a stable enough breeding population.  Even more genetic diversity could be squeezed out of the animals (bad metaphor!) if they sent in females that were already pregnant.

The keerfox, the Players said, would be useless underground.  Its primary benefit was to cast light for those people who already had magical sight; in the caverns, light was already provided by the suncap mushrooms.  The mountain pass with the phantom trees didn't appeal.  By elimination, they ended up exiling the Swift Hand clan into the caves in the company of five rock goats.

Joe the Leader had one final trick up his sleeve.  "So they got exiled for mining without the company of a shaman, right?"

Yes, that's true, I said.

Joe nodded.  "Then I ordain one of them.  They've got to have a priest."

Results  

The most immediate result for the exiled Swift Hand tribe was that they would easily survive the supervolcano explosion in Round 4.  If they took on any adaptation from animals, as the half-human half-aguen did, that animal would be the rock goat.  In the tiny confined spaces of the caverns, where their suncap lighting was limited to high-magic caves, they would be able to grow crops on a limited scale.  Their religion would be perpetuated, in some form, because Joe had made certain to ordain one of them as a new shaman.  If only they hadn't been so enthusiastic about prosecuting the letter of the law and reinforcing the tribal custom of exile...

The Tale of Uman the Hunter and the Feast of Four Stones

Before the sun was made and all the Earth was snow and ice, Uman the Hunter led his people down from the mountains, and there in the plains they met a tribe that was bewitched by an evil serpent.

And the Serpent told his people that he craved the son of Uman, for the Serpent said that none of six fingers shall live.  And the Serpent said he would eat the son of Uman, and the tribe that was bewitched did call for blood.  But Uman saw the wicked enchantment upon that tribe, and he called upon the Four Spirits to destroy the serpent, and the earth shook, and the people of the serpent were killed, and those who were not killed were scattered in fear.

And even as Uman drove away the Serpent People who had been not killed, there was a man named Tukla the Fox, and he was a wily warrior.  And Tukla saw in the serpent’s fallen cave that his people had hidden away a glimmering stone that men call kuplar.  And Tukla did raise up this stone and say, “This stone was granted to us by the Four Spirits, and it is a Sign.”

And then Nutah, the Wise Woman, said that it is a sign, and with her great magic she called upon the Four Spirits, who shared the secret of the stone with her, and taught her secret spells, and they said to her, “All who follow you must guard well the sacred trust of the stones of the earth, for they hold mighty secrets.”

And Nutah said that she would, and all who came after her.

And the Four Spirits said to her, “And you must watch well the people of the tribe as they bring forth these stones, lest the magic of the stones become wicked and slay your people.”

And Nutah said that she would, and all who came after her.

And one of the Four Spirits reached into the stone, and he did pull from it a glimmering spear that glowed like a sunset, and he said, “Where is Uman?  A mighty warrior must have a mighty weapon.”

But the people did say, “Uman has fallen!  He has chased away the great Serpent of the wicked clan, but the Serpent in its last did bite him, and Uman is no more.”

And so the Four Heroes gave the glimmering spear to Tukwa, saying, “From this day forth, you will be the leader of Uman’s people.”

Tukwa the Fox then did lead Uman’s people to a great hole in the Earth, and he did say, “Here we will guard well the secrets of the stones, and here we will leave the body of Uman.  We will return him to the Earth, where the stones will keep him secret.”

And Tukwa’s people did lay the body of Uman inside the hill, which is now called the Hill of Four Stones.  And there was a great feast, the first Feast of Four Stones.

After they had their feast, they raised four stones in honor of the Four Spirits.  The first stone was white, and the people did cook with it; and the second stone was gray, and the people did carve it; and the third stone was black, and the people did make fire with it; and the fourth stone was the glimmering stone of orange and green that men call kuplat.

And ever since then, Tukwa’s people have dug for the four stones, and they have been called Evanu, which means Stone Seekers.

Year 106,170: The Rise Of The Salt Men

(To give the proper sense of dread and impending doom, I started the players off with the myth The Curséd Light.)

The difficulties faced by the Zefari Empire do not have much effect on the people of the Nutar Valley.  They have lived and farmed the valley near the ancient Skeltern for untold generations.  The people live happily atop ruins of previous settlements, and in some cases even blissfully unaware of those ruins; it has been over six thousand years since their ancestors first came up from the caverns below the mountains to try their hand at surface agriculture.

