TEXT: Wisdom of the Drylanders 
  By Peter Nuttall (Brax, Brax@athas.org) 
  Authors: Brax, Will Kendrick (Kenku Wisdom, eyeoftheghost@yahoo.com),  Neeva Barrens (Elven 
  Wisdom) 
  Editing and Review: Chris Flipse (fl p@athas.org
  i
  f i
  ) 
  Interior Layout: Chris Flipse ( l p@athas.org) 
  Cover Illustrator: Stephen James 
  Interior Illustrator: Neeva Barrens 
  Interior 3D Art: Nelson Baietti Miguel Pimentel (nelsonbaietti@yahoo.com)  
  Copyright 2002,2006 © Peter Nuttall, Wizards of the Coast 
   
   
   
   
  Table of Contents: 
  WELCOME TO THE SCHOOL OF SPIES .............................................................................................................4 
  WISDOM OF STRENGTH ........................................................................................................................................6 
  WISDOM OF BETTERS............................................................................................................................................7 
  COMMON WISDOM ...............................................................................................................................................10 
  DWARVEN WISDOM ..............................................................................................................................................16 
  ELVEN WISDOM .....................................................................................................................................................20 
  WISDOM OF THE TREMBLING PLAIN.............................................................................................................23 
  KENKU WISDOM....................................................................................................................................................27 
  WISDOM OF TERROR ...........................................................................................................................................32 
  WISDOM OF THE STORM COAST......................................................................................................................40 
  APPENDIX: SKILLS, FEATS AND PRESTIGE CLASSES ................................................................................44 
   
   
   
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  2 
  Legal Notice: 
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  This edition of Wisdom of the Drylaners is produced under version 1.0, 1.0a, and/or draft versions of the Open Game 
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  and are already Open Game Content by virtue of appearing there. The above Product Identity is not Open Game 
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  Designation of  Open Game Content: Some portions of this book which are OGC originate from the System 
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  3 
  Wisdom of  the Drylanders contains cultural and role-playing material for the Dark Sun campaign 
  setting. Other than this introduction, this entire work is written from the point of view of Kurnan 
  NPCs, mostly master spies working for King Oronis of Kurn. Kurn’s “school of spies” is an 
  organization of Kurnan spies that studies non-Kurnan societies, and brings back information to 
  defend Kurn and improve its way of life. 
  For obvious reasons, Kurnans refer to outsiders, particularly people from the tablelands, as 
  “Drylanders.” Obviously, this document should not be considered the total intelligence report of 
  Kurn’s spy organization; these articles are only part of one of the many training manuals for new 
  and prospective spies. In Kurn, inexpensive paper is harvested from local domesticated wasps; as a 
  result most Kurnan paper tends to be stiff and card-like. Hence, Kurnans tend not to bind their 
  written works into books, or to roll up their writing in scrolls, but rather keep loose cards in 
  collections. It is not unusual for cards in a collection to be re-written or replaced, or for an author to 
  add cards to a deck that he has already circulated. 
  The “Wisdom” articles focus heavily on the language and culture of different “drylander” groups. 
  Kurnans are a very different people than the rest of Athasians. Since they do not participate in the 
  slave trade with the tablelands, Kurnans do not natively speak what people in the tablelands refer to 
  as the “Common” tongue. The seven cities of the Tablelands banned reading and writing to the 
  common people for generations, while in Kurn, literacy has always been fostered and encouraged. In 
  Kurn, all citizens and even most slaves have a basic reading vocabulary of at least a thousand word-
  symbols, and can paint their own names. The Kurnan written (or rather “painted”) language adapts 
  the Eldaarish word-symbols, which are called “picts.” Note that picts are an ideographic system like 
  hieroglyphics, where one symbol corresponds to one word.  If possible, Kurnans prefer to use at 
  least two colors while painting their words, in order to get across the proper emphasis, or to quote. In 
  order to represent words in “Drylander” languages such as the Common speech, the Kurnan spies 
  tend to use dwarven Letters since in Kurn, the only persons who natively use those that letter form, 
  are dwarves. In the Tablelands, they are simply called “the alphabet,” or “Tyrian letters.” 
  Contents 
  The articles in this document are only a few cards of the Wisdom of  the Drylanders collection. The 
  training of spies lasts for years; this document represents only a few of the most interesting and 
  useful cards: 
  “Welcome to the School of  Spies” by the master of the school of spies, King Oronis of Kurn; a 
  critical explanation of the purpose of the Wisdom of  the Drylanders collection. 
  Wisdom o  S eng h
  f
  tr
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  r
   by Spymaster Meret – proverbs & folklore of the Tablelands; discussion of 
  “civic virtues.” 
  Wisdom of  Betters by Spymaster Meret – discussion of power, social class, and morality in the 
  Tablelands. 
  Common Wisdom by Spymaster Meret – discussion of the Common speech, its popular 
  expressions and insults. 
  Dwarven W sdom by Spymaster Klianis – discussion of Athasian Dwarves, their language, culture, 
  and eccentricities. 
  Elven W sdom by Spymaster Kalisvrani – discussion of Athasian elves, their language, culture, and 
  eccentricities. 
  Wisdom of  the Trembling Plains by Spymaster Andapho — discussion of the vast area known as 
  the Trembling Plains, its herder clans, and why the area deserves closer attention.  
  Kenku W sdom by Spymaster Andapho -- an account of observation of mysterious Athasian 
  Kenku, their culture, isolation, motives, and tactics. 
  Wisdom of  Te ror by Prodigy, a veteran spy – an illumination of the unfathomed lands of 
  Eldaarich, its people, culture, and politics. 
  Wisdom of  The Storm Coast by Spymaster Meret—updating Wisdom of Terror, discussing South 
  Guard and Fort Mudwatch, and suggesting how one swift military strike could reduce the Dim 
  Lands to starvation. 
   
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  4 
  Welcome to the School of Spies
  My friend, 
  The cards before you will take you on a 
  journey into the minds of the Drylanders, a 
  journey that for your safety you should take 
  before you depart into the dry lands. These 
  cards sum up the wisdom won by many daring 
  spies, not all of whom returned to paint their 
  own tales. But because of this wisdom won by 
  blood and cunning, you will travel into the dry 
  lands armed with knowledge, and return alive 
  to paint new cards into this deck. Each 
  generation of spies goes into the dry lands 
  more prepared than the last. And none has 
  been as well-armed as you.  
  This deck is enough to prepare you, but there 
  is a word for you before you go: 
  Know yourself. 
  But before you peer out into the dust I would 
  have you gaze into the reflection of your own 
  Kurnan eyes. You cannot fully unlock the 
  wisdom contained in these cards until you 
  comprehend the elements that make you 
  Kurnan. Allow me to tell you about yourself, 
  and never again take your upbringing for 
  granted: 
  You call your king Oronis, not The King or King 
  Oronis. Your fellow Kurnans do not speak of 
  Oronis any more deferentially in front of his 
  templars; he is Oronis, that is enough. Only 
  some Kurnan nobles cling to archaic Titles — 
  a Drylander word for expressions that 
  proclaim that someone is more important than 
  the rest of his name allows. You call the 
  templars and your clave-chiefs by their names, 
  granting them respect not according to their 
  positions but according to how much you 
  actually respect them. 
  You live without fear. Your neighbor weaves a 
  basket, sells it, and enjoys the fruits of his 
  labors. Your sister bears a child, and never 
  fears that she or the baby will die of thirst. 
  When your parents told you to watch your little 
  brothers play, it was not out of fear that your 
  neighbors would snatch and sell them to 
  prowling slave traders.  
  Such fears do not occur to you, but you carry a 
  weapon with you everywhere, as does every 
  citizen of Kurn. As a citizen, you are required 
  to own and master the longbow, and keep one 
  within a breath’s reach at all times. As children, 
  you knew that your parents and friends parents 
  might give their lives to protect Kurn, whether 
  against the Bandit-states, the Kreen, the 
  Eldaarish, or against the Grey Horde, and yet 
  you have seen more of your quick-tempered 
  friends die stupidly, accidentally, in petty inter-
  clave competitions and brawls, than in 
  skirmishes with Kurn’s enemies. The few 
  bandits that have attacked Kurnan villagers say 
  that the villagers fight like the dragon, you would 
  say rather that they fight like the wasp. Only a 
  fool attacks the wasps’ nest: unlike bees, each 
  wasp stings again and again, and Kurnans see 
  to it, like the wasp, that their nests offer no 
  honey or wealth of any sort to the successful 
  invader. In spite of Oronis’ efforts to erase an 
  unpleasant memory, you know that your 
  people once called themselves Kel Tas meaning 
  wasp nest, before Oronis restored Kurn to its 
  ancient elven name. You humor your king, but 
  your parents have taught you what you are.  
  You have learned that to be wealthy is to live 
  between walls of stone, and to be wretched is to 
  live within a paper tent, but the most wretched 
  folk that you see have not known hunger, nor 
  have they considered selling their son to a 
  Tyrian fleshmonger. The wealthiest nobles that 
  you know of never indulge in extravagant 
  waste, like the Nibenese merchant who pours 
  out his mug of broy upon the sand in front of 
  a wide-eyed thirsty beggar child. 
  You think that slavery means being denied the 
  rights of citizenship because of some act or 
  incapacity to carry out one’s duties of 
  citizenship, being forced to work in exchange 
  for food and shelter, and being told when to 
  rise and when to sleep. Yet slavery among you 
  is more bound than binding. Kurnan nobles 
  complain more about Kurnan slavery laws than 
  their slaves do. Your nobles are forbidden to 
  buy or sell slaves, except with the templars, 
  who will cease to sell slaves to cruel or 
  neglectful masters. It is not lawful for the slave-
  owner to lie with the slave. Each slave has a 
  week of every month to study with the 
  templars, and any honest slave who learns to 
  read and use the longbow may purchase 
  freedom and win citizenship. The children of 
  Kurnan slaves do not become property of the 
  master. Drylander elves and merchant houses 
  have painfully learned that enslaving a single 
  Kurnan citizen means declaring war on Oronis. 
  You will smile at a stranger’s child, and the 
  children of your friends and kin are like 
  treasure. There is no translation in your 
  language for the Raamin word Brat. You 
  glower at the Drylander that so much as looks 
  at a Kurnan child. You will do little of 
  significance without thinking how will this affect 
  my children, even if you are childless at the time. 
  While you despise the past and shy from your 
  elders as if they were ghosts, your mind is ever 
  on the future. 
  Your people tend to marry young. The 
  marriages in your community are 
  monogamous, a Drylander word which means 
  that no more than woman marries no more 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  than one man. You wonder that there would be 
  need for such a word! Yet you make allowances 
  for the wives of infertile husbands. For this 
  reason the men in your community speak 
  curtly to Drylander humans. The rumor among 
  you is that it is easier for a woman to conceive 
  a healthy child with a Drylander than with a 
  Kurnan, You only apply the word dally to the 
  actions of an indiscreet wife. If a Kurnan man 
  were to dally with a Drylander woman, he 
  would become a traitor in your eyes – not only 
  to his wife but to his clave and to the larger 
  community of Kurn, and you would be 
  understanding of the jealous wife that slew 
  such a husband. Your word dally does not even 
  apply to the woman who discreetly trysts a 
  single time with a Drylander. Though this act is 
  common, you have no word for this act, for 
  you have been taught not to notice it. 
  Your selective blindness passes for naiveté, but 
  your people are more indifferent than naive. In 
  your waxed-linen clave tents shared by forty 
  fellow clavers, it is politeness, not naiveté, to 
  pretend you know nothing of the impotence 
  of the clave-chief’s new husband, the gambling 
  losses of your uncle, the sixth consecutive 
  miscarriage of a claver that you dislike. 
  The fact that you have petitioned to serve as 
  Oronis’ spy shows you to be more curious and 
  meddlesome than the average Kurnan. You 
  have always noted and pieced together 
  unspoken details, and communicated 
  knowledge to other curious ones through hints 
  and innuendoes. Your slower, less curious 
  friends were left behind, because you were 
  loathe to repeat yourself, or to explain anything 
  straightforwardly. 
  As sharp as you are, you have begun to observe 
  danger in what you perceive as the dullness of 
  your fellow Kurnans. You have wished that 
  Oronis would take a greater share in the 
  government of the city, would set all things 
  aright. It is perhaps for this reason that you 
  have petitioned to serve him, to call his 
  attention to the problems that he has somehow 
  neglected.  
  You may think, for example, that the 
  Drylanders are taking advantage of your 
  people. Indeed, accustomed to plenty, Kurnans 
  make poor bargains, and lose their purses to 
  the elves at dice. Only the high walls and 
  remoteness of Kurn, and the machinations of 
  shrewd templars keep the naiveté of Kurn 
  from passing into a Drylander by-word. 
  Perhaps it bothers you that your fellow 
  Kurnans would rather sell the fruits of their 
  labors for a song, rather than let a single berry 
  rot on their shelves. Rather than admiring your 
  people’s thrift and respect for the gifts of the 
  land, you are angered that foreigners should 
  take advantage of them. 
  You may also have ideas of increasing the 
  wealth of Kurn; you have heard, for example, a 
  rumor of gold discovered in the stream near 
  Fort Protector. You have heard that the 
  mountain fungus that long ago produced the 
  rich blue dye that coveted by Drylanders, is not 
  in fact extinct, but thrives in some hidden 
  valley in the White Mountains. Whether true or 
  false, such rumors must be extinguished. 
  Kurn’s poverty in metal and other loot protects 
  it more than its high walls, its arrows, its magic. 
  Poverty is our greatest defense. 
  Our greatest weapon is knowledge. As the 
  templars taught you reading and archery as a 
  child, in this school you will be armed with 
  knowledge of the Drylanders. You will not 
  only learn the tongues of the Drylanders; you 
  will learn to speak to them, to deal with them, 
  to steer them like stupid beasts, to pass as one 
  of them. Armed with knowledge, you will go 
  forth with the blessing of Oronis, to enrich 
  your land and people with the Wisdom of  the 
  Drylanders. 
   
  Welcome to the school of spies. 
  -Oronis 
   
   
   