Further up the Nutar Valley, they have encountered iron deposits, and have just begun to make use of them.  Through their trade they have encountered the use of iron in weapons and tools, and they see the promise in such a hard, versatile metal.  Their valley culture, much more confined than the Zefari of the open plains, has encouraged a great deal more intermingling between the various races.  Unlike the Zefari, there is no culture of stone-shaping magic, because the Avadi and Fentan intermarry as they please, and that particular talent was bred out generations ago.  No one race is ascendant.  The affairs of the Empire are as distant and disregarded as the Phoenicians were to the Celts.  And for its part, the Empire had long ago ceased to concern itself with the lands which had given birth to it, and the policies of distant Emperors never intruded on valley life.

Not that the Nutar Valley was entirely peaceful, for there were occasional wars and skirmishes.  As there was plenty of fertile land north of the Copper Mountains, these were infrequent occasions at best — that is, until the arrival of the Kallko.

The Kallko began to emerge at night from the caverns along the Nutar River and farm the rocky soil.  They were infrequently seen by the Fentan people because they never emerged during daylight hours; and the lands they chose to farm were among the poorest, steepest, rockiest lands fit only for the grazing of goats.  It was, in fact, due to missing animals that the Kallko caught the attention of the surface-dwellers at all:  goatherds reported some of their goats had gone missing in the hills.  Expeditions to search for them led only to strange stone shelters near waterfalls, where spattering water caused strange luminescent mosses to grow on the nearby rocks.  Primitive shrines were found in the hills, too:  regular blocks of stone, possibly shaped by magic, arranged in a ring around obscene, dancing statues created expertly in obsidian.  These shrines were often decorated with rusting or rotting sacrifices left by the primitives who shaped them.

It was thought that the Kallko must be some tribe of barbarians or savages that had moved into the hills; the people of Fentan were well aware of the existence of Neolithic Peoples that the Bronze Age had left behind.  That made their first encounter all the more surprising.

The Kallko were underground people, pale-skinned, about five feet tall.  Most of the males had a sparse coating of a thick, metallic fur; all had horns, although the females’ horns were often larger and straighter, sometimes as long as a human’s hand.  Their eyes were large, their hearing excellent, and their language surprisingly sophisticated.  The Kallko people were very swift and sure-footed — some of the Fentan believed that the Kallko had hooves, rather than wearing boots as men do —as well as tireless and very good in the dark.

What was most terrifying about the Kallko was not their visage, nor their sudden appearance, but their war machines.  The Kallko were primitive in many ways, lacking art, a written language, an organized priesthood, and even the barest understanding of the sun, sky, and seasons.  In other ways, they were the equal of Fentan:  they had surprisingly complex music, a deep understanding of mathematics, and a sophisticated knowledge of weaving and knot-tying that the Kallko used in place of written letters.  Knots and beads and loops on strings could be manipulated in the dark with one’s fingers; no light was necessary.  But in one key way, the Kallko were terrifyingly advanced:  their war machines.

The Kallko did battle underground, and their war machines were designed specifically to shake down caverns or destabilize galleries.  They understood the casting of metal, especially iron and steel, and they had already developed the pulley, the geartooth, and the wormscrew.  The Kallko had mining carts on rails that extracted soil from the tunnels, powered by a water wheel; they had compact gear-aligned battering rams designed punch holes in stone walls; and most frightening to the Fentan, they had a six-foot screw press which they used on their defeated enemies.  Water, you see, is scarce in the caverns, and the Kallko were not about to let a valuable resource go to waste.  Often the bodies of their defeated enemies — at least those they did not eat — were used as fertilizer.

Within months of the Kallko’s discovery in the valley, the pale-skinned goat-men were using sorcery to extend the caverns.  Large parts of the valley were being enclosed in artificial tunnels to serve as habitat for the Kallko.

King Iden V (M, 49) of Skeltern has called together his advisers to consult on this matter.

Councilor Antharam (M, 43) is a guentar stallion from an aristocratic family.  His line made their name in long-distance trading, establishing a firm foothold in the olive groves and bartering much with his supplies of olive oil.  “They are impossible,” he says.  “We have spells to comprehend their language, but they do not seem to understand the nature of buying and selling at all.  They won’t take our bronze coins at all.  They say bronze is worthless.  And you can’t reason with them.  I bring them good merchandise, good olive oils, good cork, woolens and onions and flax, and they insist on touching it all.  And not one of them offers any better price than any other.  It’s like they’ve all agreed to buy my wares at one single price, no matter what I do.”

“You mean,” says Councilor Quag (M, 60), “you can’t lie to them.”  Quag is a traditionalist, ex-military Avadi.  His place on the King’s advisory council came from his service in the wars, routing barbarians in the north to keep them away from Fentanese settlements.  “They have strange ways, to be sure, but I’ve seen stranger.  They live in the dark.  Of course they’re not going to look at your wares.  They can tell more by feel and shape and size how much you’re offering.”

“But how do they always offer the same price?” says Antharam.  “Why do they never bargain with my men?”

“Who knows?” says Quag.  “Some barbarians have never heard of haggling.  I’ve seen it.  You’ll have to learn to do business their way, or teach them to do business your way.”

“It’s impossible,” says Antharam.  “And if they continue to take up the valley floor with their stone walls, they’re going to block off the entire valley.  Our communication and trade with the Aquilus Republic is going to be cut off.  Merchants won’t be able to get through.  We won’t be able to get vancium, or sell our merchandise there.  Your Majesty, I recommend in the strongest possible terms that you send an army up the valley to rout these goat-men.  They cannot be permitted to occupy the valley upstream of us.”

“Nonsense,” says Quag.  “You’re only worried that they’ll close the trade routes.  There are two rivers that come into Skeltern.  I’m not going to send good men up against those monsters until they become a threat to our safety.  I don’t have enough soldiers to squander any on protecting a few fat merchants from getting less fat.”

“What do you propose, Councilor Quag?” asks King Iden.  He is a man of mixed Avadi and Fentanese blood, and an amateur dabbler in magic.

“First, we must find every cavern we can and block it up,” says Quag.  “We’ll fill those caverns with stone if we must, and shut down our mines.”

“Shut down the mines, are you mad?” asks Antharam.  He can see the profits dwindling already.

“They come from underground, and our hills are riddled with mines,” says Quag.  “They may come up behind us, or through some old forgotten shaft.  Attacking them in the valley is a fool’s mission, and I am not a fool.  But we don’t have to let them attack us on their own ground.  They hate the surface, and they hate the light, so let’s make them fight on our terms.  We block up all the mines and fortify our western city walls against their devilish war machines.  We put spells in place to flood the valley west of us with bright light.  If ever they attack, we’ll shoot them down with bows.”

“That’s as good as closing down the Valley,” cries Antharam.  “You propose to make a pauper of me?  Then, your Majesty, allow me to make my recommendation to the Aquilus Republic.  Perhaps if we coordinated an attack from both sides—”

“Yes, the Republic,” agrees Councilor Quag.  “We should at least send a runner to warn them that goat men have arisen in the hills.  Perhaps they have already encountered them, but they deserve to be warned in advance.”

“That is your advice?” asks King Iden.  “You both recommend attack?  If it must be so.  But first we must consult the gods.  If they are sending goat-men of the deeps to destroy us, we should at least know why we are being punished.”

What The Players Decided 

As soon as Jack read out the part in the myth The Curséd Light where the god was named Toklokmok, Connor lifted his arms in victory.  That was the name of his character, and how he had signed the graffito he had left in the Salt Men's domain all those years ago.  His elation went downhill from there, as it became evident that the Kallko didn't really like Toklokmok, and in fact resented him for imprisoning them under the mountains.

The Players listened with apprehension as I described this warlike culture of engineers, builders, miners, and machinists that had sprung up right between the already-embattled Zefari stone shapers and the Aquiline Republic.

Connor wanted to investigate the salt men, to go talk to them, to find out what motivated them.  I think he was somehow proud of his hellish creation that was about to come down on civilized society like a hammer.  I wasn't keen to have the players try to speak with the Kallko, primarily because I felt it was more dramatically interesting to have one culture on the planet that they didn't directly control from the inside.  Unless the Kallko came to worship the players as gods, they would have no influence over them.

The Kallko were worryingly advanced in many ways, but I reminded them that they weren't superior.  They don't have literature and writing and culture, I pointed out.

"Which is exactly what I'd expect of a civilization created by Connor," Dave observed.  "Sorry, man.  It's funny 'cause it's true."

Joe was in favor of making the Fentan people solve their own problem.  The Fentanese had been, fifty thousand years ago, the very people who had exiled the Kallko into the darkness.  They weren't to remember that, of course, but Joe still felt it was their own mess to clean up.  "Take responsibility for the sins of your fathers," Joe said implacably.

Sins of the father?  Interesting.  That little phrase could come back to bite him someday.

"Besides," Joe went on, "blocking up the mines on this side wouldn't do any good.  It won't stop these guys.  They've got the same stone-shaper magic that the Zefar have, I'll bet.  They could just part the stone and walk right through, maybe pass through solid rock without stopping.  War isn't the answer here."

Dave and Connor, too, were all for finding a peaceful solution.  Perhaps the Kallko could be taught or trained in the art of barter, or the Fentan merchants could learn to handle things the Kallko way.  "How do they all pick the same selling price?"  Dave asked curiously.  "Is there any suggestion that there's some kind of telepathic link going on?"

Let me put it this way, I said.  They're engineers.  They live underground and they hardly ever use their eyes.  They're really good at determining things by size and length and volume, and they're not fooled by presentation.