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  Wisdom of Strength
  As children of Kurn, we often heard stories 
  and fables that were composed for our 
  amusement and edification. As adults, we can 
  look back on these stories and see how they 
  were constructed to teach us what we call civic 
  virtues: restraint, patience, generosity, discipline, 
  wisdom. These are the virtues that make us 
  Kurnan.  
  Stories told to the children of the dry lands 
  reflect a very different set of virtues. As you 
  must pass for a Drylander, I want you to listen 
  to these stories with the mind of a child: 
  The Beginning 
  On the eve of  the age of  kings, the Dragon destroyed 
  the land, sea, and the sky. The sky was filled with 
  stars, until the dragon swallowed most of  them, leaving 
  only the brightest. The sun was a brilliant yellow fire in 
  the sky, until the Dragon burnt it to a red ember. The 
  sea was full of  water, until the Dragon sucked it dry 
  and breathed dust into the place of  the waters. The 
  land was full of  cities, trees, wells and grass, until the 
  Dragon began to gnaw, and it gnawed until almost 
  none were left. Gorged, Dragon lifted its head, and saw 
  that a few cities, fields, and wells remained in distant 
  pockets on the land. But as it reached out its claws to 
  devour the last city, a great slumber came over the beast. 
  Thanks to the power of  the seven Kings, it has slept for 
  many ages, and will sleep for ages more, if  you do not 
  wake it with your crying about your hungry belly. 
  Here in the last cities, the weak bow before the strong. 
  If  you do not like the way of  things in the city, then 
  leave. Walk away from these city walls, and see if  the 
  eaten lands are more to your liking. 
  The Elven Brothers 
  Two elven brothers returned from a hunt to find that 
  their tribe had packed up and left them stranded in the 
  desert.  
  The water hole had only six days of  water left, so the 
  elder, stronger brother gathered the water into skins, 
  and gave three days worth to his younger, weaker 
  brother. With the water, they sprinted after the tracks 
  of  their tribe. 
  They traveled for four days, never catching up to their 
  tribe. Each day, the younger, weaker brother drank his 
  fill of  water, while the older, stronger brother only 
  drank half  rations, looking with disapproval at his 
  brother’s gluttony. On the morning of  the fourth day, as 
  the younger brother drained the final drops from his 
  water skins, the older brother finally spoke: 
  “It may be days more until we catch up to our tribe, 
  brother. I have saved my water, though it cost me 
  discipline and sacrifice. You have drunk your water and 
  have no more. Now your gluttony will be your 
  downfall.”  
  “Not so, brother,” replied the younger, drawing his 
  dagger. “My water packs have been lighter the past 
  three days, and my body is refreshed from its fill of  
  water. You are tired from carrying your load, and weak 
  from deprivation. Now I am the stronger.” 
  Proverbs of the Dry Lands 
  “The beast snarls. The snake hisses. The stranger 
  smiles. Take warning!”  
  “Birth is painful. Life is short. Death is forever.”  
   “You cannot quench the hunger of  a fire, the thirst of  
  a desert, or the greed of  a templar.” 
  “The cut worm forgives the plow.” 
  “The locusts share no king, yet the desert trembles 
  before their bands.” 
  “The spider takes hold with her hands, and spins her 
  webs in kings’ palaces.” 
   “Better to be clever than to be thought clever.”  
  “Spit boldly in the slave’s face, but spit quietly into the 
  templar’s cup.”  
   “The elements reclaim us all, but better you than me.” 
  “An open wound attracts flies.”  
  Lessons from Strength 
  So what have you learned, my child? Can you 
  set aside Kurnan notions of fairness, to enter a 
  world where strength is the only virtue, where 
  might makes right, where laws are painted with 
  the sword rather than the brush? And having 
  done so, will you remember Kurnan notions of 
  right and wrong when you come home to us? 
  Settle this in your mind, sister, that you will do 
  what is necessary to survive in the dry lands. 
  But remember who you are. Go forth and 
  learn, but return and live. 
  -Spymaster Mereth 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  7 
  Wisdom of Betters
  A Word on the Common Speech 
  When you report to me, I will refine your skills 
  in the most widely spoken language in the 
  seven cities: the common speech. Before you 
  leave my instruction, you must learn fluency in 
  common and some appreciation of its 
  subtleties. Because of the importance of this 
  language to virtually all missions and all spies, I 
  will provide you with two cards on this subject.  
  This first card will prepare you for my course, 
  where you will read your first original text in 
  the common speech: the B’slav’sek codex, 
  which is titled Slave Tribes. My second card, 
  Common Wisdom, advances our discussion of 
  the common speech and what I call the 
  common culture of the six cities. My second 
  card will assume that you have read this first 
  card, and that you have thoroughly studied 
  B’slav’sek. One of your sister spies recently 
  obtained the B’slav’sek codex in Nibenay and 
  transported it to our school at great risk.  
  We cannot verify the identity of B’slav’sek’s 
  narrator, since we purchased the codex from a 
  dubious elven Drylander named B’slav’sek, but 
  the descriptions of slavery in the seven cities 
  are true to our experiences. To help you 
  understand B’slav’sek, I will outline the 
  Drylander structure of betters: 
  The Drylander Structure of 
  Betters 
  Templars 
  In terms of food, shelter, possessions, legal 
  rights, and personal power, templars live at 
  least as well as the freeborn artisans, and the 
  most powerful Templars far exceed the richest 
  of nobles. And yet the highest dry lands 
  templar is the object of contempt from 
  everyone that they know. Their sovereign uses 
  them as dispensable slaves; the nobles sneer at 
  them, slaves spit in their footsteps when their 
  backs are turned; and their fellow templars 
  despise them most of all. Templars are the butt 
  of the harshest jokes of the dry lands, and 
  other Drylanders submit to them only when 
  templars invoke the terrors of their office. Few 
  slaves or freemen are so unwise as to insult 
  templars to their faces, but sullen obedience, 
  averted eyes, and other not-so-subtle messages 
  convey their derision in clear tones. Templars 
  respond to this general contempt with 
  arrogance, aggression, gaudiness, and 
  pretentious dignity, but everyone knows that 
  templar privileges are unearned and fleeting. 
  Privileges such as literacy set templars apart as 
  despised.  
  A contact of a junior spy stationed near Urik 
  describes the templars as broken men. 
  Drylanders focus the inseparable powers of 
  reading and management into one hated, 
  contemptible office, and blame the templars 
  for the inevitable abuses of power. Without 
  templars, the dry lands cities fall into anarchy. 
  Tyr succeeded in ridding itself of slavery at 
  great cost, but failed to rid itself of the 
  Templarate.  
  Unskilled slaves 
  The lowest of the low, unskilled slaves perform 
  backbreaking, dirty tasks, every day of their 
  miserable lives. But do not be misled: many 
  who are called slaves in the Seven Cities are 
  not considered the lowest of the low. The child 
  of a Drylander slave is automatically the 
  property of the Drylander master, but in other 
  respects, some Drylands slaves are treated 
  much as Kurnan slaves: as weak-minded or 
  irresponsible involuntary workers; not as 
  disposable possessions.  
  In the Balican and Raamin fields and mines, of 
  course, it is clear who is free and who is slave. 
  But in Raam and Balic itself, slaves are 
  generally called Servants, and are considered 
  the Betters of a free unskilled laborer. Before 
  the death of Ablach-Re and the chaos that 
  followed, this was particularly true in Raam, 
  where the caste system superseded the issue of 
  slave or free. Raamin Viziers, artisans, laborers, 
  or untouchables may all be slave or free, since 
  no self-respecting Vizier could keep a personal 
  house servant who was of a lower caste. (This 
  has changed lately with the Raamin civil war; 
  many Raamin servants have been seized by 
  M’ke and other factions who treat them as 
  disposable instruments.)  
  The notion of Better slaves applies to Gulg 
  native slaves, some house slaves of the 
  Drylander nobility, and to Nibenese artisan-
  slaves and soldier-slaves. In my next card, 
  common Wisdom, I will focus on the culture of 
  the common slaves who are bought, sold, and 
  treated like cattle. The concubines and 
  personal slaves of templars may receive more 
  food, but the mistreatment they receive from 
  other slaves compensates for this. Lackeys that 
  are known to collaborate or inform the 
  templars, receive even crueler treatment. Slaves 
  are most harsh with those slaves who take on 
  qualities that remind them of templars, such as 
  reading, authority, magical ability — slaves hate 
  the very idea of their own rising above them. 
  Unskilled free day-laborers (Freemen) 
  Free day-laborers either are ex-slaves, or 
  refugees from the drying and destroyed towns 
  that dot the dry lands. They starve or steal 
  during slow seasons, and stand daily in places 
  designated for employment -- any sort of 
  employment. Nobles often require short-term 
  labor for planting, harvest, or other back-
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  breaking tasks, and pay a ceramic bit per day, 
  plus food and water, for sunrise-to-sunset 
  work. One bit is enough to feed a child for a 
  day, if it is not stolen, drunk or gambled away. 
  Day laborers are usually freemen, not freeborn, 
  and this is an important distinction for most 
  Drylanders. Female ex-slaves who bear 
  freeborn children often pay to have them 
  apprenticed to freeborn artisan families.  
  Artisan Slaves 
  In Balic, prestige lines between freeborn and 
  slave are blurred in service to the patricians, 
  but in Tyr, Urik, and Nibenay, there is a clear 
  line between slave and free artisans. Artisan 
  slaves include those who perform tasks that 
  require training, and that carry some degree of 
  prestige. Artisan slaves cling to these skills that 
  make them better than the unskilled slaves and 
  freemen, whom they frequently call 
  commoners.  
  Skill prestige arbitrarily varies from city to city. 
  For example, gladiators, soldiers, and 
  courtesans are all considered skilled artisans in 
  Urik, but not in Draj, where these are 
  considered common skills. In my next card, I 
  will discuss this complex and fascinating word 
  in detail. 
  Freeborn Artisans 
  Freeborn artisans jealously preserve their skill, 
  referring to these skills as a craft or mystery. 
  Unable to own land (only nobles own land in 
  the six cities), Freeborn artisans know that 
  preserving the secret of their craft is all that 
  separates them from slavery and destitution. 
  They despise artisan slaves, and prefer to take 
  apprentices from the freeborn. Freeborn 
  artisans are generally the least superstitious, 
  least hysterical, most moral, and most 
  judgmental of the Drylanders. They work for a 
  living, as their own masters. Only the most lazy 
  and corrupt among them leave to become 
  templars. As Kurnans you will find Freeborn 
  artisans the easiest to understand, since their 
  family craft operations superficially resemble 
  our own Clave industries. Artisans are the 
  source of Drylander morality. Slaves are bred 
  for profit, commoners and templars rut to 
  bring a moment of pleasure to a hateful 
  existence, nobles and Traders marry for 
  alliance; but generally only the freeborn 
  artisans marry for love, and remain faithfully 
  married. The most skilled Freeborn title 
  themselves master artisans, a title that 
  continues to grow in prestige. Psionics schools 
  tend to fall into the artisan caste, although 
  these organizations are not based on family; 
  master psions clearly borrow the term from 
  the artisans.  
  Sadly, in their dedication to their particular 
  mystery, Drylander artisans and mindbenders 
  shun skills that would give them power: as 
  reading, writing, and magic. Artisans do not 
  object to mindbenders in their midst, but are 
  incensed by the very idea of a master wizard. 
  Our spies in Tyr report that when Tyrian 
  counsel voted to proclaim preserver magic a 
  legal craft, artisans rioted and stoned reputed 
  wizards behind the council building. 
  Servants and Stewards 
  Although they are usually slaves by law, 
  Stewards are often considered part of the 
  noble family, and even more often, are literally 
  family. Since nobles only marry other nobles, 
  nobility itself would have fallen to inbreeding 
  ages ago if noblewomen did not frequently 
  bear children from their discreet matches with 
  the help. Stewards and house servants are 
  quick to see opportunities in relationships with 
  their owners, in spite of the frequently mortal 
  risk of offending noble spouses.  
  Raamins and Balicans, whose noble families 
  control whole districts of the city, often 
  downplay the distinction between Slave and 
  Free. Most citizens, from the nobles to the 
  slaves, are bound to a noble house with a 
  strong head of the family. This head (called the 
  vizier in Raam, or the patrician in Balic) is 
  obeyed without question — it is considered 
  more acceptable to kill the family head over a 
  disagreement than to express that 
  disagreement publicly!  
  Honored slaves such as stewards, or soldier-
  slaves that rise to officer ranks, have been 
  known to accumulate property and to put on 
  airs. Some Nibenese noble houses have left all 
  real power and practical decisions in the hands 
  of house stewards, and more than one 
  Nibenese noble has fallen ill to bad food after 
  disagreements with the help.  
  Traders 
  These inter-city travelers are prohibited 
  citizenship in all seven cities, but frequently 
  lease city buildings from nobles, and hold land 
  within a day’s travel of the city. Hold, not own, 
  since force is the only basis of legal ownership 
  in the lawless wild. Traders are foreigners to 
  every city and town. The eldest trade houses 
  have whole languages and societies of their 
  own. Dependent on the goodwill of the cities, 
  Traders are generally polite to all, and work to 
  preserve a reputation for good business, 
  without acquiring a fatal reputation for 
  softness.  
  As powerful outlanders, Traders do not fit 
  precisely into the system of betters; thus they 
  tend to title themselves according to their 
  fancy. Most heads of Trade houses title 
  themselves after the tradition of artisans: 
  Master Wavir or Master Rees. A few powerful 
  ones, such as Lord Shom, pretend to the titles 
  of nobles. Their assumption of noble titling is 
  generally considered pretentious, but no one 
  suggests this to Lord Shom’s face. By nature of 
  their business, Traders must work closely with 
  artisans, templars, and nobles, so they often 
  learn the language of each in order to gain 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  9 
  social advantage. Nobles and traders frequently 
  exchange loans, and have been known to 
  occasionally intermarry for the sake of alliance 
  — nobles consider such alliances beneath 
  them, but not so much that a saving Trade 
  house alliance would not be worth 
  Undermarrying a third or fourth child. Trade 
  houses pay dearly for such prestigious alliances, 
  typically covenanting not to purchase goods 
  from rival noble houses.  
  Nobles 
  Like Kurnan nobles, Drylander nobles live 
  from the labors of others on their own lands. 
  In most of the seven cities, these nobles are 
  the only property- owners; there are no small 
  farms, and no other large industries to 
  compete with them. Nobles run the industries 
  that range from farming, to the mining of 
  Balican silver and lead, to the quarries and 
  brickyards in Urik. Generally, if a large 
  industry is within a day’s travel from the city, 
  nobles or templars probably own it; if farther 
  away, then it is owned by a king, a trade house, 
  or a tribe. 
  Nobles flatter themselves with traditions of 
  names, titles, and descent. Noble titling 
  systems vary from city to city, so few freemen 
  or slaves grasp which precise titles and names a 
  given addresser should call a given noble in a 
  given situation.  Again, common speech comes 
  to your rescue. Since nobles rarely speak 
  directly to slaves or freemen, and since their 
  Stewards will find ways of making you feel 
  foolish even if you got the names and titles 
  right, simply referring to a noble as lord should 
  suffice. In the unlikely event that a noble talks 
  to you directly, and wants you to reply to her, 
  great one should do the trick.  
  Like our own stolid nobles, Drylander nobles 
  almost never look beyond their own interests 
  and land. They are prohibited from traveling 
  (the kings probably fear they would make inter-
  city allegiances that would compromise the 
  power of the templars and crown). For 
  example, some trade houses such as Vordon 
  and Shom seem to have originated as noble 
  houses whose lands were seized as they made 
  foreign allegiances. 
  Those noble houses that have survived ages of 
  templar intrigue and jealousy, can be said to 
  both profit and suffer from a narrow, inbred 
  cunning. Within their own city-states, they 
  outwit the very templars, and yet all of their 
  wisdom dries out at the edges of their city’s 
  verdant belt. Eight years ago, as Urikite forces 
  marched on their city, Tyrian nobles squabbled 
  and bickered over their obligations to support 
  the war, as if oblivious to the threat of 
  Hamanu’s armies to their own lands and 
  persons! The sheer narrowness of the noble 
  mind is best summed up by the words of a 
  young Nibenese noble who had broken a edict 
  of his king, slaying a peer over some 
  hotheaded love story. His servant (one of our 
  spies) attempted to persuade him to flee to 
  Raam. Facing penalty of death if he remained 
  in his city, this noble retorted: there is no world 
  outside the Nibenese lands. 
  You probably smile at that late young noble’s 
  naiveté. Save such smiles until you return 
  safely. You are going into a land of madness, 
  where absurdity and irony are as common as 
  dust and sunshine. I bless you that you may 
  master their madness, and return to us as the 
  sane sister that we knew. 
  -Spymaster Mereth 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  10 
  Common Wisdom
  Foreward 
  Since my discussion builds upon the matter 
  and manner of the B’slav’sek codex, I strongly 
  recommend that you peruse this document 
  before reading further. Certainly my discussion 
  will confuse you if you have not achieved a 
  rudimentary grasp of common. No language, 
  indeed, no skill, even your knowledge of the 
  Way, is as critical to your mission as a mastery 
  of the common speech. 
  Reading and Writing in the 
  Drylands. 
  Your sisters teach you to read common 
  because reading helps you to acquire fluency, 
  but in the field, you must obviously hide your 
  reading skill! Study the B’slav’sek and Wanderer 
  codices. These texts represent a rare 
  opportunity to study native use of common, 
  before you go out into the field, where you 
  must pass for a native.  
  Once in the field, you will have few 
  opportunities to read common. As you know, 
  in the dry lands, only templars and nobles can 
  read without risking the legal penalty of death. 
  The few Drylanders that do read and create 
  texts do not actually use paint and brushes, but 
  use sharpened sticks and feathers to scribble 
  their funny letters in dyes called ink. 
  Drylanders call this process writing. We will 
  not train you to paint in common — this skill 
  would not benefit you. The common language 
  is rarely painted at all – or written, as they 
  would say, since templars and nobles usually 
  write in their own ancient city or house scripts.  
  Like the dwarven script that I use to paint the 
  common words on this card, most Drylander 
  scripts languages use sound-characters called 
  Letters. Tyrian and Balican, and most of 
  Raamin family scripts also employ dwarven 
  letters. (Tyrian and Balican nobles of course 
  claim this script-system as their own, calling it 
  the alphabet). Drylander elves have lost 
  knowledge of the ancient elven characters that 
  remain engraved in the old monuments 
  surrounding Kurn; when they write they tend 
  to use dwarven letters. Nibenay and Urik have 
  unique systems of Letters, and the two oldest 
  Raamin noble houses adapt the Nibenese 
  script for their own house dialects. Draj uses a 
  word-glyph system, but none of their symbols 
  resemble the Kurnan and Eldaarish glyphs. 
  The Urikite letters are fastest for the scribe — 
  if the scribe does not mind having to write 
  exclusively in soft clay with a wedged stick. The 
  Nibenese letters and Drajan word-glyphs, like 
  our own, are a labor of art — elaborate, time-
  consuming, and impractical for adapting for 
  new languages. The dwarven letters seem the 
  logical choice to write common, in the rare 
  cases when this is desired. Such is the case with 
  the B’slav’sek and Wanderer codices, which 
  seem to be intended for the largest possible 
  range of readers. Note that this is an unusual 
  purpose, since most Drylander documents are 
  usually intended for the smallest possible range 
  of readers! 
  Naturally, Drylanders have developed a few 
  script-like systems that seem designed to avoid 
  the legal dangers of writing. Traders employ 
  symbols somewhat like our own figures, 
  allowing templars to formally pretend that 
  Traders’ accounting texts are not writing. 
  Nibenay has a popularly known dance-script 
  that could be used for other purposes; 
  templars allow the dance-figures when 
  engraved in stone, but treat them as writing if 
  they are placed onto paper. Desperate to 
  conceal their craft, Drylander wizards employ a 
  hodge-podge of concealable spell-scripting 
  systems that include elaborate patterns of 
  beads and weaving.  
  The Common Speech 
  After reading the B’slav’sek codex, your mind is 
  doubtlessly caught up in the image of a society 
  that treats its slaves more cruelly than we 
  would treat our cattle. This image is generally 
  accurate; indeed the narrator chooses rather 
  mild examples, given the reality of Drylander 
  slavery. But look beyond the codex matter, to 
  the codex language itself. Does it not seem odd 
  that six distant and isolated cities would share a 
  convenient language? In our own tongue, this 
  Drylander word common translates into three 
  unrelated terms: shared, frequently encountered, and 
  worthy of  contempt. Usually, when a Drylander 
  uses the word common, she means all three of 
  these meanings at once. What does this mean? 
  First, common is shared by six cities and most 
  of the villages and nomads in that live 
  between; so second, the language is frequently 
  encountered; Third, common is despised because it 
  is shared and frequent. Most non-slaves will 
  speak another, native language among their kin, 
  and reserve common speech for strangers. 
  Many Drylander nobles do not speak common 
  at all, or at least pretend not to.  