Jack was opposed to any attempt to tame or civilize the Kallko.  "They're going to get taken advantage of," he declared.

"They've got deadly war machines," Dave objected.

"I know," Jack said.  "That's all the more reason not to let them get taken advantage of."

The ultimate decision was for peace and trade.  The Fentan were responsible for banishing the Kallko in the first place; they should be responsible for welcoming them back to the light.

Results 

I won't know the results of this round until I have prepared for the next round.

The Curséd Light

In the beginning the world was blindness and light, and the god Toklokmok created the first Sound.  And with that first sound he brought with him the first Echo, and he created the soothing darkness around us.

And in the cool, deep places of the world he placed the People, and he gave them ears to hear the Sounds of the earth, and he gave them steady feet, and he said to them, “This place in the world is to be yours, for you are unworthy.  Go you now into the darkness and find sustenance, for until you have proved yourself honorable in my hearing, you shall enclosed by the Earth.”

And the people went forth, and they tamed the mighty beetle kiklata, and they tamed the slithering snail lexita, and they found the silverhead serpent and put it to their own uses.  And the people ever resented the god Toklokmok for imprisoning them in the darkness, and they resented their neighbors above who lived in the terrible shallows.

Gonkol the leader said, “Toklokmok has placed in the shallows a fungus which contains the light of Creation, and it absorbs our enchantments, and it weakens our spells.  He placed the fungus there to keep us out.”

“Destroy it!” cried Gonkol’s people, and they tried, but into the light they could not go, for it burned their eyes and their skin.  And his people retreated from the shallows.

“Toklokmok, why have you punished us?” cried the people in their hurt.  “Why do you forsake us to the darkness?”

“The darkness is no curse,” said Gonkol.  “The darkness is our blessing.  It is cool and comforting and it does not burn our skin.  Here in the darkness we have everything we need:  metal for tools, stone for building, coal for eating, moss and insects for nutrition.  We have our hands and our ears, which Toklokmok has given to us.  With them, we will create a mighty empire such that Toklokmok must declare us honorable.”

And since that day, the people have embraced the darkness as their friend and guide, and dream forever of the day when they may show Toklokmok the powerful works they have built.

Round 3

The third round of the game was actually our second actual physical gathering, since we had played the first two rounds in one night.  That had required a certain amount of anticipation on my part; to prepare the various alternatives in  the second round, I had to predict a range of actions the players might take, translate those actions into major historical forces, and devise new scenarios based on how I estimated that society might evolve.  That method had limitations, in particular the difficulty of predicting how civilized humans would view primitive historical crossroads.  I had already seen how the players were averse to taking extremes.  Where the ancient civilizations were apt to solve their problems with brutally direct methods, with war and conquest and death, the players were trying to shepherd their cultures with compromise and diplomacy.

Diplomacy doesn't stop famine.  Compromise doesn't stop the seasons.  Until their civilizations had the means to survive the great catastrophes of their age, diplomacy and compromise would be limited tools.  Still, I couldn't see the players abandoning them entirely, and therefore their actions would be hard to foresee.  At this stage I concluded that one event at a time would be best.

Since so many years had passed between the last events and these, I decided that the clans* had entirely forgotten the true nature of what had occurred.  They had passed down their recollections and interpretations from one generation to the next, and the actual events had been converted from history into myth.  To represent each clan's interpretation of the historical events that preceded it, I began this round to present the players with a written Myth for each clan to precede the Event.

Year 50,000:  The Interglacial Period

All tribes are being affected by the major event taking place in the world's geology:  the planet is getting warmer.  Everywhere, glaciers are retreating, ice is melting, and seas are rising.  What were once seashores are becoming tidal flats, or drowning in salt water.  The warm subtropical band around the equator is becoming a tropical sauna.  Plants and animals are adapting to the warmer temperatures, migrating in search of food, or dying out, changing the balance of flora and fauna available to the hunter-gatherers.  Their ancestral hunting grounds are changing.  In all the clans, there is environmental change that they are just barely conscious of.

The Thrian Telepath Chooses.  The devotion of the Thrian aguen herders is tested when the ancient bridal exchange ceremony is in direct conflict with their promise to keep the herds safe.  The players cannot decide whether to allow the Big River tribe to slaughter the herds, or to destroy a new civilization of half-human, half-aguens, and so they put the entire decision into the hands of a telepath descended from Temu.

The Evanu Exile The Swift Hand Clan.  When a small tribe of Evanu break the law against mining without the supervision of a priest, they are exiled.  The players choose the method of exile, sending the Swift Hand clan into the caves, accompanied by the rock goat.

The Hybesh Valley Is Burning.  Two distinct tribes of the Abequa have evolved:  the Ascenders, who are strong climbers, and the Leapers, who appear to be developing the capacity for gliding between the treetops.  The two tribes disagree how to handle the raging forest fires that are consuming their valley — is it their quest to stay and guard the trees, or to follow the herds?  The players elect to send the tribes in both directions at once.

The Teyo Nami And The Moon Tiger.  When the moon tiger confronts the people of Teyo Nami, separating their souls and frightening the people, the players are called in to destroy it.  The question of placing the souls back into their rightful bodies, however, they leave up to the tribe.

The Bellaron Sacrifice Chamandra.   They have crossed the island chain in search of new lands, for the seas are rising.  They have finally come within sight of the mainland, but it is a very great distance to sail.  The tribe cannot decide between following their leader to the mainland, or following Chamandra, who claims to be immortal and is not afraid of the rising waters.  Immortal, are you? the players ask.  We can disprove that theory.

Players

Joe the Leader

Dave the Artisan

Connor the Mystic
Jack sat in this week.  He was a long-time roleplayer I had known for years, but who hadn't been free for Game Night lately.  His frequent absence was one reason we had started this campaign in the first place.  Not that I'm blaming you, Jack.  Jack was assigned the role of the NPC Storyteller and loremaster.

*About my use of the words tribe and clan:  I will try to maintain clarity when I write this blog, because we are talking about so many different and varied people.  When I say clan, I mean many thousands of separate hunter-gatherer tribes that reside in that general area and have the same mythical interpretation of history. When I say tribe, I mean one hunter-gatherer unit consisting of 30-60 people and only a few interrelated families.  The players, as the Great Spirits, are called down by a tribe which is facing a crisis that I feel will help to shape history to come.  The survival advantages thus conveyed to that tribe will help its stories spread to the rest of the tribes in that clan.  By no means are all the tribes within a clan identical or monolithic in culture, but they will share some common elements for the sake of simplicity; there's simply no way to create the complexity of ten thousand separate tribal units, each acting on its own.

Rounds 1 and 2

The very first gaming session was in some respects the least interesting, even though we covered two rounds of progress.  I say this not because the concept wasn't good, and I don't mean to suggest that the Players weren't keen to sink their teeth into such an unusual concept.  I merely mean that none of us had any idea what to expect from a campaign of this kind — its scope, its magnitude, its complexity.  We didn't know what kind of consequences we might face.  I didn't have a good notion how even to prepare such a campaign, because as far as I knew, nobody had ever tried anything like it.

Since we had to cover two rounds of the game in one night, it meant I had to prepare Round 1, Year Zero with a limited palette of consequences.  I imagined various cultural forces which might come into conflict, such as curiosity, mysticism, tradition, medicine, discipline, fear of the unknown, and pit them against each other in what I hoped were relative binary ways.  Either mysticism would win, I expected, or rationality would.  I was prepared for either contingency, with a string of if-then statements woven into my preparatory materials.  If the players chose to do X, I would follow up with Scenario B, and so on.

I hadn't anticipated the dedication to which my apparently Taoist campaigners consistently sought the Middle Path.

Players
Joe:  the host of our gaming nights, my best friend for 25 years, and the Leader of the triumvirate.
Dave:  a friend of several years, whom I met while doing a play for a local theater company.  He would play the Artisan.
Connor:  a friend and co-worker of Dave's who had been incorporated into our gaming group; his role was the Mystic.

Year Zero:  The Earth Gathering
The Dar tribe loses their leader and their medicine man as a result of an earthquake which destroys their cave.  The survivors seek answers, blaming a deformed six-fingered child of Uman, but the Great Spirits deny them justice.  In fact, the Great Spirits insist that the Dar offer up one of their women to Uman's deformed child as a bride when he comes of age.  A Dar midwife, their only remaining healer, attacks Uman in her rage and despair and is killed.

The six-fingered son of the Uman tribe is allowed to live despite his obvious mutation, and no special mystical significance is attributed to the earthquake.  The Uman boy is prophesied to become a great leader and wizard, and is promised a bride of the Dar people when he comes of age.

The curiosity of the Pagh toward the reason for the earthquake leads them on a quest into the mountains, to learn why the earth moves.  Perhaps the Earth has rising and falling cycles, as do the Sea and the River.

The Kufu are encouraged to add a medicine man to their tribe, and take on Tor the Sage of the Pagh.  They return to their ancestral lands with a renewed appreciation for the value of strong medicine.

The Brun warn that although the sign of the earthquake is meaningless, the sign of the lunar eclipse is worse.  Their fears are ignored.  The Brun return to their cold northern lands, unsatisfied.

Year 30,000:  Hominid Migration
The Drim Acquire A Telepath.  The tradition of bridal exchange is interrupted when the Drim suspect a young healer to be possessed by evil spirits.  The Great Spirits demonstrate that her telepathy is actually beneficial, for young Temu is the equal of old Ral the Raven in a contest of skills.