  You will soon be exposed to a second original 
  text in the common speech: the Wanderer 
  codex. Wanderer’s authenticity is confirmed 
  since I debriefed its author myself when he 
  visited Kurn, but the accuracy of Wanderer’s 
  speculations are often in question.  
  Origins of the Common Speech 
  My predecessor theorized that common was 
  developed by merchant houses, but the idea is 
  absurd. The oldest merchant houses have their 
  own languages; and the theory is belied by the 
  richness and flexibility of common speech. 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  Most importantly, the dune traders make it a 
  matter of pride to master the languages of the 
  people that they encounter -- it would be 
  utterly against the character and interests of 
  the merchant houses to create and share a 
  language that would make it easier for city-
  states to communicate with each other! 
  Merchant houses make their living by serving 
  as the bridge between isolated cultures. 
  Breaking that isolation is the very last thing 
  that a merchant house would want to do. 
  Wanderer argues that the common speech is 
  inherent in all sentient beings because it 
  descends from the language of halflings. 
  Wanderer’s theory does not mesh with the fact 
  that the common speech is only common to 
  the vicinity of the Seven cities. Furthermore, 
  the theory ignores Wanderer’s own claim that 
  all humanoids descend from Halflings! If all 
  peoples and cultures descend from the 
  “Rhulisti” Halflings, then all humanoid 
  languages are then descended from the original 
  Rhulisti language, so the Wanderer’s 
  explanation does not really tell us anything 
  distinctive about the Common speech.   
  I care less how the common speech originated, 
  than how it spread and came to be shared by 
  so many very different human and humanoid 
  societies. Clearly the operating factor here is 
  the inter-city slave trade -- huge groups of 
  slaves traded from one city to the next. These 
  slaves have to communicate with local templars 
  and overseers, and also with other slaves who 
  come from various city-states. This situation 
  requires a shared language -- if the common 
  speech had not existed previously, then a 
  language would have developed to fill this 
  need! 
  The Common speech is rarely spoken in Gulg, 
  for a simple reason: by decree of the Oba. The 
  B’slav’sek codex describes the exceptional 
  mistreatment of non-Gulg slaves in Gulg. 
  Slaves sold to Gulg from other cities are given 
  a new, Gulg name, and are severely punished 
  for speaking any other language. This Gulg-
  only policy has made Gulg the most isolated of 
  the seven cities, and the city where outsiders 
  feel the least comfortable. Master spies often 
  refer to the Six Cities, meaning the seven minus 
  Gulg, which is exceptional in many ways. 
  In contrast to Gulg, Raam is the city most 
  open to the common tongue; only a few 
  Raamin nobles speak other tongues, and these 
  tongues are not called Raamin, but specific to a 
  noble family. In other cities, nobles and 
  artisans (both slave and free) speak the 
  language associated with the city: Tyrian, 
  Balican, Urikite, Draji, Gulg, or Nibenese. 
  Most Drylander nobles and artisans speak 
  common as well, depending on whether or not 
  it is convenient to speak to a given stranger. 
  Your mastery over multiple languages will 
  influence where we can place you. 
  Breeding Anarchy 
  To avoid the bitter danger of slave revolts, 
  nobles and templars tend to sell off the most 
  rebellious slaves before trouble starts. Slave 
  traders always make sure to separate families 
  and friends as soon as possible, in order to 
  isolate and conquer every spark of sentience. 
  There are slaves living who have worked in six 
  cities at one time or another. I do not say all 
  seven, since the Oba (who technically owns all 
  slaves in Gulg), tends to kill troublemaking 
  outsiders, and sells only native trouble makers 
  to other cities (a fate the native slaves regard 
  worse than death). In the short term, these 
  practices quell rebellion. The isolated slaves are 
  stripped of influence over others, and denied 
  the security that one needs to assert one’s 
  rights. Yet I will show you that over time, the 
  unplanned effects of this slave trade have set 
  the stage for bloody revolts and anarchy. 
  Templars are bound to their king; nobles to 
  their lands and families; artisans to their cities 
  and craft; traders to their clans; all are bound 
  by local laws, long-standing traditions, tight-
  knit cultures, and most importantly by family 
  bonds. But slaves in the Six Cities share a 
  versatile language and a compelling culture that 
  transcends cities, government, and family. 
  Slaves are discouraged from forming natural 
  familial bonds. Since the master of a woman 
  that gives birth owns the child, and since the 
  master of the father gets nothing, nobles often 
  punish male slaves for spending strength, but 
  encourage promiscuity among females, 
  particularly rewarding those who attract strong 
  slaves of other nobles. While childbirth is 
  generally encouraged and accommodated by 
  most masters, maternal behaviors are 
  discouraged, and paternal behaviors are strictly 
  prohibited. Newly delivered mothers return 
  without nursing, and elderly slaves take on 
  feeding and caring for the young, until the 
  babies are old enough to sell to another noble 
  house. One sign that common speech is a 
  tongue of slaves is that their only words for 
  fatherhood and motherhood are tasks: sired 
  and mothered. Slaves often speak of their 
  mothers as the one who mothered me. 
  Of fathers, slaves speak little save in jest. 
  Nobles sell the paternity of their gladiator-
  slaves as a commodity to other slave owners. 
  For some reason, what the Drylanders call stud 
  duty carries twisted sort of prestige, since the 
  studs are selected for their strength, endurance, 
  and attractiveness. Only mul and dwarven 
  slaves resent the stud title. long-living dwarves 
  maintain some of their own culture 
  throughout the slavery, and the word stud is 
  too close to the dwarven insult mulfather. 
  furthermore, the women they must mate with 
  are usually drugged and unwilling, especially 
  the humans women who will usually die in 
  childbirth bearing the mul offspring. Of 
  course, anyone calling a mul a stud has either a 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  12 
  cruel sarcastic wit, or an astonishing ignorance 
  of sex. Muls do not typically enjoy being 
  reminded of their sterility. 
  Even when freed, former slaves tend to hold 
  on to concepts and traditions of their slave 
  upbringing, and even influence their freeborn 
  children: Freeman and freeborn marriages and 
  relationships tend to be temporary, and free 
  fathers often abandon and neglect their 
  children. To make matters worse, slaves have 
  little means to learn of concepts such as 
  principle or law.  
  Drylander artisans, templars, and nobles alike 
  must deal day-to-day with more-or-less 
  consistent rules of behavior. Obedience to 
  these laws and rules usually means continued 
  freedom. Slaves on the other hand face an 
  ever-fickle set of overseers, whose mandates 
  frequently contradict each other. One scenario 
  you will often see: an angry overseer shouts a 
  question into a slave’s face. Slaves who try to 
  answer (however submissively) are punished 
  for talking back. Slaves who hold their silence 
  are punished for playing dumb.  
  With their lives filled with these daily double 
  binds, the cleverest slaves learn to choose their 
  actions in terms of which action will get them 
  beaten least severely. And most slaves rarely 
  take the luxury of choice at all, but react to the 
  most powerful drive in their being. Overseers 
  are employed to ensure that this most powerful 
  drive remains: fear of the lash. When the lash 
  fails to inspire the most striking impulse, things 
  fall apart. 
  Without bonds of family, city, or society, slaves 
  honor only strength, power and brutality, but 
  they also feel a powerful need for family, but 
  they fail to comprehend what it is that they 
  lack, other than freedom. Their compelling, 
  shared, common culture can easily be woven 
  into the illusion of brotherhood. Few leaders 
  emerge from the ranks of slaves, but the voice 
  of a charismatic leader can whip slave and 
  freeman alike into a fearless rage. Once roused, 
  slaves make a powerful destructive force, but 
  they possess none of the skills to rebuild. 
  Once their common enemy is vanquished, 
  their unity and brotherhood falls apart like 
  glass, and they begin to oppress each other as 
  harshly as they were ever oppressed. As you 
  read B’slav’sek’s descriptions of the Drylander 
  slave tribes, observe the simple repeated pattern: 
  Oppression. Hope. Struggle. Freedom. Brotherhood. 
  Anarchy. Return to Oppression. 
  Recently, the slave revolt chaos has spread even 
  to the cities, beginning with Tyr. Kalak’s folly 
  was to seize all of the slaves of the nobles, and 
  pool them in a single, long-term project. As 
  templars were executed for falling behind in 
  their deadlines, their successors resorted to 
  more and more desperate means to increase 
  their labor pool. Slave traders slid into Tyr like 
  a storm; freeborn artisans and foreigners were 
  enslaved without cause; the wells of the city 
  ran dry quenching the thirst of slaves — and 
  still the labor pool was too small for Kalak’s 
  ziggurat. Mercenaries and soldiers were 
  employed to capture free villages and slave 
  tribes from the neighboring desert. Treasury 
  funds evaporated. Templars, mercenaries, and 
  soldiers were strained to the limits just 
  containing slave revolts! Distribution of food 
  and water became unwieldy. Settling disputes 
  among the slaves was out of the question; the 
  overseers were few and terrified. As 
  Drylanders often do, templars cloaked their 
  own terror in cruelty. To fill the void, gangs 
  and leaders formed among the slaves, for 
  distributing resources and space, and for 
  resolving quarrels. When Kalak was slain, and 
  the templars suddenly lost their spells, there 
  was simply no possibility of sending the slaves 
  back to their masters! Revolted slave bands had 
  already seized whole portions of the city, and 
  the decimated and quarreling templars, nobles, 
  and guards were in no position to face a united 
  mass that outnumbered them twenty to one. If 
  Tythian had not freed the slaves in that 
  moment, that day, the golden walls of Tyr 
  might have dissolved in blood. 
  While power seems to have shifted 
  permanently into the hands of Tyrian ex-
  slaves, they have failed to use it to raise 
  themselves from poverty or desperation. The 
  few Tyrian successes can be attributed to the 
  unique situation in Tyr where freeborn artisans 
  were enslaved in mass, bringing a degree of 
  consciousness and discipline to the raging 
  slave-born mob. 
  Unbound to city, law, or language, slaves 
  identify more closely with a slave from another 
  city, than a noble would identify with a fellow 
  noble from the same city. Slaves tend to expect 
  the same treatment that another slave receives. 
  If one slave eats, other slaves salivate. If one 
  slave gets flogged, others wince or falter at 
  every stroke of the lash. If one slave escapes 
  to the desert, others, still in chains, either 
  dream of freedom, or sit up contemplating the 
  miseries of dying in the wastes. Every slave in 
  the six cities knows another slave who at one 
  time was in Tyr; and it follows, to the mind of 
  a slave, that what happens in Tyr, could happen 
  in Balic. Many interpreted the unexplained 
  failing of the Messenger comet as a long-
  awaited sign to the sky-watching, superstitious 
  Drylanders. Since the recent deaths of local 
  monarchs, the entire region is on the verge of 
  erupting in bloody slave revolts. 
  Common Insults and Praises 
  Some of the first targets of angry slaves seem 
  to be the most harmless of wizards. The slaves 
  blame magic for their misery, and do not fear 
  the quiet independent preservers as they fear 
  the agents of the nobles and the kings. The 
  popular sayings among the slaves are filled with 
  contempt towards the arts of magic and even 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  of reading, and these sayings have spread to 
  the Freemen and even to the Freeborn: 
  Weak-eyed is a reference to reading, since 
  mages and others who read secretly use candles 
  at night, ruining their eyes. Stained fingers is a 
  reference to writing. Remember that 
  Drylanders do not paint, but write, that is, they 
  scribble with a sharpened stick or feather-tip (a 
  pen), in dyes which Drylanders call ink. 
  Drylander templars often use stained fingers to 
  accuse someone of writing or wizardry — 
  both punishable by death. Weak-eyed and 
  fingerstain are not only insults, but epithets 
  that if taken seriously, could result in your 
  being executed by the templars, or lynched by a 
  rabble. If you are called a weak-eyed firefly, or 
  fingerstain, be willing to fight for your good 
  name, or die for your bad name. 
  Better humored, but still a provocation to 
  fight, are these gladiator’s taunts, which use 
  literacy as signs of laughable, pitiful weakness: 
  When comparing scars: that’s not a wound; 
  that’s a paper cut! 
  To an opponent that scratches you in combat: 
  are you trying to write a love-note on my 
  cloak? 
  To intimidate an opponent with a bigger spear 
  than yours: that big pen of yours just signed 
  your death warrant. 
  Distance yourself from anyone who uses 
  reading-insults against templars! Always ready 
  to brutally protect their battered dignity, 
  templars are especially sensitive to reading 
  insults, since their reading sets them apart as 
  despised. 
  Slaves are even harsher with other slaves who 
  take on qualities that remind them of templars. 
  As the B’slav’sek codex shows, ex-slaves cannot 
  abide the peace-time leaders, counselors, or 
  would-be teachers or lawmakers. Slaves and ex-
  slaves despise words, which remind them of 
  templars; they prefer actions; they hate the one 
  that instructs them more than the one who 
  flogs them. Hence the slave proverb, famous in 
  the slave tribes: one law is oppression. two laws 
  make tyranny. three laws make slavery. (the 
  elves add a fourth phrase to the proverb: four 
  laws make marriage.)  
  The common speech is filled with expressions 
  of contempt for learning and wisdom. I am 
  going to teach you a lesson does not offer 
  actual instruction; but rather threatens physical 
  assault! We are unable to come to an 
  agreement of what don’t get smart with me 
  means, but if someone says it to you, then be 
  very careful what you say to them from then 
  on — any word you say risks offending your 
  new enemy’s sense of pride. 
  If reading is associated with weakness and 
  distrust, magic is distrusted with a fanatical 
  terror. One who loses in a contest, may save 
  face by accusing her rival of using magic to 
  best her: you glow!, your eyes still shine, was 
  that thunder? . . . among friends these 
  expressions of the loser may be considered a 
  strong jest, but among strangers, these 
  expressions may give deadly insult. Take care 
  not to translate Kurnan compliments into 
  common terms! Some of our expressions 
  translate into backhanded insults, such as you 
  have a charming smile or isn’t this an 
  enchanting song? 
  While harmless suggestions of magic turn 
  virulent in the common slang, some of the 
  most severe insults that we might imagine, are 
  used as casual greetings, or even to terms of 
  affection. Slaves, freemen, and even some 
  freeborn use terms like dirt rag, scum, dust 
  bag, tumbleweed freely on their fellows. 
  Templars address this semi-derogatory slang 
  terms to equal or lesser-rank templars, and to 
  slaves and free alike, but never to those that 
  they consider to be powerful enough to injure 
  them politically: Nobles, greater templars, and 
  master artisans and traders. All these, the 
  templars call great one, strong one, or the 
  increasingly popular Nibenese term boss. 
  Common Knowledge and the 
  Seven Cities 
  As one would expect, the names and slang 
  expressions of most Drylander languages 
  eventually make their way into common 
  speech, as do needed crafts and concepts. 
  Other tongues have their slight advantages. But 
  with few exceptions, common offers the fullest 
  vocabulary for any given task. The exceptions 
  are remote: Vordon’s merchant’s script seems 
  the best for maintaining records, Drajan for 
  discussing star-study and navigation, the Forest 
  Ridge halfling dialect for herbology and 
  medicine, Urikite for large-scale military 
  strategy, and arguably Kreen for physical 
  maneuvering in battle. For all other tasks, those 
  who know common tend to switch into it, or 
  to borrow its words, in order to describe a 
  given task. You will notice that your sister 
  teachers often do the same thing from our own 
  Kurnan Speech into Common — there is often 
  no clearer means of expressing actions and 
  directions.  
  Even when it comes to these topics where 
  other languages excel, common competes by 
  absorbing new and needed words. For 
  example, the common word tactic obviously 
  derive from Kreen terms such as tak-tik or 
  chak-tik., which relate to the hunter’s mental 
  edge over the prey. The simple structure of the 
  slave language fosters adaptation and 
  innovation. Ironically, the language of the 
  lowest adapts to encompass the riches of 
  Drylander wisdom.  
  Even more ironically, slaves are the source of 
  most common knowledge in the dry lands. 
  Elves, traders, and slaves are the only regular 
  inter-city travelers. Drylander elves are 
  notoriously un-trusted; the Traders are closed-
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  lipped and deceptive about their travels, since 
  regarding knowledge of different places and 
  cultures is their only commodity. Thus, most 
  of the common knowledge that the seven 
  cities have of each other, comes from the 
  slaves exchange. 
  Wise to this, templars frequently purchase 
  slaves fresh from other cities, interrogate them 
  about news from their previous city, and resell 
  them to the local nobles. I attribute part of 
  Gulg’s survival, in the face of much larger city-
  states, to the fact that they take many slaves in, 
  but sell only rebellious Gulgs to other cities. 
  Thus Gulg’s defense deficiencies remain 
  unknown. The elements help the unfortunate 
  templars who try to interrogate native Gulgs 
  for knowledge of that city’s defenses! Gulg is a 
  poor language for conveying numbers, and this 
  facet remains undeveloped since they have no 
  land-owning nobles, and all accounting is done 
  by Gulg templars. 
  Although everyone else in the city must speak 
  the Gulg tongue, Our double Templar in Gulg, 
  reports that the templars there templars 
  secretly use common speech for 
  administration, numbers, and accounting, using 
  dwarven letters.  
  A Word About Purpose 
  I must reiterate: no skill is as critical to your 
  mission as the common speech. If you are 
  swift with tongues, you have already inferred 
  from my Wisdom of  Betters card that the word 
  mastery derives from the artisan’s mystery. You 
  may notice that your eldest sisters all bear the 
  title of master Spies. You should now 
  understand what this title means. Your elder 
  sisters use many such words with you, 
  sometimes to train you in common speech, and 
  sometimes since these words simply fit better 
  than any of our own. When you return from 
  the dry lands, you will share many such words 
  with your sister spies, and find yourselves 
  unable to fully express yourselves with your 
  fellow Kurnans. 
  The words and ideas of the Drylanders can 
  become intoxicating. In spite of their madness, 
  the Drylanders have wisdom for us to exploit, 
  otherwise we would not bother to spy them 
  out. In the last three ages, most of the rapid 
  improvements in our communications, 
  defenses, agriculture, medicine and trade derive 
  from the Drylander wisdom gathered by your 
  sister spies. Our profit from the wisdom of the 
  Drylanders is no shame to Kurn — there are 
  more Drylanders than Kurnans, so it follows 
  that the Drylanders develop a greater number 
  of striking ideas. After learning a little 
  knowledge, many junior spies arrive at what 
  they think is a tremendous realization. Let me 
  save you the embarrassment of blurting yours 
  out in a report to Oronis:  
  Any fool can see that the dry lands are in a 
  state of transition. Seventeen Ages of dull 
  steady slumber have suddenly given way to 
  violent and unpredictable convulsion. But let 
  us not mistake threat for opportunity.  
  Certainly the butcher-kings of the south were 
  needlessly oppressive, wasteful, and cruel. 
  Certainly their templars are corrupt, harsh, and 
  in every way despicable. Certainly our natural 
  sympathies are drawn to the heroes that 
  oppose these kings: preserving wizards who 
  defy prejudice and ignorance, slaves with the 
  honey of freedom on their tongues, orphans 
  with a hope of a better world. We would not 
  be Kurnans if we did not sympathize. But let 
  us not risk ourselves or our missions for the 
  sake of sympathy. Do not involve yourselves in 
  Drylander politics. You will find that there are 
  worse things than to be subject to tyranny (a 
  curious new common word that compares all 
  bad rulers to the late king of Tyr). Anarchy is 
  worse than tyranny — ask any Raamin, these 
  days. Our well-intentioned meddling would 
  worsen the matter. 
  As Kurnans, we must remember where our 
  duties lie. Spying for Kurn means that we must 
  pass up worthy Drylander causes. If you 
  cannot single-mindedly embrace your Kurnan 
  duty, then you do not have the heart to spy. If 
  pity and sympathy move you to help the 
  Drylanders, rather than to protect your own 
  land, now is the time to resign your 
  commission. As your training progresses, you 
  will know too much for your sisters to let you 
  leave Kurnan lands, except as a loyal, single-
  minded spy. 
  As a spy, it is unavoidable that you should 
  begin to see the world as a Drylander sees it. 
  This is why no missions last over five years, 
  and why so few spies return to become senior, 
  veteran, and master spies. Do not trust the 
  sympathies that you accumulate in your role. 
  You are forbidden, unless specifically directed 
  otherwise, to associate yourselves with Veiled 
  Alliances, or other secretive organizations. The 
  reasons for this prohibition: 
  First, our agents in these organizations have 
  plumbed the depths of Alliance secrets, and 
  found that Veil mystique shrouds more 
  ignorance than wisdom.  
  Second, such an affiliation puts an agent in 
  unnecessary jeopardy, as the Veil assigns much 
  more deadly tasks than we ever do, and their 
  ranks are often penetrated by the local 
  templars.  
  Third, our sad experience shows that 
  involvement in such organizations 
  compromises a spy’s commitment and 
  discretion. Working so closely, you come to 
  depend on your fellow conspirators, and to 
  trust them more than is ever appropriate. 
  However we might train you, Kurnans are only 
  capable of so much guile, and deceiving your 
  fellow conspirators is more than you should 
  expect of yourselves.  
  