The Mannut Discover Mining.  The Mannut tribe discovers a copper deposit when an avalanche destroys their cave.  Nobody is harmed, but the Great Spirits warn that any further investigation into the stones of the earth would require the presence of a skilled shaman.

The Abequa Enter The Great Valley.   After wandering for millennia in the high mountain passes where food is scarce, the migrating Abequa reach a valley where flora is lush and fauna is unimaginably plentiful.  The sudden surplus almost crumbles the discipline within the tribe, and there is a crisis of leadership.  Only Jebba the Healer can bring back the mighty huaca alive.  Reluctantly, she accepts that it is her Quest to lead her people, for among all of the Eagle tribe, she is best suited for the task.

The Ayuté Have Two Toolmakers.  When Noves, toolmaker of the Ayuté, is killed by a tiger, the tribe looks to his son Novan to fill the role of craftsman, though he has not the skill of his father.  There is a challenge from Faya, even younger than he but no less adept at making weapons in her own particular style.  When the two types of weapons are put to the test, the women of the tribe are far more successful catching fish than are the men, and the balance of power in the tribe begins to shift.

The Cleansing Ritual Of Oparron.  A tribe is being pushed farther out onto a rain-lashed peninsula, where food is scarce and tempers are frayed.  Discipline can no longer be maintained, and some hungry tribesmen secretly hunt for crabs on the seashore, without bothering to share their bounty.  After three people die from shellfish allergy, a phenomenon the Oparron are not equipped to understand, the Great Spirits are there to help.  The eating of crab meat is a rite of passage all must undergo, to determine if one is strong enough to suit the needs of the tribe.  A grisly pyrophiliac cleansing ritual is invented as a purifying rite for the bodies of those slain.  Soon after this, the Oparron advance out across the lowlands and onto the island chain that spans the North Ocean.         

The Uman Clans

A Timeline of Events in the History of the Uman Clans

For a full rendering of the game's timeline, start here with the Stone Age, or here for the Bronze Age.

Rounds 1 and 2: The Paleolithic Era
 Year Zero:  The Earth Gathering.  The six-fingered son of the Uman tribe is allowed to live despite his obvious mutation, and no special mystical significance is attributed to the earthquake.  The Uman boy is prophesied to become a great leader and wizard, and is promised a bride of the Dar people when he comes of age.

Year 30,000:  The Mannut Discover Mining.  The tribe discovers a copper deposit when an avalanche destroys their cave.  Nobody is harmed, but the Great Spirits warn that any further investigation into the stones of the earth would require the presence of a skilled shaman.

Year 50,000:  Exile Of The Swift Hand tribe.  When the Swift Hand tribe breaks the rule against mining without the supervision of a shaman, they are exiled into the Caverns of the Silver Serpent.  It is not an inviting place, so their tribesmen are generous and give them rock goats to keep them company.

Year 30,000: The Mannut (Uman) Discover Mining

Previous history

     Year 0: The Uman's six-fingered child is saved

The various Uman tribes, by now called the Mannut, have been traveling in the mountains (aqua arrow, center).  In Round 2, they are about to enter a period of isolation where their migrations do not take them within range of the other four clans.  They shall be living in the mountains and passes, and farther north on the frozen tundra.  Since the Players chose in Year Zero to save the child of Uman, and since they further assured them with a prediction that the child would grow up to be leader, many of the people of the Uman tribe have six fingers and toes.

While they are living in caves in the mountains, an earthquake drives them out of their cave.  Nobody is harmed, but there is now a large vein of exposed ore in the bare rock, a bright orange colored ore with a green patina that wasn't entirely visible before.

Because in the previous round the players had denied any mystical explanation for earthquakes, and had further deprecated the use of mysticism overall — you don't need the Old Ways, Connor the Mystic had told them — the leader of the Mannut is  Tukwa the Fox (M), a wily leader who will use whatever trick he must to gain advantage for the tribe.  The wise woman, Nutah (F), is consulted occasionally, but her views are ignored as often as obeyed.  Tukwa's chief enforcer is Gar the Spear (M).  Discipline is good, and the clan's propensity for creative thinking and tool-making has been enhanced.

"Why did the earthquake destroy our cave?" the Fox Clan asks the Players, for this is the crisis for which the Players, now playing Great Spirits, were summoned.

"The earthquake came because Tukwa the Fox was seen near the orange metal in the cave wall," said Nutah the Wise Woman, largely in hopes that someone might listen to her for once.  "The orange stones are cursed.  We must abandon this place at once lest we anger the spirits."