   
   
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  Fourth, your revealing your origins to trusted 
  Drylanders would burden one of your sisters 
  with the heavy task of silencing you and your 
  too-beloved and too-knowledgeable 
  companions. Do not impose this hateful duty 
  upon your sisters. I have had this cruel 
  assignment myself. Believe me, silence duty 
  destroys your sister’s soul, turns a bright-eyed 
  sister into an embittered old bitch like myself.  
  Do not harshly judge your elder sisters for this 
  policy. The relative safety of your missions is 
  due to our vigilance.  
  The prohibition against infiltrating Drylander 
  Templarates comes for a much simpler reason. 
  The alienation and unending suspicion among 
  the Drylander templars would ideally suit one 
  of our agents, if it were not for the detail of 
  the medallion connects the templar’s mind to 
  the Sorceror-King . . . 
  A word before we finish: calm your mind. The 
  wisdom in my card may have angered you. Be 
  still and remember the purpose of your 
  training: to pass as a Drylander and live. 
  -Spymaster Mereth 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  Dwarven Wisdom
  Dwarves and Kurn 
  Of all the drylanders, the dwarves seem like 
  the easiest to understand, because they are little 
  different from the Dwarves who live among us 
  in the Kurnan lands. As we all know, dwarves 
  are a closed and guarded people. To call them 
  workers would be a laughable understatement; 
  they are a driven people. From our cradles we 
  have heard tales of the banshees, and of the 
  dwarven focus; from a distance we admire 
  dwarven dedication to a purpose, but our 
  admiration of dwarven seriousness is mingled 
  with pity and even fear. Most of us have 
  enjoyed the camaraderie of a dwarven co-
  worker or fellow-at-arms, but few of us have 
  been into their homes, or know the particulars 
  of their personal lives. Dwarves manage the 
  kip-herds, and much of the leather and fine 
  stone work in Kurn; and if we take trouble to 
  greet them in our shops and streets, we take 
  more trouble to leave them alone. There is 
  much that we do not know about a people that 
  has lived side-by-side with us for nineteen 
  Ages. 
  Unlike the elves and aaracokra who judge their 
  identity by their tribes, and the humans that 
  judge it by their city, Dwarves tend to consider 
  themselves dwarven above all. Many dwarves 
  in the Drylands feign allegiance to a lord or 
  king or city, but among their own kind they 
  hold these allegiances lightly. Kurnan Dwarves 
  will frequently remind us, as a token of good 
  will, that nineteen King’s ages ago, our King 
  and city (whose ancient and obsolete names 
  the Dwarves insist on remembering) was the 
  first human city-state to welcome the Dwarves. 
  While other cities welcome dwarves to 
  entrapment and enslavement, Dwarves are free 
  in Kurn to live according to their traditions. 
  Yet for all their gratitude, they consider 
  themselves not Kurnans but Dwarves. 
  Dwarves do not forget, they tell us. Kurnans tend 
  to respond that when it comes to day-to-day 
  matters, dwarves do not have any better 
  memories than we do. One might even call 
  them absent-minded about certain details. Their 
  Kurnan friends are inclined to tell them to forget 
  about the past, and to regard instead the future, which 
  to the dwarves is a terrible affront — to be 
  told by a human where to place their focus. 
  One dwarven proverb that they do not share 
  with us translates roughly that the future is bound 
  up in the past. Since today’s dwarf-child will live 
  to see your great grandchildren grow old, 
  dwarves do tend to live with one foot in the 
  past. Their leaders hone this trait into ritual, 
  poring over the writings, stories, and opinions 
  of their ancestors. Dwarves remember a favor 
  rendered, even when those that rendered the 
  favor have passed into the Grey. Most 
  importantly, they do not forget who they are. 
  Dwarven Writings 
  In Kurn, all dwarves are literate in the Kurnan 
  language as well as in their own curious script. 
  Dwarven lore is painted in single-color onto 
  long strips of linen cloth, which is bound in 
  rolls which dwarves call scrolls. Even in the 
  drylands, where reading is forbidden by death, 
  the leaders of the dwarven communities 
  continue their tedious study of history. To add 
  to the jeopardy, dwarven ancestral writings may 
  never be burnt or discarded! Hence many 
  dwarves become masters of hiding places, 
  locks and traps. Never discuss this knowledge 
  of the dwarven writing with dwarves; non-
  dwarves are not supposed to know about such 
  things. 
  Although the written characters are identical to 
  those used in Tyr, Balic, Raam, and Gulg, (the 
  dwarves say that these cities stole writing from 
  them), dwarves keep their documents secret 
  from the eyes of all non-dwarves. Dwarven 
  elders, known as the urhomous, meet 
  (periodically and secretly) with friends and 
  relatives to argue out and interpret the writings 
  of the dead, and to reconcile contradictory 
  stories. Dwarven communities are ruled by 
  their elders, and the elders consider themselves 
  ruled by their oroscrit — their word for those 
  ancient writings that they consider to have 
  canonical or privileged status. That the 
  canonized oroscrit themselves do not agree 
  with each other in significant points does not 
  seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the elders, 
  who frequently put a great deal of effort to 
  reconcile contradictory rules or histories in the 
  oroscrit. To be fair, dwarven scrolls contain 
  more than tedious histories; some include 
  practical applications of the Way. Dwarven 
  focus gives many an advantage in the Way, and 
  many of us have come to believe that their 
  written tradition is an important part of their 
  focus, and also enhances their powers of the 
  Way. 
  My theory is not without detractors. Our own 
  Prodigy (no doubt influenced by her friends of 
  the Raamin Tarandan academy) suggests the 
  opposing theory that writing weakens the mind 
  and dulls memory and the psionic senses. With 
  due respect to Oronis’ talented consort, 
  Tarandan opinion is merely one tradition of 
  the Way, albeit the most known and respected 
  tradition. Like all traditions, Tarandan psionics 
  has strengths and weaknesses. Dwarven 
  writings on psionics suggest that unburdening 
  one’s mind onto paper frees the mind for other 
  pursuits, such as the Way. 
  Other than these instructions in the Way, and a 
  few community by-laws, dwarves do not use 
  their documents for anything particularly 
  useful. Most of their writing is full of histories, 
  unforgotten grudges, and the Prophecies, that 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  is, expectations of their ancestors. Yet discovered 
  dwarven writings prove useful to our 
  understanding of their culture, and help us 
  understand dwarves better as we fulfill our 
  roles as neighbors, templars, or spies. 
  Dwarven Types 
  Dwarven philosophical writings describe four 
  types of dwarves, and these classifications have 
  helped our spies to work with dwarves subtly 
  and effectively: proud , compromised, corrupt, 
  and broken. 
  The Proud 
  Roughly half of the dwarves of the dry lands 
  keep all of the traditions, and limit their 
  contact with humans. Their lives focus on an 
  exclusively dwarven community such as 
  Hasken or Kled. Less rigorously proud 
  communities will deal or bargain with humans 
  and other non-dwarves on a regular basis; 
  North and South Ledopoldus serve as 
  examples here. Proud dwarven communities 
  have even been known to accept a human 
  leader who has proven himself, as the Kurnan 
  Dwarves give homage to Oronis, as the ash-
  dwarves of Charvass give homage to the 
  human merchant Trenbull, and as one 
  community of Tyrian dwarves follows a Tyrian 
  human named Granj. 
  (As we will discuss in class, Granj’s Ward is an 
  unusual case of a proud dwarven community 
  interacting closely with a human community; 
  this is an unusual case because the humans in 
  Granj’s Ward are isolated and alienated from 
  the rest of the City State of Tyr, which in turn 
  has been isolated and alienated from the rest 
  of Athas. Furthermore Granj and lately, the 
  Tyrian government have actively promoted 
  general literacy. Within this unique climate 
  humans and dwarves seem to have melded into 
  a common community — but we will see with 
  study and time whether reality reflects this 
  appearance. In any event, there is no 
  intermarriage, and furthermore it is clearly the 
  humans of Granj’s Ward that have adapted to 
  dwarven ways, not the other way around!) 
  Even the proudest of the proud have been 
  known to deal with humans on a limited basis: 
  Hasken’s well was recently re-dug with the help 
  of some drylander scouts working for House 
  M’ke, and Kled has had some very friendly 
  interactions with human drylanders, but I 
  cannot share this information with you at this 
  time. 
  To the Dwarves, Proud simply means 
  unadapted. The proud never reveal their focus 
  to humans, no matter how close a friend that 
  human might be. They may accept human 
  sovereignty, but they will also have their own 
  leaders from among the urhomous. Their focus 
  never serves outside the community. To use 
  one’s focus to serve a human . . . that would be 
  compromise. 
  The Compromised 
  Nearly half of the dwarves in the dry lands 
  keep all of the dwarven traditions, inasmuch as 
  they can remember them and can practice 
  them in safety. They elect an urhomous, if they 
  are allowed to; they live with other dwarves, if 
  they are allowed to; they keep and read the 
  oroscrit, if the templars are not watching; they 
  teach their children the dwarven tongue, if the 
  nobles that own them do not snatch the child 
  from their laps and sell it to the slave-masters. 
  In short, their focus adapts to survival, and 
  those that can determine the compromised 
  dwarf’s survival, may find themselves served 
  with a dwarven focus. 
  Yet even the most compromised of the 
  compromised are still stubborn and delightfully 
  dwarven in every way, and a compromised 
  dwarf will usually seek to regain her pride as 
  soon as practical. 
  The Corrupt 
  These are the dwarves who have gone beyond 
  compromise into acceptance of corruption 
  and servitude. They will lie about their focus, 
  cheat other dwarves out of goods and 
  freedom, and even serve willingly as 
  Mulfathers (a deadly dwarven insult which you 
  will understand better when you have learned 
  fully about drylands slavery). Corrupt dwarves 
  are always individualistic; they care nothing for 
  a dwarven community, and their community 
  cares nothing for them. The focus of a corrupt 
  dwarf is invariably greedy, whimsical, or 
  vengeful; frequently it is an issue of a selfish or 
  destructive focus that caused them to be 
  expelled from their community. They hate the 
  sight of their own kind, except for other 
  corrupt dwarves. These they still will not trust; 
  indeed they trust no one. 
  The Broken 
  Broken Dwarves are those who without malice 
  or terrible wrongdoing have become 
  unmanageable by the standards of the dwarven 
  community. You have heard tell of the dwarf 
  who set out alone with a wheelbarrow to level 
  the ringing mountains, and you have heard the 
  idle elven ballad of the dwarf afflicted with the 
  malady known as the tribe of one.  
  But not all broken ones are insane; some are 
  focused on a lonely, ludicrous, and impossible 
  goals (such as wiping out all clans of the Silt 
  Stalker tribe); others compulsively drink until 
  their focus becomes addled, still others have 
  broken faith with their focus — the dwarves 
  call these living banshees, speak of them in 
  whispers, pity and fear them, and generously 
  pay them to leave the community. 
  Dwarven Focus 
  This issue of dwarven focus is greatly 
  misunderstood, and dwarves have no interest 
  in explaining it more precisely to humans. As 
  
   
   
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  we might best surmise from the dwarves that 
  we observe, and from the writings we have 
  uncovered, there are four types of dwarven 
  focus: 
  Maintenance 
  Unlike the other types of focus, a Maintenance 
  focus is a type of focus that cannot be 
  accomplished. Dwarves may focus on 
  protecting a ward or an object, on acquiring 
  wealth, and so on, and since this is a goal that 
  does not have an end, it is considered a 
  Maintenance focus. Dwarves may change their 
  Maintenance focus, but cannot do so at a time 
  when the current focus is being threatened. 
  For example, an elder who is focused on 
  protecting the community will not suddenly 
  change focus when some event threatens that 
  community. 
  Purpose 
  While a dwarf has a maintenance focus, she 
  might focus on a specific goal related to her 
  maintenance focus. For example, a dwarf 
  focused on serving a merchant house might set 
  a purpose focus to guard a shipment vigilantly 
  throughout the night. 
  While set in a purpose focus, the dwarf still 
  remembers her maintenance focus and may 
  grudgingly set aside a purpose temporarily in 
  order to solve a higher-priority emergency. A 
  dwarf focused on providing for their village 
  might set a purpose focus to dig a well, but 
  would set the purpose aside if he learned that a 
  silo of grain was on fire. But he would be 
  annoyed and nervous about this shift in 
  purpose, for no dwarf ever wishes to set aside 
  an unfulfilled purpose. The dwarf would 
  probably finish one minor step of the task at 
  hand, and set all of his tools down carefully, 
  before rushing to help put out the fire. 
  Aim 
  An aim focus is unconnected to any 
  maintenance focus; the dwarf must drop his 
  maintenance focus in order to focus on an 
  Aim. For example, a dwarf could be 
  maintenance -focused on raising his child; one 
  day the dwarf becomes convinced (sincerely) 
  that his child can take care of himself, and he 
  chooses the aim of returning to the village of 
  his birth. His wife and child might be angry 
  that he had chosen this aim but they would not 
  try to argue — there would be no point. 
  Vow 
  Vows are aims that are associated with a 
  specific penalty. A dwarf may vow: I will neither 
  eat nor drink nor sleep until I have recovered my stolen 
  kank and he will not become a banshee if he 
  fails; only if he breaks his vow, fails, and eats, 
  drinks or falls asleep without accomplishing his 
  focus. Sometimes bansheehood may be made 
  part of a penalty: “and may I become a 
  banshee if I fail” but this is rare. 
  Vows are taken very seriously, and 
  communities may exile dwarves who have 
  vowed carelessly, e.g. sworn an oath on their 
  parent’s heads, etc. A frequent theme in 
  dwarven folk tales is the drunken vow, the vow 
  made in drunkenness, and regretted and 
  fulfilled in soberness. 
  Another interesting tale about vows is the 
  mythical story of how dwarves became 
  hairless: a great dwarven king Vowed to kill 
  some villain known as the dwarf-butcher long 
  ago, and apparently failed. Somehow the failure 
  of this Vow demanded the penalty that all 
  dwarves everywhere remove their hair. 
  Dwarven Society 
  The image of a hairy dwarf is amusing, since 
  dwarves have come to hate hair and 
  compulsively pick at the few hairs that do grow 
  from their noses, ears, and eyelashes. 
  According to some of oroscrit, some dwarves 
  are not naturally bald at all, but are ritually 
  buried as children in a mixture of lye and 
  special ashes that prevent hair growth. To help 
  the children survive this ordeal, they are made 
  to breathe though a tube, and their eyes, ears, 
  and nose are sealed with wax — hence these 
  are the only areas on a dwarf that produce hair. 
  This balding ceremony is the ritual that marks 
  the passage of a young dwarf from infancy 
  into childhood. The dwarven infant, hairy and 
  naked, is ignored by all but his parents, until he 
  learns to speak and demands that others pay 
  attention to him. Then the community elders 
  submerge the infant in the lye mixture as 
  described above, and he is considered a child 
  after this ritual. We must remember that 
  dwarves age differently than we do: a dwarven 
  infant is frequently over six years old, and 
  dwarves are often in their forties before they 
  are considered adults. 
  Dwarven children are allowed to play as they 
  please, but when they start to pay ask questions 
  of the elders, they are taught about the focus. 
  To become adults, the dwarf must complete a 
  significant focus that satisfies the community 
  elders: repair a wall around the community, etc. 
  Generally, the rite of passage of childhood to 
  adulthood is marked by introducing the new 
  adult to strong drink. Strong fermented 
  beverages are not considered appropriate for 
  dwarven children, since drunkenness inhibits 
  the focus. (This guarded dwarven secret is the 
  reason that no dwarf will willingly drink with a 
  non-dwarf.) It may interest you to learn that 
  Kurnan dwarves are horrified and disgusted at 
  our method of calming children with strong 
  drink mixed with milk. No wonder they never learn 
  to focus, I have heard dwarves mutter to each 
  other! 
  During the days between one focus and 
  another, dwarves try to meet alone with their 
  own kind, so they may stay safely, and become 
  roaringly drunk. Dwarven sub-communities 
  
   
   
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  often set dates for the focus of all community 
  to be fulfilled, so that whole communities may 
  get drunk together; these celebrations are 
  known as days of accomplishment. These 
  celebrations last for sleepless days and nights; 
  they begin jolly, with flutes and dancing, but 
  inevitably end on a mournful note, as the 
  hung-over dwarves begin to consider what is 
  yet to be accomplished. Dwarves refer to these 
  moments as the dregs of the party, and a 
  dwarf who is late in finishing his focus before 
  the days of accomplishment is often warned to 
  hurry lest she arrive on the dregs of a good 
  party. 
  Days of accomplishment are determined 
  season-to-season by the elders, according to 
  the needs and goals of the community. They 
  are not fixed calendar days, otherwise enemies 
  of the dwarves would have destroyed the 
  dwarven race years ago. 
  The Elders of a dwarven community do not 
  drink, for they are maintenance-focused on the 
  well-being of the community; they have no 
  aims or specific purposes to accomplish, and 
  someone must stand guard during the days of 
  accomplishment. 
  Spies and Dwarves 
  The Dwarves are a strange and noble people, 
  and while their minds may be rooted in a 
  decaying past, their fruits are the fruits of 
  wisdom and discipline. Unfortunately, they are 
  rarely inclined to share their wisdom or skills 
  with humans. We do not choose dwarven spies, 
  for it would deeply offend the dwarven 
  community to learn just how much we know 
  about them. So much arcane dwarven wisdom 
  (such as metallurgy, masonry and leatherwork) 
  remain unknown to us. For the time being, this 
  is acceptable to Oronis, since Kurnan dwarves 
  labor with their hidden wisdom on behalf of 
  Kurn. 
  But it may be that some of these wisdoms will 
  be revealed in ancient scrolls. Should you 
  happen on a dwarven ruin, break up the floors 
  beneath their old meeting-places. If you find 
  sealed vessels, do not open them; bring them 
  to Kurn at once. The fragile scrolls within may 
  contain wisdom of the old times that even the 
  living dwarves do not remember. 
  To gain the trust of the living dwarves, feign 
  indifference to all that is different about their 
  culture. They guard their cultural secrets, and 
  curiosity frightens them. Talk about their 
  accomplishments, not their focus. Give 
  Dwarves the illusion of privacy, and you may 
  find their wisdom left carelessly unguarded. 
  Close your mouth and open your eyes, and 
  may surprise never find you. 
  -Spymaster Klianis 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  20 
  Elven Wisdom
  You know the elves; you see them every day. 
  Our elves that have been raised in Kurn are 
  our greatest storytellers and poets. The 
  infrequent nomadic elves that visit Kurn 
  alternately frighten, amuse, and delight us. It 
  seems that elven blood has an infinite capacity 
  for emotion and the depth to share that 
  emotion with others. All the greatest poetry in 
  Kurn has been composed by elves. It seems 
  that the elf can achieve a passion that we 
  humans can only brush against. Where we 
  humans carry our emotions like a torch, the 
  elven heart burns like a bonfire. Remember 
  that elves easily shed the soft cocoon of 
  civilization, and you must see into the elven 
  soul to understand how the tunes that you love 
  in Kurnan elves can play out differently among 
  the elves of the dry lands. 
  The Now 
  Makom Kuu, Eetmakom Bato. ( My Now is swift; 
  yours is slow and sad. )  
  The elven heart is as erratic as it is bright. Like 
  a falling star, the elven Heart can go out as if 
  the light was never even there. One moment an 
  elf can be enraptured in the romance of a new 
  love, only to regard the relationship as old 
  within a week. The elves of the dry lands are 
  no different. They live in the eternal now. The 
  elven Heart keeps them so rooted in the 
  present, the lingering emotions of the past that 
  humans are the victims of are unknowable to 
  elves. They are a passionate, forgetful people, 
  and that is their weakness. As long as what they 
  are doing is fun and interesting they will 
  continue. If it turns boring or routine, elves 
  move on to something else. 
  Elves are prone to ecstatic states— whether in 
  dance, in song or in the Run. Elves will become 
  consumed by an altered state of mind that 
  seems to control their actions. It is as if their 
  emotions eclipse their rational minds. They will 
  allow themselves to dance until collapse, run 
  for hours on end, sing praises to the elements 
  all day. If any race is prone to shamanism, it is 
  the elves. 
  Imagine being in the heart of an elf, whether 
  Drylander or Kurn. Noble, terrible, loving, 
  hating. All the passions that you are prone to 
  — multiplied a hundred-fold ... Only to have 
  that emotion blow away like sand, leaving a 
  vacuum for another inferno to fill you. How 
  focused you would be on who you are. You 
  would be unable to tolerate frustration. You 
  would be unable to perform tasks you did not 
  love. You would be incapable of resisting 
  temptation. 
  While we envy the elves for their gifts, we pity 
  them for the plights that their impulsive 
  natures throw them into. Elves, on the other 
  hand, often speak of how horrible they would 
  find it to be human. To an elf, the idea of 
  bridling ones passions reeks of a lingering 
  death! It is no wonder that the dwarven mind 
  and the elven one see so little in common. 
  Whereas the dwarf is steeped in history and is 
  focused on the future, the elf is so forced in 
  the present moment, that thoughts of the past 
  and the future become indistinct and 
  unrealistic. 
   