"No," said Tukwa, a leader who had the makings of a true sophist.  "The earthquake was a gift, a sign!  By the shaking of the earth, this metal was given to us by the spirits, and we must make use of this gift."

"You were prying at the orange rocks," said Nutah accusingly.  "You brought this upon us."

The people of the Fox Clan are suspicious of the rocks, frightened of the earthquake, and uncertain.  The Players had to come up with an explanation.

What The Players Decided
First they realized that they had gone too far with their denunciation of mysticism in the previous round.  They hadn't meant to shut down the development of magic, philosophy, learning, or understanding.

Dave the Artisan set about making something with the orange metal, quickly devising some kind of crucible that he might use in their fires.

While he was busy with that, Joe the Leader explained to the Mannut tribe:  "The orange metal is not cursed.  But Tukwa must learn to be careful, for the shining orange stone is mighty, and Nutah should have been with him.  Only with strong medicine can these stones be handled safely."

"There," added Joe the Leader to Dave the Artisan.  "That ought to secure a role in their society for the priesthood.  We don't want them to give up on magic altogether."

"Good," said Dave.  "I think I've got the hang of this copper.  Now, I think we need to make something for them, some kind of ceremonial object.  I could make a copper-tipped spearpoint for Gar the Spear."

"Hey, I want a copper spear too," said Connor the Mystic.

"You should make something shiny for Nutah, too.  That's nicely symbolic," Joe the Leader said.

Like a necklace? I suggested.

"Yeah, a ceremonial necklace, I'll make something like that," said Dave the Artisan.

The Players presented the copper artifacts to the Mannut tribesmen, and Joe the Leader added a warning:  "You are the only ones who have the secret over the orange stones," he told them.  "So be careful.  Other clans might come and try to take it away from you.  The warriors must help to guard the mine."

Result
By prodding the Mannut tribe in the general direction of mining, they started a general theme of interest in geology within that region.

Year 0: The Earth Gathering (Dar, Uman, Pagh, Kufu, Brun)

Welcome to the Paleolithic Era.  As you can see, we're in the middle of an Ice Age; some of the continents are being encroached upon by massive sheets of polar ice.  The map above is an elevation map; it doesn't depict forests, deserts, plains, or other environmental features, because after all, a hundred thousand years is quite a long time.  I didn't feel up to the task of redrawing the map, re-coursing every river, or rearranging every landform feature throughout the Paleolithic, so we'll just use this single elevation map as a shorthand.  I'll describe the features of the environment as we go, if they're essential to the plot.

When we begin the game, the tribes of proto-humans aren't very numerous yet, nor have they spread very far (see the red shaded area on the western edge of the central ocean.  They're all in one convenient place so they can all share distant elements of a common mythology, however fragmented it might be.

The hominid tribes are having their Earth Gathering.  All the tribes are gathered together to share lore and medicine.  The Players are present as four wandering tribeless hunters, who have been invited into the Gathering to participate and share in the hunts and feasts and stories.  As yet, the Players are not yet Great Spirits or demigods.

During the festivities, there is a massive earthquake and the cave of the host tribe collapses.  They have nowhere to live, and both their leader and medicine man has died.  Now the tribes are lost and confused.  What caused the earth to shake?  What have the tribes done?  How can they atone?  There is some understandable concern among the primitive people.

The mood is worsened after only a day of mourning, for there is a terrible omen:  the moon is swallowed up in darkness.  It is a partial lunar eclipse.

The Dar Tribe.  Formerly led by Dar (M), who is now dead, and Shan the Medicine Man (M), who is also dead.  The Dar tribe once was the largest, with about 48 members, and now they are third at about 37.  The Clan of the Serpent believes firmly that the earthquake and moon are bad omens.  As the host tribe, they were punished for the misdeeds of one of the visitors, and they demand to know which tribe caused it.  Mala (F), the tribal midwife (and the late Shan’s widow) thinks it was because of the deformed child of the Uman, who came from the mountains to the northwest.  She wants to see the Uman clan punished.

The Uman Tribe.  Led by Uman the Hunter and Nib the Medicine Woman.  The Uman were and are the smallest tribe at 20 people.  The Clan of the Fox has seen the earth move before in the mountains, which causes avalanches of rocks and snow.  They do not believe this earthquake is because of Uman’s deformed son (who has six fingers and toes).  The reassurance of the Uman does not allay the fears of the Dar, who see it as a sign that the Uman brought the earthquake with them.  But the Uman respond that the earthquake was sent to punish Dar and Shan:  everyone saw that Shan did not follow the Old Ways in the Earth Ceremony, and Shan has paid!  They also see this as a warning to the Kufu tribe, who have no medicine man to guide them.  Uman and Nib strongly believe somebody should punish the Kufu for having no medicine man, but they are not large enough to do it, and the Pagh, who are, will not.