  History 
  Elves share a rich oral tradition, 
  with many myths about their 
  origins, and twice as many myths 
  about the successes of their tribes. 
  But none of these stories seem to 
  agree. For example, every tribe 
  claims that it was founded by 
  Coraanu, and blessed by Coraanu t
  be the greatest elven tribe. Cor
  is the universal father of the elven 
  people, but the tales his exploits 
  vary from tribe to tribe, and even
  from year to year ! In fact, the truth 
  of Coraanu’s exploits is immaterial
  although at the time of a ritual or 
  celebration the tales are believed 
  totally. The true importance of
  tales of Coraanu is the importance 
  of the elven race, and their racial 
  ability to survive on speed and wits. 
  Around the elven campfire, these 
  myths are not only recounted, but 
  also performed, and all manner of 
  insults towards the other races are 
  o 
  aanu 
   
  , 
   the 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  21 
  ee 
  tly. 
  k of the one who will return. This 
  to 
  . Seeing 
   
  t 
  acted out. If you have the opportunity to s
  these rituals in progress, you are a lucky 
  individual, for outsiders are not taken in ligh
  Elves often spea
  individual will be carrying the sword of the last 
  great elven chieftain. These myths follow that 
  this individual will be the return of a Coraanu 
  and the elves will once again take their rightful 
  place in history. But like all elven stories, the 
  exact particulars to this story vary from tribe 
  tribe. I think that these stories are a 
  justification for the elven self-esteem
  that their place in society is nomadic, and they
  are shunned by most settled civilizations, the 
  myth of a redeemer gives a sense of hope tha
  is vital to the survival of their society.  
  Elven Cultural Types 
  There are four types of elves; Nomadic, 
  Settled, Healers, and Savages. 
  Nomadic Elves 
  Mupo Common ? ( Do you speak common ?)  
  Nom
  e 
  ually 
  point 
   
   
  ai’ 
  ads are tribes of elves that wander wher
  the mood sends them. They are raiders, 
  herders, traders. They are versatile and us
  are some of the larger tribes. They can do 
  anything to survive and usually do. Some 
  Nomads must walk their own path to the 
  of forsaking their Tribe for a time. They walk 
  their own way. They are generally pacifists, 
  unlike the Savage elf. Nomads do not desire
  constant strife, they only seek for the horizon
  and what lay beyond. The best examples of 
  these elves are the Swift Wings. ( ‘Kuualko-d
  in their own language ) They are primarily herd 
  Kanks and only stop to trade for supplies that 
  they cannot make themselves. 
  Settled Elves 
  Komahh E’komake ! ( Drink Now - Pay Later ! ) 
  T
   
  by 
  lver 
  ly 
   likely 
  otuu-Dai), have adopted 
  , 
   
  lave tribes, 
  ) 
  he settled elves are the most like the elves we 
  are used to here in Kurn. They have given up 
  their wandering, and have taken permanent 
  homes. Sometimes an entire tribe will settle, as 
  occurred here in Kurn eight hundred years ago 
  with the curious tribe that now calls itself the 
  Barber’s Clave, in Kurn’s trade district. In the 
  Tablelands, The Silver Hands and Night Runners
  offer two examples of settled elves:  
  The Silver Hands (Uutramut-Dai), lead 
  Toramund, own a fort surrounding the Si
  Spring. A traveler there will meet an affected, 
  carnival-like atmosphere designed to relieve 
  visitors of their pocketbooks. These elves’ on
  goal is money, primarily the Silver that 
  Toramund craves. This situation is most
  temporary as the wish to settle is Toramund’s 
  alone. With his death, the Silver Hands will 
  very likely move on.  
  The Night Runners (Utk
  the city-state of Raam as their own and work 
  in its underground as a black market, assassins
  courtesans, and entertainment. This is the only 
  elven tribe known to embrace half-elves in to 
  the tribe as full members. The tribe is rumored
  to have the throne of Raam in mind. We have 
  no solid information on this tribe and nobody 
  can guess as to the leader’s motives. 
  Some settled elves are members of s
  or are currently involved with a human lover. 
  (Human-elven relationships are usually ill-
  fated, but for many, they seem irresistable. 
  Healers 
  Mueet Manalb Sab, Jukkete (Let me help you, city-
  dweller.)  
  iests of th
  Healers are elven pr
  e Elements or 
   
  h 
   the 
  d 
  r even 
  Savage Elves 
  individuals who act with Athas in mind. Some
  are historians or archeologists, some are 
  members of tribes that act in consort wit
  Druids. The Clear Waters (Uutobo-Dai) are
  only example of a whole tribe of Healing elves 
  that I know of. The Healing elves share some 
  sort of religious zeal for improving their 
  current conditions. One has to wonder if a 
  Healer as an overdeveloped sense of past an
  future for an Elf. This could be a result of 
  elemental spirits interfering or influencing 
  specific elves, or a sign the Now isn’t as 
  strongly felt in some elves as in others. O
  stranger, that some Drylanders just have good 
  hearts ! 
  Neek Muta, Guhdato ! ( Prepare to die, Human scum 
  ! ) 
  Dr
  The wilderness of the 
  ylands can turn the 
  e, 
   
  . 
  ibes 
  e, 
  n. 
  em 
  most intelligent person into an instinctual 
  animal. Savages seem to act on instinct alon
  attacking for food, killing for territory, settling
  disputes with violence and bravado. For these 
  elves there is no peace, only one battle after 
  another, one conquest after another, until the 
  end comes for you, only to be replaced by your children
  This cycle is becoming more and more 
  common, it seems. As more and more tr
  fall into hardship and survive through violenc
  more and more tribes are becoming Savages, 
  such as the dreaded Jura-Dai, also known as 
  the Silt Stalkers. The Silt Stalkers strike from 
  ambush and destroy all they lay their hands o
  More information is needed about these 
  Savages, but the risks of spying among th
  are great. 
  Dealing With Elves in the Dry 
  Lands 
  Mugee Toge ! ( This one’s an easy mark! ) 
  If you
  ly 
   
  n 
  human, that is, twice as short and slow).  
   wish to pass unnoticed, bore them: 
  dress blandly and speak slowly. Elves secret
  believe in their superiority and regard all other
  races as slow and short. Dato is their word for 
  human, which means just that, short and slow. 
  (Half-giants they call Ad’dato, that is, twice tha
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  22 
  -
  s 
   
  ver 
  e 
  w 
  r 
   
  ion, 
   money. Bribery and gifts are an 
  e 
  es 
  uble. 
  er 
  s 
  . They 
  g you. 
   