The Pagh Tribe.  Led by Pagh the Warrior (M), who has both Zifa the Medicine Woman (F) and Tor the Sage (M, wizard).  They were the second-largest tribe at 44 people, and now they are the largest.  The Clan of the Eagle believe there is no sign.  The Pagh come from the southeast, and have watched the rivers and the tides.  Sometimes the rivers go up, and sometimes the tides go out, but they always come back.  Perhaps the Earth rises and falls, too.  The Pagh see this instead as a quest, which the tribes must take up:  we must go to the mountains to see why the Earth shakes.  The Uman and Brun say this is foolish, because there isn’t enough food for everyone in the mountains.

The Kufu Tribe.  Led by Kufu the Toolmaker (M), who has at his side Gom the Skinner (M).  They were the third-largest tribe, with 39 people, and now they are second, but they have many who are sick and injured, with scars from hunting.  The Clan of the Tiger comes from the south.  They believe the earthquake is a sign that the People can no longer meet here, and must go their ways to atone.  They are all equally to blame.

The Brun Tribe.  Led by Brun the Shaman (M), who is backed up by Hon the Strong (M).  They are the second-smallest tribe, with only 28 members.  The Clan of the Mammoth come from the north, and they watch the stars and the moon.  They dismiss the earthquake but they are troubled by the eclipse of the moon, which tells them that there will be a terrible winter.  The Kufu object because they don’t really know seasons, as they come from tropical lands.

Usually, at a time like this, all the medicine men would gather and discuss it, but because Shan is dead, and the Kufu have none, they have not enough shamen to perform their rituals.  Instead, they turn instead to the Players to solve their problems.

"Why did the earthquake destroy the cave of Dar, mighty Spirits?" they ask.  "Are the Uman to blame, for bringing the deformed child here to this place?  Shall they be punished for their offense?"

Others say, "Mighty Spirits, should we punish the clan of Kufu for not having a medicine man?  They are not following the old rituals."

The Pagh tribe says, "We are going on a quest into the mountains to see why the earth moves.  What shall we tell the Earth Spirit that it will appease her?"

And the Brun, of course, are worried about the upcoming winter, which they fear will be terrible.  How will they survive?

What The Players Decided

Unsurprisingly, they first decided that the six-fingered child of Uman should survive.  Their twenty-first century knowledge told them that six fingers on a child is a harmless birth defect.  Convincing a bunch of 100th-millennium-BC tribesmen of this took some doing, however.  Connor the Mystic (who was in charge of religion, philosophy, medicine, and so on) invented a phony-baloney ceremony for the purpose of "driving away evil spirits," he told them, and assured the medicine men of the clans that the Old Ways were nothing special.  Go ahead, use your power, improvise! he exhorted them.  At the end of his make-up ritual, he pretended to read the fortune of the six-fingered child, and pronounced that the boy would become a mighty leader and a wizard, to seal his survival.

They also pooh-poohed any mystical significance to the collapse of the cave and the earthquake.  Even when pressed they refused to concede there was any Sign to be read.  Dave the Artisan (our Mr Spock hard-sciences character) simply advised the toolmakers of the tribes how to reinforce the insides of caves with some stout trees.  He then crafted toys for the children.  ("Putting trees indoors, and giving toys to children.  What are you, Santa Claus?" asked the Joe the Leader.)

Last, Joe the Leader arranged a bridal exchange between the tribes of Uman and Dar — Dar's clan would send the six-fingered child a woman to be his bride, when he was of age.  This, Joe the Leader hoped, would smooth over any animosity between the clans about the strange child they had saved.

Results 
I decided that since the players had saved the child and emphasized the importance of saving lives, it would show the Kufu clan the importance of medicine.

Also, the players had terribly snubbed the clan of Dar:  first, they did not avenge the death of Dar or his shaman Shan; second, they had had the affront to declare that the Old Ways were nonsense; third, they had forced the bridal exchange upon them.  Because of all this, and the outright dismissal of the mystic significance of the earthquake, Mala the Dar midwife snapped and attacked Nib of the Uman.  Uman was forced to kill Mala, leaving Dar without any medicine woman.

Since Connor the Mystic had suggested that the Old Ways weren't important, I ruled that Brun would step down and hand the clan's leadership over to his warrior Hon the Strong.  But they'd also strongly recommended that the Kufu have a medicine man, which influences Pagh to turn control of his tribe over to Zifa, his second.

Not that it would much matter whether one individual or another would lead the clan in the short term.  I wanted to see which direction each clan might be pushed, which developments would be emphasized for the foreseeable future, because this would be the last time all five tribes would be in the same place for a while.

After the Earth Meeting, the clans all went their separate ways.