  On the other hand, if you wish to catch an 
  their attention, you must be flashy, highly
  skilled, or best an elf in some sort of 
  competition of some sort. Elves seem to 
  expect some sort of humility from human
  and because of their height, and derive a 
  measure of satisfaction from intimidating 
  humans with their superior height. To 
  overcome your innate disadvantage, and to
  gain higher ground, brag with gusto whene
  you have their attention. This will invite mor
  challenges, although most will be verbal. Elves 
  like nothing more than to be entertained. If 
  you can return their verbally abuse skillfully 
  and in good humor, you will offend nobody 
  other than the one you are insulting.  
  If you wish to win their friendship then be 
  prepared to prove your honesty. Don’t allo
  yourself to take advantage of elven mistakes. 
  These are deliberate ploys to measure the 
  character of your proffered friendship. Elves 
  expect that everyone not in their tribe is an 
  enemy, so you must be resolute in your plea fo
  friendship. You may be ‘tested’ for years before
  being accepted into the fold. In most cases, 
  you will not have time to win an elf’s 
  friendship. 
  If you need their short-term cooperat
  simply offer
  inherent part of elven culture and it is a rar
  elf that refuses a gift. Beware giving to Savag
  though. (In fact, beware Savages altogether.) 
  for they will assume your gift as tainted and 
  treat your gesture as a threat. A gift will get an 
  elf talking to you, but not trusting you. 
  However, a bribe will probably get an elf to 
  help you as long as it is not too much tro
  Bribes can be blatant with elves, but rememb
  that it will only work in the short term, or as 
  long as your money holds out. 
  Above all realize that the elves of the dry land
  are crafty, intelligent, and clever
  improvise moment to moment and may not 
  give you time to adapt to them surprisin
  They will see through a ruse quicker than you 
  think. Tell them as few lies as possible. 
  Looking into the Elven Soul
  Enjoy their music! It has a feral quality th
  elves of Kurn lack. Their savagery has no
  at the 
  t 
  es 
  affected their innate beauty. Do not take them 
  lightly, even if they appear to take themselv
  lightly. Beneath the mirth and frivolity there is 
  a streak of intensity that should even make a 
  dwarf think twice. Listen to the intensity of 
  their poetry and song — 
  Maieuu Mumika, Mauutra Ffaie, Corannuguu 
  Maieuu Nikuuko, Mauta Akotota, Corannuhuu 
  Maiee Ni’kom, Masarguu Fae, Corannutaa 
  Translated — 
  As we run to the horizon, our silver souls ring out, 
  with Corannu’s song. 
  As we run into battle, our blades steal death, with 
  Corannu’s fury. 
  As we dance in the now, our music plays on, with 
  C
  . 
  orannu’s laughter
  -Spymaster Kalisvrani 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  23 
  Wisdom of the Trembling Plain
  Every Flamesky season, Kurn’s Trade District 
  is overrun with the smell and sounds of herd 
  animals from the Trembling Plains. We buy the 
  animals for meat, bone, and leather. We call the 
  masters of these herds “trembling herders” 
  because they come from the trembling plains, 
  because the herders find refuge within our 
  walls to escape the mantis-hordes of the far 
  west, and because they seem nervous and ill at 
  ease within our walls.  All Kurnan citizens have 
  marched at least once with the militia, and have 
  seen a few days travel within the Plains, at least 
  on the trade road. Most of us have had a tour 
  of duty on Kurn’s walls, and from that height 
  can see the plains extending for miles beneath 
  the Banding Slopes.  It looks so empty.  So we 
  look at all the herders during Flamesky season, 
  and ask, where do these people come from? 
  In the Trembling Plains, they could be 
  anywhere. These herders are masters of 
  blending into their environment.  We laugh at 
  their “dirty” cloaks that look as if the owner 
  had rolled on the ground, and not bothered to 
  dust herself off.  Take a closer look at one of 
  those “dirty” cloaks, next time you get a 
  chance.  Those twigs and pieces of dry leaves 
  were carefully sewn to the exterior of the 
  fabric.  The motley color of the cloth was not 
  a poor dye job, but a cunningly simulation of 
  the Trembling Plains’ natural patterns. The 
  herders call this the “three season cloak,” 
  because it is only truly useful for “three 
  seasons” out of the year — Flamesky, 
  Coldnights, and Ral’s Rest. (We would call that 
  time period four seasons, but the herders do not 
  recognize the season that we call Harvestide; 
  they have no concept of the harvest!) During 
  the other two seasons, Windflood and 
  Fruitbirth, the ground of the Trembling Plains 
  is muddy and increasingly green, so the cloak is 
  “out of season,” and does not help the wearer 
  blend in with the land. Herders do not like to 
  carry what they don’t use, so come Windflood 
  season, the herders bury their three season 
  cloaks, sealed in water-tight leather pouches 
  which they purchase from Kurnan tanners in 
  Fort Stench.  
  Economics 
  The plains are dotted with herder stashes, 
  wells, and cisterns made of Azeth tile. They fill 
  the cisterns during Windflood season, and 
  empty them throughout the rest of the year. 
  Although nomadic, the herders consider the 
  wells their own property and resent strangers 
  knowing about them. To enforce the ethic that 
  one leaves others’ cisterns alone, some tribes 
  leave deliberately poisoned cisterns might be 
  placed in the ground, and use herbs to make 
  cisterns of good water look or smell strange. 
  The stashes contain items of use to the 
  herders, like the three-season cloaks, but no 
  objects of great, lest bandits torture herders or 
  threaten their children to discover their secret 
  stashes.  A herder’s wealth is in his herds, 
  which are generally too large for bandits to 
  carry away. As a general rule, herders will only 
  handle silver within the walls of Kurn or 
  Azeth’s Rest, and they will walk away from 
  gold as if it were poison. They prefer to trade 
  their herds directly for the goods they need, 
  but within our walls, will accept silver as 
  payment so long as they can trade the silver for 
  something else. Bandits generally don’t even 
  bother searching or torturing the herders for 
  their wealth anymore; they simply take the few 
  cattle they can eat or carry, which means that 
  even after a bandit attack, the herder keeps 
  most of his wealth. 
  Reasons for Fear 
  While shunning silver and gold does offer 
  herders respite from the bandits, other enemies 
  see the herders themselves as the treasure. 
  Slave traders from the tablelands, and Red 
  Guard raiders from South Guard make 
  frequent incursions. There is little the herders 
  can do other than run and hide from such 
  enemies. Consider that our own Black 
  Brotherhood doubles its patrol force when it 
  moves anywhere east of the Trade Road near 
  South Guard. The herder clans do not have a 
  chance against the Red Guard, nor against the 
  Crisiss Nikaal tribe that mounts slaver raids 
  between Yaramuke and Dry Spring. If they see 
  strangers in their land, the herders presume 
  these are slavers, and will communicate 
  carefully with other tribes, and have hiding 
  scouts follow the strangers’ every move. 
  Herders tend to graze in an area for a few days, 
  then pack their tents and move a day’s travel 
  away. Hidden scouts up to five miles from any 
  encampment warn the other herders if 
  strangers are approaching, communicating this 
  information in a simple code of insect calls. 
  Herders watch travelers quietly until they find 
  it convenient to approach, until they feel safe. 
  Since some travelers have tortured herders in 
  order to find out the location of their wells, 
  herders who wish to meet with a group of 
  strange travelers, cleverly time their 
  appearances to immediately after the travelers 
  find water, to avoid offering the traders that 
  temptation.” Even if they never decide to meet 
  with the travelers, they watch carefully, and 
  listen, and they convey information to other 
  herder tribes, and usually to House Azeth. Very 
  few caravans or trade parties manage to travel 
  to Azeth’s Rest before the rumors of their 
  travels arrive.  
  Relations between Tribes 
  The relationship between herder uncannily 
  resembles the relationship between different 
  elven tribes. Like elves, the “Trembling 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  24 
  Herders” sense a common identity with each 
  other, and usually make a common front 
  against outsiders (or at least pretend to), but 
  they raid each others’ cattle, fight over wells, 
  and sometimes go to open war with each other. 
  They differ from elf tribes in that very few 
  tribes last more than two generations, and 
  intermarriage is much more frequent, 
  consequently, very few of the herder clans 
  have their own separate dialect. Feuds between 
  herding clans sometimes last longer than the 
  clans themselves. Intermarriage between tribes 
  is at least as common as marriage within the 
  tribe.  
  Marriage 
  Most herders are monogamous, except for 
  their clan leaders. Like House Azeth, the 
  herders are expected to only marry once in 
  their lives, but male clan leaders act is “proxy 
  husband” for all of the clan’s widows, and 
  father to all of the tribe’s orphans. 
  Intermarriage between tribes are very 
  common. Upon a tribal patriarch’s death, many 
  tribes disintegrate into smaller tribes, or 
  dissolve completely, with the tribe members 
  seeking refuge with other tribes. Sometimes 
  these tribal breakups result in quarrels over the 
  tribes’ assets. The tribal leaders have no 
  authority to stop anyone from leaving the tribe, 
  and some of the less talented tribal leaders 
  have stepped out their tent in the morning to 
  find that their entire tribe has abandoned them. 
  On the other hand, some of the more 
  persuasive leaders command fanatical loyalty.  
  Information and Rumor 
  Herders have great deal to say about the 
  Tablelands, the Glowing Desert, and the Dim 
  Lands, but little of it is likely to be accurate, 
  and less of that is likely to be current. (One 
  particularly out-of-date rumor that has 
  circulated the Trembling Plains for over a 
  thousand years: The Dragon is coming back. They 
  refuse to believe that the Dragon is dead, even 
  though neither Dragon nor sorcerer-king has 
  passed north of Fort Ral in over a thousand 
  years.) While there are a few in every tribe that 
  read and write picts, these are poor people who 
  rely on oral history. They do love stories, and 
  when it comes to stories of distant lands, they 
  care little whether the stories are true or 
  fanciful. But when it comes to what the 
  herders call “things of consequence,” such as 
  location of water holes, animal mating habits, 
  caravan schedules, wind and weather patterns, 
  or the price of Kurnan leather goods during 
  windflood season, the herders show uncanny 
  expertise. 
  Meeting Herders in Kurn 
  It is easy to find herders in Kurn’s Trade 
  District during the Flamesky season. You will 
  not get very much information from them, 
  since they are not on their ground, but if you 
  offer them something they need, for some of 
  their cattle, they will remember your face, and 
  you’ll at least find out their name and clan.  Do 
  not forget that information. If a herder tells 
  you that her name is Feseri of Filkun, say 
  something like “ah yes, the Filkun clan,” 
  especially if you’ve never heard of the Filkun 
  Clan. The smallest clans with the least 
  reputation are always the touchiest about this 
  issue. Never tell herders that you’ve never 
  heard their clan name before, unless your 
  purpose is to offend them. If a herder does 
  not tell you a clan name, that probably means 
  that he’s the clan patriarch. If a herder tells you 
  that his name is Khemar, and you foolishly ask, 
  “of what clan?” you have insulted the patriarch 
  and the entire Khemar clan. When a patriarch 
  dies, the name of the clan changes to the name 
  of the new clan leader—assuming that the clan 
  does not break into multiple clans or 
  disintegrate entirely! 
  Meeting Herders in Azeth’s Rest. 
  You will be able to get more information by 
  meeting herders in Azeth’s Rest. They are more 
  comfortable as guests of House Azeth than 
  among our walls, partly because Azeth makes 
  them feel more welcomed. Although of Kel 
  Tas ancestry like ourselves, Azeth has 
  intermarried considerably with the herders, 
  follows their ethic against defiling and banditry, 
  and by coincidence, worships the winds as they 
  do, since Azeth was founded by a priest of the 
  winds. The herders consider Azeth to be the 
  greatest clan of the Trembling Plains. Corik 
  Azeth, the current leader of House Azeth, was 
  actually born in a herding clan, and married 
  into House Azeth. 
  Placing an Agent in a Herder Clan 
  While some of our agents often use marriage 
  as a means of infiltrating an organization, I 
  strongly recommend against this when it 
  comes to Herders of the Trembling Plains. 
  Herders take marriage even more seriously 
  than most Kurnans, and they do not remarry 
  even after a spouse dies. Many of them visit 
  Kurn every year, and there is too much 
  potential for mischief if a herder or a clan 
  patriarch discovers his lost wife is a citizen in 
  Kurn. There is a much simpler means of 
  infiltrating a herder clan: as a slave. 
  Slavery among the Clans 
  Like our own Kurnan claves, herding usually 
  admit new members as slaves at first. This 
  period of slavery cannot last more than seven 
  years. After the slavery period is over, the tribe 
  must pay the former slave for her service, or 
  persuade her to join the tribe. When the tribe 
  leader wants someone to join his tribe as a full 
  member, the leader usually tries to arrange a 
  marriage to a member of the tribe. To marry a 
  herder, a non-tribe member must either have 
  the blessing of the tribal leader, or persuade 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  25 
  the herder to leave the tribe. Do not assume 
  that the herders learned the seven year 
  tradition from Kurn; my research suggests that 
  it was the other way around. These herder 
  traditions regarding slavery are a kinder 
  adaptation of the Elven tradition regarding 
  slavery, and we learned our tradition from the 
  herders. 
  Mixed Heritage 
  The nomadic herders of the Trembling Plains 
  mostly descend from Kurnans and Eldaarish 
  people that fled their cities when their Kings 
  began to gather sacrifices for tribute to the 
  Dragon, but they have intermarried with other 
  peoples, including elves. Nearly all herders 
  know a friend or relative that married an elf. 
  These are usually brief or seasonal marriages; 
  when the tribe moves on, the elf, usually the 
  male, picks up and leaves his spouse that 
  cannot keep up, and who belongs with her own 
  people anyway. Elves consider it remarkable 
  fidelity if the husband to return every year for 
  a season, to visit with his wife and child, if he 
  can find where their herds are grazing. Even 
  though the elf-human marriages are seldom 
  happy and often tragic, herders treat their half-
  elven cousins no differently than anyone else. 
  Although it is not immediately apparent, nearly 
  all the herders have some elven ancestry. 
  Perhaps the “elfish” blood has helped them to 
  survive the life outdoors in a climate where 
  temperatures range from blazing to freezing. 
  Language 
  The herders have their own dialect, which is a 
  mishmash of Kurnan, Eldaarish, Common, 
  and Elvish. Unlike the Kurnans and 
  Dimlanders, most herders do speak a little 
  “drylandish” (the common tongue). But the 
  herder rendition of the Common tongue is 
  even more difficult to follow than their 
  rendition of Kurnan. Here’s a snippet of 
  dialogue that I heard between a Drajan and a 
  herder on the trade road just South of Fort 
  Stench  
  Herder: Say! Drajan! Look for my 
  brother. He pass you one hour before 
  now? 
  Drajan: No, I have not seen any 
  humans on this road all morning. Just a 
  couple of stray elves. 
  Herder: My brother is elfish. 
  Drajan: Your brother is an elf? 
  Herder: No not elf, not elven, elfish! 
  Half-human.  no … part human. Say! 
  You need change how you say “elf ” or 
  you find no friends in these northish 
  parts. 
  Getting Information from Trembling 
  Plains Herders. 
  In the Trembling Plains, information is not a 
  commodity, but as something that is shared 
  among friends, or used to show one’s 
  superiority to a rival. The herders love stories, 
  and hoard information. They know a great  
  deal about the bandit state politics, Kurn, 
  Eldaarich, and even the tablelands. They love 
  to tell and to hear stories about places both 
  near and far. Their knowledge is quite 
  extensive and detailed, but NOT necessarily  
  accurate. Stories of Eldaarich or say Tyr would 
  be hard to verify, so stories about these places 
  would be wildly inaccurate. Truth be told, they 
  don't really care about accuracy when it comes 
  to tales of far-off places.  They think of wealth 
  as herd animals and clothing. Offering money 
  for information will get them to clam up, but 
  telling them an interesting story tempts them 
  to try to tell a story that is more interesting. 
  Not necessarily true, but more interesting. On 
  the other hand, if you can give them 
  information that is helpful to them, they will try 
  to out-do the favor, and give you information 
  that is useful to you. 
  Leadership Roles 
  I have spoken of patriarchs, because there are 
  few matriarchs in the Trembling Plains. Those 
  women who do lead tribes are almost 
  invariably air priests. The herders tend to look 
  to men for leadership, but if the winds choose 
  a woman, then the people will follow the 
  winds. Patriarchs are often priests of air, but 
  more often they are preservers, bards, or 
  mindbenders who pretend to be priests of air. 
  All of the herder clans in the Trembling Plains 
  worship air, as far as I can tell, except for the 
  Kurnan kip-herding dwarves. 
  The herders of the Trembling Plains give no 
  thought at all at preserving the essential 
  separate authority roles within the community; 
  a herder exposed to a Kurnan clave wonders at 
  all our positions of authority within a clave, 
  Captain, Quartermaster, Chaplain, and 
  Speaker, and would ask, which one is the most 
  important? It doesn’t occur to the herders that 
  one leader might be more important for one 
  role, and another leader more important for 
  another role. These poor herders even let their 
  male patriarchs handle matters of fine 
  diplomacy; it should come as no surprise that 
  they resort to war or have to go begging House 
  Azeth to resolve their differences for them!  
  And with a single Patriarch acting as Captain, 
  Quartermaster, Chaplain, and Speaker, it is no 
  wonder that the clans so often fragment at the 
  Patriarch’s death. 
  Befriending the Patriarchs 
  The question is, as usual, how we turn the 
  weaknesses of other people to our advantage. 
  The best short term solution for creating 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  inroads with the herder clans is to play on the 
  vanity and self-importance of their patriarchs. 
  Some spymasters have wasted our school’s 
  budget on gifts to patriarchs, noting that 
  House Azeth gives gifts to Patriarchs. The 
  Spymasters failed to notice the timing of 
  Azeth’s gifts. Like Kurnans, the herders track 
  the calendar carefully, and remember the date 
  of a person’s birth, but for different reasons 
  than we do. While the Nibenese track birth 
  dates to determine a person’s fate, and we 
  Kurnans remember them to give honor and 
  thanks to our mothers, the Herders of the 
  Trembling Plains turn the birth date of their 
  patriarch or matriarch into the tribe’s greatest 
  celebration, a time to honor their leader, by 
  showering him with gifts and attention. While 
  herders recognize and appreciate benefactors, 
  it is unspeakably presumptuous to count 
  yourself a “friend” of a patriarch, when you 
  neglected to send him a present to honor his 
  birth date.  Huzbug Azeth, the Quartermaster 
  at Azeth’s Rest, understands this simple and 
  primitive tradition (and others like it), and 
  thrives in the herders’ trust and appreciation. 
  Why the Trembling Plains Matters 
  We cannot afford to ignore the Trembling 
  Plains. It serves as the buffer zone between 
  Kurn and Eldaarich. It is the hunting grounds 
  where Daskinor’s Red Guards track down 
  those who wish to escape Eldaarich and the 
  Dim Lands. The Trembling Plains extend from 
  the southern edge Kurn’s verdant belt, south 
  past Azeth’s Rest, and then curve north of the 
  northmost edge of the Ringing Mountains, 
  reaching almost into the hinterlands beyond. 
  Bordering on so many lands, and offering 
  generous grazing for herd animals and mounts, 
  the Trembling Plains hosts conflicts between 
  creatures and peoples that otherwise would 
  never have met. Some of these conflicts have 
  become seasonal events, like the savage mantis 
  from the hinterlands follow mekillot herds up 
  the Trembling Plains, and then attack herders, 
  towns, and forts along the sea of silt when the 
  game begins to run out. More importantly, the 
  Trembling Plains offers enough grazing 
  ground for an entire army to pass hundreds of 
  miles from Draj or Yaramuke right to the gates 
  of Kurn. I submit that Kurn should know 
  about such an army before it passed South 
  Guard. All we need is a few agents among the 
  herder clans, and some effort by the Grey 
  Heralds to maintain good relations with the 
  patriarchs. 
  -Spymaster Anippe 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  27 
  Kenku Wisdom
  Foreward 
  Unlike most of Kurn’s spies, I was sent to 
  study not some foreign people and their 
  manners, but the engineering marvels of 
  Ledopolus. My training was in architecture, not 
  in social mores and styles of breads! Therefore 
  this card will be a narrative tale of my 
  experiences, painting facts and not fanciful 
  pronouncements about an entire race’s 
  behavior. Others may infer, but I will not 
  pronounce!  
  The Mission 
  As the records in the Chamber of Seekers will 
  show, I was sent not to pursue curious birdlike 
  creatures but to study the labors of the 
  dwarves, as they constructed the great bridge 
  from Ledopolus. I was in Ledopolus, 
  observing the construction and working my 
  way into the chief architect Wrangar’s 
  confidences, as ordered, when a tantalizing 
  prey entered my ken. 
  I had just left Wrangar’s chambers when the 
  morning light revealed a dwarven patrol 
  stomping back into North Ledopolus. As usual 
  they were crass and smelly, but unlike normal 
  they were not drunk. In fact, they were 
  dragging a large bundle, which at first I 
  thought to be a dead mul or young half-giant 
  wrapped in rags and tarps. But the creature was 
  neither, nor was it dead – its psionic waves of 
  pain, skittering and crying, bespoke life. But I 
  could not interpret the images, they were alien, 
  with strange perspective, and shifting suddenly. 
  The alien nature of my contact with it 
  reminded me of the first time I made contact 
  with a kreen in the wastes.  
  A thief! A thief! Tried to cheat the uhrnomus’s 
  nephew! shouted the crier following the troops 
  and their burden. Have a care for your thoughts, it’s 
  a ‘bender!  
  I laid a simple net, gathering the thoughts of 
  the dwarven constables, and learned that the 
  creature was caught trying to sell false goods to 
  a dwarven merchant. The merchant’s 
  mindbender had detected the fraud —which 
  means that it could not have been hard for a 
  more skilled mindbender such as myself to 
  detect. The merchant had summoned the city 
  constabulary, since the event took place near 
  the walls, and in the ensuing fracas the other 
  thieves had escaped.  
  Still singing their songs of victory and 
  conquest, the dwarves dragged their prisoner 
  off to the Gaoler’s Hole. There aren’t many 
  cells, since the gaolers tend to move their 
  charges swiftly on to the waiting Grey, and the 
  strange mindbender was the day’s only guest. I 
  retired to my chamber, and spent most of the 
  day seeking to understand more of the strange 
  psionic cries of the prisoner – it seemed to be 
  trying to converge, but found none with whom 
  to achieve the unity, and its aloneness 
  tormented it as much as its physical injuries. 
  After hours of attentive meditation, I could 
  begin to understand its image-wails, and I 
  thought I might be able to communicate with 
  it.  
  I risked a report back to the spymaster, 
  informed her that I had discovered a 
  Drylander mindbender seeking to use the same 
  convergence techniques that previous spies 
  have reported before vanishing in the Dim 
  Lands. Perhaps this prisoner was a rogue 
  Eldaarish, but even if not, the chance to study 
  its techniques could not be missed. I was 
  granted permission, and moved swiftly. I knew 
  little enough about the creature, but I knew 
  from Wrangar that it would be executed the 
  next day so I had to act quickly to glean any 
  intelligence from it. I slipped past the guards – 
  even the obsessive ones have to sleep 
  sometime – and made my way into the Gaoler’s 
  Hole. The strange prisoner was being kept in 
  the oubliette, the windowless hole at the base 
  of the jail. It was still hobbled, and a rasclinn 
  hide was knotted over its head to impair its 
  psionics.  
  The thing was instantly aware of me, and it 
  struggled to its feet as I entered the oubliette. 
  But it was blinded, and its mind distracted by 
  its injuries and the rasclinn hide. I had to 
  remove the hide to invade its mind, but it was 
  far weaker than I and none of the aid it so 
  desperately beseeched appeared. It was easy to 
  conquer its mind, and learn all that it knew. It 
  was not Eldaarish; the creature was not a man. 
  It was a bird, though bulkier and not so tall as 
  our aaracokra allies. Even so it was taller than I 
  was, and larger, and could have proven a 
  challenge to a human warrior had it not been 
  hobbled and wounded. Its brownish feathers, 
  perhaps once glossy, were ragged and dun 
  from confinement and abuse, and many lay 
  scattered across the floor.  
  The bird-man’s bright yellow eyes reflected the 
  little light in the cell, showing a hint of gold. 
  The stains of dried blood marked its face and 
  chest, and its dun yellow beak was cracked at 
  the tip. Clearly the dwarves had not 
  exaggerated when they told me how the thief 
  had resisted being taken. The bird-man had 
  talons on its bare feet, like a kes’trekel, and its 
  hands had similar but more facile claws. Its 
  back was broad, with heavy wings folded 
  against them not unlike a large traveler’s pack. 
  The dwarves had bound the wings, of course, 
  with taut kip hide that had tightened cruelly as 
  it dried – dwarven guards do not like their 
  criminals escaping!  
  The bird tried to evade me, I could sense it had 
  a terrible fear or dislike for strangers, but the 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  cell was small and I had little trouble keeping 
  up with its hobbling gait. Feathers swirled up 
  from floor, until I backed it in a corner and 
  forced it to open its alien, avian mind. I learned 
  that it called itself a kenku, and that its tribe 
  lived in hidden nests in the cliffs overlooking 
  the Estuary of the Forked Tongue. Carefully I 
  studied the creature’s mind, dominating it and 
  searching it thoroughly. Its alien contours were 
  easier to master than those of a kreen, though 
  the kenku seemed to shift its thoughts 
  distractedly just as kreen do.  
  The poor thing was a young male, confused 
  and alone. It knew only that it was in the 
  clutches of the wingless unblessed and that it 
  could never go home again – apparently it had 
  been taught that outsiders were cursed, and 
  that any contact with the unblessed tainted it 
  also as an outsider. Its name was T’trr’ack. Like 
  others of his kind, T’trr’ack was incapable of 
  any human words, though psionic illusions 
  permit limited interaction with other beings. 
  Kenku beaks allow them only simple sounds 
  and unaspirated consonants, but I took from 
  him the knowledge of posturing and mental 
  speech that kenku use among themselves.  
  Nearly everything in T’trr’ack mind was worth 
  memorizing. Kenku cannot smell very well, 
  and their sense of touch is muffled by their 
  feathers and the scaly skin on their talons. 
  Their eyes are large, and their vision is 
  excellent – though not as good as that of our 
  aaracokran allies, I suspect. They sense the 
  world primarily through their large, but hidden 
  ears, which are extraordinarily sensitive. They 
  also seem to have a peculiar ability to sense 
  movement or pressures around them, but try 
  as I might I could not figure out either how 
  they did it or how to duplicate it.  
  Morning light was breaking. I had probed 
  through nearly all of the prisoner’s memories, 
  and there was little value in risking discovery. I 
  swiftly disengaged and departed before the 
  dwarven guards appeared. I watched the 
  execution; they cast T’trr’ack, still bound, into a 
  pool of silt, with only a giant’s hair line tied 
  around his taloned legs. The cheering dwarves 
  watched him pitch and thrash until he was 
  dead, then they dragged the body out and 
  burned it. Abomination! shouted the crier as the 
  Uhrnomus’s deputy set the torch to T’trr’ack’s 
  dusty feathers. 
  I took the usual precautions and then left 
  Ledopolus that night. What a relief to escape 
  my duties with Wrangar! I moved carefully 
  along the estuary, following the route I had 
  seen in T’trr’ack’s head. I hoped to either find 
  his companions, or perhaps discover the base 
  or nest where they had come from. After two 
  days, climbing east up the rising ground of the 
  cliffs along the silt estuary, I found T’trr’ack’s 
  band.  
  Or rather they found me. They perceived me 
  and pounced - I was in kenku shape, and 
  showed them the mind of T’trr’ack as well, and 
  I let them take me. There was risk, for 
  T’trr’ack’s mind had revealed well how little 
  love his people had for outsiders or even for 
  other kenku that had been soiled by contact 
  with the unblessed. But I hoped they would 
  take me to the bird-men’s home, so I 
  acquiesced.  
  The dozen or so kenku bound me, clipping my 
  wings and guarding me closely. Metalseeker 
  Kass’taka, the leader of the trade-band, 
  interrogated me with the Way. I used my skills 
  to convince him he was talking to T’trr’ack. It 
  wasn’t even that hard, for someone trained by 
  Kurn’s masters. Kass’taka wasn’t looking for an 
  imposter, he was seeking to find out just how 
  much T’trr’ack had been tainted by the 
  unblessed.  
  The memories that I had created convinced 
  him that T’trr’ack had escaped after the 
  briefest captivity, before being taken to 
  Ledopolus, and Kass’taka seemed to believe 
  this ruse. But the conditioning against 
  strangers and those tainted by strangers was 
  strong - so I was taken to the nest of the 
  Kk’rass’atk bound.  
  We traveled down the estuary, using psionics to 
  imitate human form by day – even when no 
  one was around, just as a precaution - and 
  hiding in secret camps by night. All the camp-
  holes were carefully hidden, nestled under 
  rocks or in the lees of small hills, far off 
  natural lines of drift, and each had a small 
  cache of dried meat and other supplies, itself 
  hidden beneath stones or buried in pouches. 
  Such meticulous planning! Not even Kurnan 
  forays are so carefully planned! The kenku take 
  no chances, it is no wonder they are so little 
  known!  
  I tried to get Metalseeker Kass’taka to trust me, 
  but neither he nor any of the other kenku paid 
  me any attention. They were absolute in 
  ignoring me, or in clawing me when I 
  attempted to speak to them. Above all the 
  bird-men honor their code, which calls for all 
  treating everyone not in and of the nest with 
  suspicion.  
  After three days of furtive travel we reached 
  the area of the Kk’rass’atk nest. The nest itself, 
  I knew from T’trr’ack’s memories, was a series 
  of caverns opening in the cliff face 
  overlooking the estuary. Metalseeker Kass’taka 
  urged his patrol to hasten, bundling my bound 
  body in a lizardskin as we reached the edge of 
  the cliffs. Long shadows ran down the rugged, 
  beetling rocks and down to the silt, invisible far 
  below. It was nearly dark when all the trade-
  band’s bundles were secured and they dove, in 
  pairs, bearing bundles, over the side. Four of 
  them hefted me, trussed and packed, as they 
  leaped.  
  Kenku fly laboriously when burdened. No 
  doubt they are far more graceful when not 
  carrying heavy loads, but this flight all the bird-
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  men were struggling. Wings prevent them 
  wearing packs while in flight, and the weight 
  carried in their smallish arms unbalances them 
  – so it was slowly, and unsteadily, that we flew 
  down the canyon walls. Maintaining my 
  illusions of appearance and weight while being 
  swung back and forth like a stonethrower’s 
  sling is less easy than it sounds!  
  The sun was setting behind us as we flew. As 
  we rounded a sharp outcropping, it seemed like 
  a hundred flaming amber dewdrops were lining 
  the cliffs before us. As we approached, I could 
  see the golden disks better – they were not 
  giant gems but the eyes of the kenku, glowing 
  gold in the sunset as they all clung to rock 
  spurs and perches and looked west down the 
  Estuary. It would take me weeks to learn that 
  this was their typical evening ritual – what 
  significance it may have for them I could never 
  determine, though it did not seem to be 
  worship. Only the rulers of the nest fail to 
  appear for the farewell to the sun; perhaps this 
  one penalty of their bloated size.  
  The nest-caves were honeycombed in the 
  beetling cliff of sandstone, irregular domed 
  passages 10’ in diameter. Numerous chambers 
  lay off the passages, for purposes of which I 
  which I will paint presently.  The rooms which 
  overlooked the silt estuary below were shaded 
  by narrow ledges and overhanging stone like 
  awnings, no doubt to make the disguise of the 
  place more complete.  
  I was roughly dragged into a large room well 
  within the caves and cast down before the 
  Nestlord and Priestess Consort of the 
  Kk’rass’atk, two huge kenku taller than elves 
  and as massively built as tareks. There were no 
  preliminaries, no questions – the huge 
  Nestlord immediately probed me, searching my 
  mind for exactly what had happened to 
  T’trr’ack in the hands of the dwarves. Hiding 
  myself wasn’t hard, and the false memories I 
  had created were plausible – but it was difficult 
  maintaining the illusion of a bird mind.  
  As the Nestlord rampaged through my mind, I 
  realized with sudden horror that he had more 
  familiarity with T’trr’ack than one would 
  expect between a tribal leader and a lowly 
  journeyman (later, when I had seen more of 
  the nest, I recalled the Priestess Consort’s 
  bloated abdomen, and realized that all the 
  kenku in the band were hatched from her eggs, 
  and therefore the Nestlord’s own children). I 
  took quick action to hide my own mind more 
  deeply, pretending memory loss. Despite his 
  suspicions about T’trr’ack’s curious memory 
  losses and unverifiable tale, the Nestlord 
  decided that his son T’trr’ack could live, but 
  henceforth as a slave to the nest, no longer a 
  member of the tribe. In token of my status I 
  had to have my (illusory) wings clipped 
  permanently. This is standard practice with 
  strange and estranged kenku, I learned – in 
  addition I was watched, but I had some 
  freedom of movement. In fact it was just as 
  well I was prevented from flying, as it would 
  have been a chore that quickly exhausted me.  
  Over several weeks of performing menial tasks 
  in the rough caves and tunnels of the nest, I 
  despaired of ever getting any of the other 
  kenku to talk to me. They regarded me as a 
  slave to the tribe, a nameless creature unworthy 
  of speech – all kenku from other tribes, or 
  soiled by the unblessed, are treated in this way. 
  I doubt that different bands of kenku ever 
  associate with one another. Each is an island, 
  hidden, suspicious, and xenophobic.  
  For an isolated band, there seemed to be 
  significant diversity among the Kk’rass’atk. 
  Most of the males were seven feet tall, with 
  glossy brown feathers and large yellow beaks, 
  while the females were slightly shorter, often 
  with speckled tan and brown feathers. Some 
  kenku were darker, or had patterns of darker 
  feathers, however, and several of the females 
  were a uniform sand color. All had the 
  distinctive large golden eyes.  
  Since I was impersonating a male kenku, I was 
  given male tasks to perform. I hauled things 
  through the nest, cut fungus for the females to 
  distill, and waited on the tables of the Nestlord 
  and Priestess Consort. Since male kenku are 
  about as strong as male humans, the hauling 
  was taxing work. All things considered, I could 
  have been happier sitting on eggs with the 
  females in the nest!  
  One of the more onerous duties I acquired 
  was that of minding the colonies of renks that 
  the Kk’rass’atk kept in their deeper caves. The 
  bird-men cast their droppings, and the offal 
  from their meals, into pits in the deepest of the 
  nest’s caves, where these leavings are fed to 
  colonies of nauseous renks. The renks of the 
  Kk’rass’atk grew to more than four feet long, 
  glistening slimy things that groups of kenku 
  would fall upon at once, tearing apart alive as 
  they bespattered their feathers with slug 
  entrails. As a slave, I was spared participation 
  in such rituals, being given only the wretched 
  leavings to eat in dark corners.  
   But as weeks passed I learned more and more 
  about kenku minds. I was able to skim 
  information from my companions, first 
  sparingly and then more effectively. I learned 
  that the Nestlord and Priestess Consort were 
  parents to all the other kenku in the band. 
  They gained their vast size because they 
  received extra shares of food, food which 
  allowed them to reproduce constantly but 
  which made them too large for all but the most 
  ungainly of flight. I never did see the breeding 
  pair leave the nest, and they always seemed to 
  walk stiffly and slowly.  
  The Nestlord and Priestess Consort indeed 
  come to require their additional food – several 
  times I was pecked for failing to ensure they 
  received all they desired before parceling out 
  renks or mekillot flesh to the others. Breeders 
  
   
   
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  who are returned to normal rations dwindle 
  and die.  
  When a Nestlord or Priestess Consort does 
  die, the vacant place is filled by one of the 
  younger kenku. The larger or bolder males will 
  fight for domination to replace the Nestlord, 
  while females who seek the place of the 
  Priestess Consort declare their candidacy and 
  await the choice of the elements. Losers in 
  these contests do not survive.  
  When the kenku nest grows too large, beyond 
  50 perhaps, the Nestlord and Priestess Consort 
  permit the older and more accomplished 
  members of the nest to challenge one another. 
  The rituals are the same as occur when one of 
  the breeding pair dies, but in this case the 
  winners do not claim places in the nest but are 
  driven out to found a new nest. Members of 
  the original nest fly out with the new breeding 
  pair, driving them away from the original nest, 
  and then leave them to fend for themselves. 
  Once laid, the kenku eggs are gathered by the 
  nest’s females and removed to special 
  chambers away from the breeding pair. The 
  females which have not been blessed by Silt’s 
  favor are tasked to sit upon the eggs. Only 
  about half the eggs are allowed to hatch, 
  however. Periodically the Nestlord emerges 
  from his chambers to inspect all the eggs, 
  psionically determining whether the hatchling 
  inside has the ability to psionically converge. 
  Those which lack this essential skill – used by 
  the kenku not only for combat but also for 
  most sorts of social interaction – are left 
  unhatched.  
  How and what other kenku worship I do not 
  know, but the Kk’rass’atk tribe adheres to the 
  faith of Silt. Based on gleanings from their 
  minds, I think they have a profound fear of the 
  element that daily threatens them with choking 
  duststorms, blinding sand rains, and the Grey 
  Death. Yet they believe that the Silt also guards 
  them, by keeping outsiders away, and that their 
  reverence for it offers them some protection 
  from its worst ravages.  
  I saw no druids in the Kk’rass’atk nest. By 
  subtle interrogation of one of the senior 
  priestesses I learned, however, that kenku 
  druids do exist. These legendary kenku are 
  outcast, however, driven from the nest when 
  they adopt guarded lands. Kenku place 
  absolute loyalty in the Nestlord and Priestess 
  Consort – druidic devotion to guarded lands 
  interferes with this obedience. No doubt kenku 
  druids are not only extremely rare but well-
  hidden – if entire tribes of kenku can exist 
  unseen for generations, consider how easily a 
  single druid could remain unknown!  
  The Kk’rass’atk, are poor warriors but clever 
  traders. They are all adept with their clawed 
  hands, and can pick pockets and do other fine 
  work with ease. I think they all must be natural 
  rogues, gifted with bard-like skills. As they age, 
  the young ones learn more advanced thieving 
  skills, and the males are tutored in tradecraft 
  and psionics. Female kenku learn to tend eggs, 
  and how to perform the various rituals of the 
  Silt faith.  
  Male kenku are sent out by the Nestlord on 
  trading ventures. The Metalseeker, an advanced 
  trader and mindbender (by kenku standards), 
  carefully plans his patrol’s route, meticulously 
  noting all the cached food supplies and secret 
  camps that his band will use on their journey. I 
  saw several chambers filled with crude maps, 
  where the Metalseekers draft their plans – I 
  think they are careful to avoid areas where they 
  have had troubles in the past, and also they 
  make sure not to visit the same places too 
  frequently, even if they have proven safe and 
  profitable.  
  The Metalseeking bands take little with them 
  to actually trade, for the kenku produce little 
  that is of value to others. A few bone trinkets 
  and tools, or small stone carvings, such were 
  their wares. From the minds of several 
  returning traders I confirmed that these 
  pittances were used only as models or base 
  material for psionically-created false goods, 
  which the kenku pass off as real. They then 
  move on, or alter their psionically-masked 
  appearances, to avoid retribution when the 
  false goods vanish.  
  Once a Metalseeking band returned with 
  several bags of metal coins and fragments. The 
  Nestlord was very pleased, and I was ordered 
  to drag the loot to the coldsmith. Kenku are 
  nervous about fire, so they work metal not 
  with furnaces but with psionics. The coldsmiths 
  are mindbenders skilled in reshaping previously 
  forged metal into forms the kenku need. They 
  have little ability to smelt, refine, or forge metal 
  themselves. Now I understood the tribe’s eager 
  desire to gain worked metal in trade.  
  Kenku do not use metal in the ways we do, for 
  soldiers’ weapons and critical tools. Instead 
  they almost exclusively use metal in specialized 
  hunting weapons. Kenku are poor hunters, as a 
  rule, as they are poor warriors, but they do take 
  prey. The Kk’rass’atk hunt with massive darts, 
  which they call “wind anchors”. A wind anchor 
  is a 4’ long dart made of carefully worked 
  stone, hollowed out and fitted with heavy 
  metal plugs (I saw one plug that weighed 5 lbs 
  or more). The plug is shaped to fit the stone 
  cylinder, positioned so that impact will force 
  the plug down and thus squeeze out the poison 
  contained in the wind anchor’s sharpened tip.  
  Kenku hunters patrol over the desert alone, 
  each carrying a single wind anchor. The hunter 
  drops the anchor from a great height, using his 
  excellent vision and estimates of the wind to 
  strike the target. The anchor’s great weight and 
  streamlined shape reduce the effects of wind. 
  The force of impact causes the metal plug or 
  plunger to force the anchor’s poison out of its 
  reservoir and into the prey.  
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  31 
  I grew accustomed to the ritual of the 
  Kk’rass’atk hunt. The successful hunter would 
  appear back at the nest, squawking and fluffing 
  its feathers to declare its triumph. The other 
  kenku – the true members of the nest, not the 
  lowly slaves – would swiftly collect flensing 
  poles and tarps and fly out with the hunter to 
  carve up the carcass. Flensing poles are 10’ 
  bone poles, or spears, fitted with razor-sharp 
  metal blades, which the kenku coldsmiths form 
  out of forged metals. These flensing poles are 
  too valuable to be used in battle, and are kept 
  secure in the nest when the tribe is not out 
  hacking up prey. When they had cut the carcass 
  into chunks of bearable weight and size, the 
  kenku would use the tarps as slings and haul 
  the meat back to the nest. All this was done 
  with the greatest urgency, for the tribe felt 
  vulnerable and afraid gathered in such numbers 
  in the open waste.  
  In the depths of the nest are the chambers 
  where meat is kept in cold storage, and where 
  the flensing poles are stored. The Kk’rass’atk 
  caves extended more than 100’ into the cliffs, 
  and had several levels – the inner chambers 
  were cool enough to preserve meat for several 
  days. Longer storage was not needed, for the 
  kenku gorge themselves when food is plentiful 
  and then rely on renks and small insects until 
  the next large kill.  
  Between the chambers for meat storage and 
  the renk colonies in the very bowels of the 
  cave were two large rooms where the 
  Kk’rass’atk grow their fungus. The kenku eat 
  only meat, but they grow a nasty green-yellow 
  striated bracket fungus which the females distill 
  down into the tribe’s hunting poison. The 
  fungus is hard and woody, and produces little 
  juice, so vast quantities must be grown in order 
  to accumulate enough poison for the wind 
  anchors.  
  The kenku make use of the large fungus 
  chambers by using them to teach the very 
  youngest of their kind how to fly. As soon as 
  hatchlings are old enough, the females bring 
  them to ledges in the fungus chambers and 
  show them how to fly. Once the fledglings can 
  handle gliding from the rooms’ highest ledges 
  down to the floor, they are permitted to 
  practice outside the nest on the cliffs over the 
  silt.  
  Watching the young kenku learn to fly, I 
  plotted my escape. I had been among them for 
  four months, and the stench of renk innards 
  was driving me mad. Kenku get all their water 
  from meat, they do not drink, and they take 
  dust-baths, so there was no water anywhere in 
  the nest. I had learned all I could, and was 
  determined to escape further torment by the 
  feather lice that plagued the caves, so one night 
  after the Kk’rass’atk returned inside after 
  sunset, and darkness was deep, I accidentally fell 
  off one of the ledges and into the silt below. If 
  any of the Kk’rass’atk saw me fall, they didn’t 
  consider a slave worth rescuing. 
  -Spymaster Andapho 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  32 
  Wisdom of Terror
  Foreward 
  You think you have known the Eldaarish: 
  Short, skinny, grey eyes, that certain 
  complexion of the face. So humble and servile 
  in the first generation; so bold, brazen and 
  angry in the second generation. You call these 
  people refugees, but you know little of the 
  place called Eldaarich, and less of the terrors 
  that drive these refugees to take refuge in a life 
  of Kurnan slavery. 
  Such a frightened, submissive people, you 
  think. They slink penniless to your gates, 
  asking timidly for work. They embrace the role 
  of slavery as worms take to the soil; they 
  refuse to learn to write your characters, or to 
  shoot your longbows, even though learning 
  these skills would entitle them to the privileges 
  and duties of citizens. When asked questions, 
  they answer loudly and clearly but deferentially. 
  They rarely initiate a conversation with a 
  Kurnan, and speak in whispers with their 
  spouse and children. If you stare at them 
  without speaking, they tremble.  
  The Eldaarish refugees seem like a meek and 
  cowardly people. Yet their children born in 
  Kurn grow as tall as Kurnans, become 
  prominent citizens, and often out-compete 
  your children at contests of wit, will, and 
  strength. How curious that the children of the 
  meek will inherit your city.  
  How you must fear us. An elf, dwarf, herder, 
  Drylander, or even child of the bandit state 
  that puts down roots in Kurn’s foreign quarter, 
  and finds employment in a clave, is accepted as 
  citizen, and her child is called a child of  Kurn. 
  The child of Eldaarish parents is called 
  Eldaarish, even though he is a citizen and a 
  skilled artisan in his guild, even though she has 
  served three times as the King’s spy and now 
  shares his name and bed. No one will ever call 
  me a child of  Kurn, for terror hides in my 
  shadow. 
  ou know Eldaarich as a place of terrible 
  oppression, a place of famine and terror. Until 
  I returned from my veteran mission, you 
  thought that Eldaarich was oppressive in the 
  same ways as the Seven Cities, only more so. 
  You debriefed dozens of Eldaarish refugees, 
  who all told you similar stories, which you 
  assumed to be the truth. They told you what 
  you wanted to hear.  
  Daskinor’s Lands 
  Daskinor’s lands include the Dim Lands, and a 
  separate volcanic chain known as the Huuros 
  Islands. The Dim Lands include the South 
  Guard fort on the mainland, and four islands 
  linked by bridges. A single silt port runs 
  skimmers to the Huuros volcano cluster, which 
  contain Eldaarich’s most productive mines.  
  The Mud Quarry 
  Four miles east of South Guard is the mud 
  quarry, the only source of water that I saw in 
  the Dim Lands: a deep-cliffed cove walled off 
  from the silt to expose the mud dozens of feet 
  beneath the silt’s surface. Buckets of mud are 
  pulleyed up the cliffs from the quarry, and 
  water is extracted from the mud in the villages 
  above. The villagers that quarry the mud live in 
  ledges in the rock beneath the cliffs. I could 
  hear the creaking of the pulleys all day and all 
  night.  
  The Bridges 
  Five great stone bridges connect the mainland 
  and the four islands that make up the Dim 
  Lands. How these bridges were built simply 
  baffles my imagination. Decades of labor have 
  not completed the bridge at Ledopoldus, and 
  even if Ledopoldans ever complete their 
  project, any of the five Eldaarish bridges 
  would dwarf it.  
    
   
  Fort Mudwatch is designed to keep intruders 
  out, and (just as importantly) to keep the 
  villagers in. Portions of the bridges appear 
  retractable, but I never saw them drawn in. 
  Security seems to rely more on fear than on 
  actual force. Like all Eldaarish architecture, the 
  fortresses seem designed to frighten and 
  intimidate. The watch towers cast threatening 
  shadows across the bridges. Crossing the 
  bridge on foot, one feels as vulnerable as a fly 
  on a white-painted wall. 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  33 
    
   
  Grey Death 
  While there are days where the sky is clear and 
  even the horizon is visible, typically the silt stirs 
  up so that you cannot see farther than sixty 
  feet. One day in three the sun is blocked out 
  and you will need a candle, and still cannot see 
  more than ten feet in front of you. One day in 
  six the air is too thick to breathe without a 
  filter. Drylander Merchants call this 
  phenomenon “the grey death.” The Eldaarish 
  have no name for it; they take it for granted.  
  Since island winds may stir up grey death at 
  any instant, Eldaarish commoners and slaves 
  live and breathe in the masks that the 
  merchants call silters. While the peoples of the 
  Seven Cities go uncovered day to day, and 
  harden their skins from the sun, the Eldaarish 
  (like the Kurnans) are loathe to uncover their 
  bodies, since the sun would burn their 
  overprotected skin. Speaking from experience, 
  I can tell you that the Eldaarish black robes are 
  unbearably hot. They wear these robes from 
  sunrise to sunset, and hide in their brick 
  houses during the night. The silt in the air and 
  around the islands tends to muffle most 
  sounds. A shout does not travel far in 
  Eldaarish air, and The Eldaarish try to get by 
  with gestures when they are outside. When 
  they have to speak, they speak loudly, to 
  overcome not only the muffling of the silt, but 
  the constant sound of the heartbeat drums. 
  Heartbeat Drums 
  Unseen outposts keep up a constant 
  drumming on the islands day and night. While 
  I have broken most of the drum-code, I was 
  unable to ascertain exactly how it is that the 
  net of drummers passes messages from one 
  drummer to others miles away. What I can tell 
  you is that when one set of templars learns of 
  a problem, the message is transferred back to 
  the capital miles away within minutes, and 
  instructions return in the same medium -- all 
  without changes to the rhythm that could be 
  discerned by untrained ear. The drummers 
  must be extraordinarily skilled in both hand 
  and ear. 
  Broken Ground 
  Except for the island of Daskinor’s capital, the 
  isles of Eldaarich are riddled with tunnels and 
  craters. The Eldaarish mine the dim lands for 
  salt, for gems, and for the smoky fire-rock they 
  call coal. Empty and abandoned mines lay 
  gaping everywhere, and fearsome creatures are 
  said to dwell inside, and crawl out at night 
  searching for food. But at night the most 
  feared predators are the other villagers, who 
  often raid for goods when their own village 
  looks like it will fall sort on its quota.  
  Every few miles or so in the Dim Lands, a 
  rocky pillar juts from the ground. All of these 
  are narrow except for the great pillar known as 
  The Rock in Eldaarich. Our scholars say that 
  these pillars suggest that the Dim lands are 
  riddled with long-dead volcanoes, but rock-
  wisdom is beyond my ken. Several of the 
  pillars throughout the Dim lands are used as 
  drummer outposts. 
  The People of the Dim Islands 
  Thousands of peasants dwell in tiny isolated 
  villages, each administered by a headman. The 
  headman is given noble status for life — 
  however short that might be. Although the 
  villagers elect one of their own as headman, 
  the demands of the Red Guards will son place 
  the headman at odds with his community, and 
  he will oppress it as severely as the last one did.  
  Every week or so, the Red Guards arrive at the 
  village with a mekillot wagon. These red-robed, 
  masked templars bring the villages’ food and 
  water for the next week, and take the allotted 
  production quota of ore, finished goods, 
  quarried stone, or whatever else the village 
  produces. If the village does not produce the 
  allotted quota, the headman is slain in front of 
  the villagers, and the villagers are expected to 
  produced the full quota by the following week 
  without leadership. Each week, until they 
  succeed, the Red Guards will slay one of the 
  villagers as an example, and will cut the food 
  allotment. Red Guards tend to slay the 
  weakest, the children, or the elderly. When the 
  village finally meets the quota, they are 
  permitted to elect another headman. 
  The strangeness of these scenes is that they 
  occur wordlessly. In my five years in the 
  islands, I never once heard a Red Guard speak. 
  They communicate their will by signs or 
  gestures, but mostly the commoners and 
  headman are forced to guess what it is that Red 
  Guards require of them. When it comes to 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
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  precise matters such as quotas or new rules, 
  the Red Guards paint their messages on the 
  walls and on the streets. The elaborate 
  Eldaarish characters Kurnan characters look 
  like simple Kreen scribblings. All Eldaarish are 
  expected to read about a thousand word-
  characters, but only the templars are allowed to 
  write. 
  Eldaarish Literacy 
  Mereth presses me on the issue of Eldaarish 
  literacy, forcing me to dedicate a full section on 
  this tedious matter. Here it is: 
  You believe that your safety and freedom 
  derive from rights that are denied the Seven 
  cities: your right to read, and your right to 
  choose your leaders. Know now that in the 
  islands, the children of Eldaarich also enjoy 
  these skills -- possess them I should say, for they 
  do not enjoy them. Some find it impossible to 
  believe that Eldaarish commoners practice 
  reading, supposing that reading leads to free 
  thought and hence to a better, more Kurn-like 
  civilization. I could repeat myself until my 
  fingers were sore, and Mereth will still not 
  believe me: Eldaarish villagers read, and it does 
  not make them free. Whether Mereth likes it or 
  not, literacy can be used as a tool of 
  oppression, when only the oppressors can write, 
  and when the commoners can only read.  
  Others among my sister-spies do not accept 
  that someone could read an entire lifetime, and 
  never learn to write. I invite you to examine the 
  characters of the Eldaarish texts that I 
  painstakingly copied from the village walls. 
  Unlike the Kurnan script, which simplifies and 
  streamlines the Eldaarish characters, each 
  Eldaarish word-character is strikingly unique 
  (thus easy to recognize) and strikingly difficult 
  to duplicate. No schooling is necessary to learn 
  to recognize a thousand unique symbols, 
  especially when they are before you every day, 
  and others read them out loud. I have seen 
  teams of two or three Red Guards take nearly 
  half an hour to paint motivational catch-
  phrases such as Got Water?, Work Brings Freedom, 
  or Have you filled your quota? over the gates of a 
  village. I have seen them take as much as a full 
  hour to write inspiring suggestions such as The 
  work day begins with the heartbeat drums, and when 
  they stop, only the dead lie in their beds, Exchanges 
  with other villages are punishable by dismemberment, 
  or (my personal favorite) Do what you are told: 
  We are watching you.  
  The Red Guards bring longer writings 
  (consisting more than a few sentences) pre-
  painted on paper or leather, and simply fasten 
  them to the walls of the village fortresses. 
  Some of these literary works include timeless 
  titles such as Seventeen Mandatory Points of  Order 
  for a Contented and Prosperous Village. 
  Mereth marvels that Eldaarish villagers or 
  anyone would bother to read these pompous 
  and self-serving missives. My response is that I 
  have lived with them (Mereth has not!), and the 
  villagers study every word. Reading is the only 
  means of clear communication with the world 
  outside the village. Over centuries of enforced 
  isolation, the language of the various villages 
  have corrupted to mutually unrecognizable 
  dialects. Since the writings present virtually the 
  only communication outside the village, the 
  villagers pay close attention to every new 
  writing that becomes available. The only 
  available written texts that are authored by 
  templars, and posted on the walls. It is a deadly 
  offense for anyone else to author or alter texts. 
  One of the reasons that Daskinor so 
  vigorously hunted and exterminated 
  Eldaarich’s Veiled Alliance is that they began to 
  author and disseminate subversive texts. How I 
  wish I could have found one of these texts!  
  Eldaarish Trade 
  For ages, Eldaarich’s late Veiled Alliance 
  controlled a significant underground market 
  between the villages. Since the extermination 
  about four King’s Ages ago, only a few fugitive 
  peddlers have stepped in to fill this void, and 
  the absence of any sort of trade is killing the 
  villages, who for the first time are forced to 
  absolutely depend on the rations and supplies 
  provided by the Red Guards. The Red Guards 
  carry about requisition books, and when they 
  stop at the villages, the headmen can 
  requisition new tools, clothing and other goods 
  from the templars by pointing at the 
  appropriate symbols in the requisition books. 
  The Red Guards note the requisition, and 
  sometimes they deliver. Bribes rarely expedite 
  the process since no one can tell one Red 
  Guard from another beneath those heavy 
  masks.  
  Many villagers and headmen still possess gold, 
  silver, and ceramic coins minted with 
  Daskinor’s fading likeness. Villagers hardly 
  know what to do with these coins, now that 
  the Veiled Alliance is no more. The closest 
  thing to trade that I saw was the infrequent 
  visiting of traveling peddlers. If a village is 
  lucky, every few months one of these traveling 
  peddlers will come to the visit -- usually shortly 
  just after the Red Guards have left.  
  During the last weeks of my stay in the islands, 
  I observed that the Red Guards were bringing 
  more food and water than before, and that the 
  headmen’s requisitions seemed to be getting 
  filled. Notices painted on fortress walls 
  promised the villages actual bonuses of food, 
  water, money, and goods for exceeding the 
  quota. The villagers seemed to think that it was 
  some sort of trick, that the Red Guards were 
  trying to lure subversives and gluttons into the 
  open with more benevolent laws. The headmen 
  would rather pass on the reward, and hoard the 
  surplus, in case one week the production falls 
  short.  
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  35 
  Defense in the Villages 
  Working from dust until dawn, living in fear, 
  restricted from wearing armor or carrying 
  weapons, you would hardly expect the villagers 
  to develop and refine an art of war. And yet 
  they have done precisely that. Each village 
  contains at most eight or nine large buildings 
  housing 10-20 people each, and includes an 
  formidable outer wall and a defensible gate.  
  The villagers use tools as weapons, and 
  regularly practice fighting with extraordinarily 
  un-weapon-like weapons: rocks and ropes, 
  poles and picks ... I once saw a whole village 
  practicing to use their buckets as bludgeoning 
  weapons. Some weapons require assembly 
  before combat: gauntlets filled with gravel and 
  tied to belts... the villagers have an amazing 
  capacity for weapon improvisation. The 
  peddlers that I mentioned are masters of this 
  art, and often spend long hours teaching these 
  defenses to the villagers. 
  Eldaarish Martial Arts 
  One of the few things that my parents ever 
  taught me about their land, was the Eldaarish 
  martial art cuurnu, whose name roughly 
  translates to serenity. I never understood why 
  my parents refused to learn the Kurnan 
  longbow and the spear, and yet secretly 
  practiced an art of fighting with household 
  tools. In my sojourn in the islands, I came to 
  understand that cuurnu  is not simply a means 
  of defense, but a means of communication 
  and a means of holding onto sanity in their 
  insane land. At the initiate level, the martial art 
  uses the ubiquitous drums to provide a rhythm 
  for the fighting, although at the higher levels 
  of mastery, the rhythm comes from within the 
  mind of the fighter. Cuurnu also seems to 
  provide advantages to fighting in darkness or 
  dim conditions (since the grey death is so 
  prevalent in the islands). Of all the martial arts 
  that I have encountered, cuurnu seemed the 
  closest to psionics. In cuurnu, a dance can 
  contain a poem, and fight often communicates 
  an argument as well as actual blows. 
  Combatants that look as if to tear each others 
  throats out, may suddenly stop in mid swing. It 
  seems inexplicable to the ignorant, but if you 
  understood cuurnu, you would understand that 
  they had resolved their differences through this 
  language of gestures, and no longer needed to 
  fight.  
  There is only so much information I can paint 
  on these cards. If the spymasters would allow 
  me to teach you, I would teach you these skills. 
  Certainly no spy should think of visiting the 
  Dim Lands without knowledge of cuurnu, 
  since it is the sole method of communication 
  between the villages. Years of isolation have 
  reduced the villagers to separate, mutually 
  unintelligible dialects. It is difficult to explain, 
  but the Eldaarish martial art provides gestures 
  and postures that communicate ideas, allowing 
  battling villages to negotiate a cease-fire, and 
  allowing the master peddlers to hawk their 
  wares to the villages. 
  The Master Peddlers 
  Every few months, a hooded, dirty-robed 
  peddler approaches the village, carrying a 
  mountain of goods in a pack. These visits 
  usually occur hours after the Red Guards have 
  left the village -- since if the Guards find the 
  peddler, they will slay him.  
  You would think that the villagers would 
  welcome these travelers, but the climate of fear 
  in the Dim Lands is such that every peddler 
  must be tested. When an unknown peddler 
  comes to a village, the villagers usually send 
  their best warriors to try to kill him, since he 
  could be a rival villager or a templar spy. 
  During the brief time of testing, the peddler 
  refrains from killing the warriors, as a token of 
  friendship to the village. When the village’s 
  strongest all lie bruised or unconscious on the 
  ground, the peddler spreads his wares and 
  trade begins.  
  All of these peddlers are masters of the 
  Eldaarish martial art. They master not only the 
  combat side of the art, but improvise or mime 
  with the postures and gestures, to the point 
  where they can communicate entire stories. I 
  have seen the master peddlers telling these 
  stories for hours, as the villagers (especially the 
  young children!) sit rapt in total silence. I have 
  even seen the villagers share their meager food 
  and drink with the best storytellers. 
  Villagers who perfect their technique often 
  apprentice to a master peddler, and leave the 
  terrible life of the villages. As a parting gift to 
  their families, the apprentice-to-be assists her 
  village on a final raid against a rival village, in 
  order to obtain a body to give the templars, so 
  that the village is not punished for her 
  “escape”. Let another village pay the price. It is 
  how things are done in the dim isles.  
  The few great masters of the Eldaarish martial 
  art do not peddle wares at all, but act as priests 
  and teachers to the peddlers, who pay them 
  honor and tribute in exchange for training. At 
  least one of these great masters is also a master 
  of the Way. 
  The Headmen 
  If the Dim Lands are a “prison-state,” as some 
  say, then headmen are the trustees. The Red 
  Guards despise the headmen as they do the 
  other villagers, but the headmen dress and live 
  as privileged nobles within their village.  
  When a headman is elected, the Red Guard see 
  to it that he is quickly isolated from his former 
  peers. The day that he is elected, the Red 
  Guards remove him for days of intense 
  training. The headman returns pale and 
  unwilling to speak of what he have endured. 
  Furthermore, the headmen are not permitted 
  to wear the mask or the clothing of the 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  36 
  villagers. They are dressed in gilded clothing 
  that never becomes dusty or dirty, and they 
  wear a thin golden collar that seems to 
  magically allow the headman to breathe the 
  siltiest air without injury. headmen are also 
  armed with weapons and scourges to frighten 
  their people into obedience and hard work. 
  The headmen have discretion to determine 
  who works and who rests, who eats and who 
  starves, who gets water for their silt-masks, and 
  who chokes. And yet the villagers possess 
  power over their headman’s life: if they fail to 
  meet the quota, the headman dies. Sometimes 
  this mutual fear brings peace and 
  productiveness to a village, and a few headmen 
  have lived to die of old age or gluttony. 
  The Red Guards 
  To maintain the terrifying isolation between 
  the villages, only the Red Guards travel 
  legitimately between villages, and between the 
  villages and the capital. Their silent dominance 
  holds the villages in a pitiless grip. Not a single 
  village that I saw had its own well or source of 
  grain -- all of this comes from the Red Guards. 
  Some of the villages raise flocks of cattle, but 
  they are not allowed to slay them, on penalty 
  of death. The more clever villages raise hidden 
  caves of mushrooms to supplement the food 
  ration, but to be caught is death. The law says 
  that those not content to live from the king’s hand will 
  die by the king’s boot. 
  When the Red Guards come to collect the 
  quota and to deliver the food and water, they 
  also make a count of the villagers, and collect 
  the dead. They do not keep names, but they 
  keep count of the villagers, and if anyone is 
  missing for the count, two people’s rations are 
  cut permanently from the village’s food and 
  water, and the quota is not decreased. For this 
  reason, whole villages conspire to prevent each 
  other from escaping. When a fellow villager 
  does escape, the village sometimes resorts to 
  extreme measures such as killing someone 
  from another village so as to have a body to 
  give the Red Guards. Once in a great while, an 
  entire village has tried to make a break 
  together. They rarely get far. Those that do 
  make it usually find their way to the gate of 
  Kurn, where they live prosperously as your 
  slaves, while you Kurnans snigger at their 
  fearful demeanors. 
  The Stalkers 
  The Red Guards do not represent the villagers’ 
  greatest fear. When darkness creeps in and 
  candles burn out, I saw the parents trembling. 
  Huddled their stone fortresses, they told of 
  invisible monsters that stole babies, or 
  switched them in their cradles. I thought these 
  stories superstition, until I first perceived a 
  Stalker in the act. 
  I have managed to capture, examine, and 
  destroy nearly a dozen of these Stalkers, and I 
  have stalked over a hundred. Some were 
  defiler-wizards. Most were mindbenders. Most 
  of them were living beings, human defilers and 
  mindbenders. Four of them (clearly the most 
  powerful ones) were corporeal undead. I 
  suspect that Daskinor kills his defilers and 
  mindbenders when they reach a certain level of 
  ability, so that he might control them more 
  completely. Since the undead never die, 
  Eldaarich may be filled with legions of undead 
  mindbenders. 
  The Stalkers’ duties appear to include 
  patrolling the countryside, spying on the 
  villagers and templars, relaying messages to the 
  drummers — and stealing and replacing 
  babies. From a practical standpoint, I suppose 
  this business of exchanging babies is 
  Daskinor’s method of preventing inbreeding 
  without breaking the isolation. Even among 
  the templars – I observed the Stalkers spying 
  on their homes as well, in the outskirts of the 
  capital. It stands to reason that their babies are 
  exchanged as well. Standing at the crossways, I 
  used the Way to see Stalkers carrying babies 
  towards the capital, or away from the capital. I 
  assume that they use magic or the Way to 
  determine which children show promise at 
  defiling, priestcraft, or the Way, and which 
  children should be given to the villagers. I 
  doubt that more than half of Eldaarish 
  children are switched by this means. The 
  parents guard the babies furiously, and the 
  stalkers seem unwilling to risk being seen or 
  detected. Surprisingly, the villagers raise the 
  changeling child even though it is not their own. 
  Their practical reason: the templars provide an 
  adult’s allotment of food and water for every 
  baby or child in the village, and do not include 
  a matching adult’s share in the production 
  quota. When the Stalkers are not performing 
  the duties that I described above, they return 
  to the capital.  
  The Wraiths 
  The villagers whisper stories of Stalkers taking 
  possession of a living person, but I believe that 
  they are referring to the actions of the 
  incorporeal undead that Eldaarish templars 
  refer to as The Founders. One of these creatures 
  saw through my disguise once, and I barely 
  escaped with my life. I suspect that these 
  Founders are Wraiths. 
  Occasionally during wartime, whole village 
  populations disappear. Given that the villagers 
  never are permitted to touch weapons, the fact 
  that I never saw a standing Eldaarish army 
  other than the Red Guard, and the stories of 
  savage and fearless Eldaarish warriors that 
  pour out of South Guard and Silt Side, I 
  believe that Daskinor uses wraith-possessed 
  villagers to fight his wars. Wraith-possession 
  could also explain how the demoralized drug-
  ridden thugs that oversee South Guard, 
  manage to stave off the mantis horde attacks 
  year after year. 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  37 
  Think of the possibilities. the wraith-possessed 
  Eldaarish squads attack fearlessly, with keen 
  tactics honed over thousands of years of 
  experience, they fight savagely to the death … 
  but only the living person dies. The wraiths 
  creep out of their bodies subtly after the battle, 
  leaving Daskinor’s real army intact.  
  Our templars, alchemists and wizards should 
  devise an area attack that harms only the 
  undead. It has been decades since our last 
  skirmish with Eldaarich, but our allies in 
  Winter’s Nest could use an effective weapon. 
  The Dead Farmers 
  While much of the grain that feeds the 
  Dimlanders is now purchased from Kurn, this 
  has not always been so. I found farmlands 
  outside the outer walls of the capital, and 
  farmers dressed as villagers: black robes and 
  silters. At first I assumed that those who 
  produced the food are slaves, as they are in 
  most of the seven cities. But the absence of 
  headman supervisors, and the fact that they 
  work from dusk until dawn, suggests a darker 
  secret about those who harvest the soil. I 
  found that beneath those masks and suits are 
  the animated corpses and skeletons. Daskinor 
  trusts no living soul to harvest food, lest they 
  eat the fruits of their own labor and cease to 
  eat from his hand. 
  Eldaarish Nobles technically own the fertile 
  lands around the capital, but the mansions on 
  their outer estates are ruined and desolate. The 
  nobles live within the city walls of Eldaarich, 
  and only leave the capital to assign the undead 
  laborers provided by the templars, to replace 
  broken agricultural tools, and to carry baskets 
  of harvested grain to the templars, who in turn 
  dispense back to the nobles what they can eat. 
  Other Eldaarish nobles own herds, and use 
  living slaves to tend them, but these herds are 
  pastured within the city. 
  The City of Eldaarich 
  While each village is a fortress into itself, 
  Eldaarich, the capital, is monstrous to behold. 
  The stonework of Eldaarich is exquisite, 
  designed to arrest the heart with horror and 
  dismay. Despite appearances, I found it 
  surprisingly easy to penetrate Eldaarich’s walls, 
  dressed in the robes and mask of a Red Guard. 
  As long as I did not use psionics, as long as I 
  looked like I was about my business, no one 
  intercepted me as I moved through the gates 
  of black stone. 
  Within the walls of Eldaarich, the ground 
  slopes to the center like a bowl, and then levels 
  in a central oval called the inner city. The sloping 
  outer city includes a small noble district, and the 
  rest is filled with the houses and caves of free 
  citizens. The flat inner city at the center includes 
  the city arena, the Temple of Founders, the 
  Temple of the King’s Eye, and hundreds of 
  privileged citizens who for some reason I was 
  unable to fathom live alongside the templars in 
  newer houses at the city center. At the south-
  eastern edge of the inner city, the Rock, 
  Daskinor’s high citadel, juts up like a half-
  melted candle, climbing to far above the top 
  walls of the city. A steep bridge climbs from 
  the eastern edge of the inner city, to the lower 
  gates of the Rock. Prisoners, alive, dead, and 
  undead, hang in cages beneath the bridge.  
  If you manage, as I did, to look down on the 
  city from the citadel above, the purpose behind 
  this insane layout becomes frighteningly clear. 
  Most of the homes in the city have a dome or 
  flat roof made of glass -- giving the king a 
  clear view into the building itself. It is as if to 
  tell the king: we have nothing to hide.  
  It seems that Daskinor has problems with 
  trust. 
  Around the rim of the inner city, a number of 
  barred trap doors lead to various under-villages 
  of laborers. Under-villagers live, work, breed, and 
  die underground, without ever seeing the sun, 
  stars, or sky. 
  The Temple of the King’s Boot 
  The low, flat, windowless building of the Red 
  Guards sits undisturbed near the Northern 
  gates of the city. Free citizens are expected to 
  contribute at least one qualified boy per 
  generation to the Red Guard or to the Shtas, 
  the Eldaarish order that oversees the slave 
  village of South Guard. The child is selected 
  before it can speak, and the parents never hear 
  from him again. However, they are permitted 
  to burn a red candle in the window, to indicate 
  their contribution to the city. Households 
  without red candles burning are sometimes 
  looted and vandalized by the Red Guard. 
  The Temple of the King’s Hand 
  In Eldaarich, you find that not all of 
  Daskinor’s templars are Red Guards. In fact, 
  the white-garbed templars of The Temple of 
  the King’s Hand, also known as the King’s 
  Handmaidens, seem as kindly as any Eldaarish. 
  The handmaidens are responsible for all of 
  Eldaarich’s legal food distribution. They are 
  also the templars most often in Daskinor’s 
  personal presence ... they nurse him to health 
  during his fits of insanity, or I should rather say 
  they labor to prolong his brief  episodes of  lucidity. 
  Supposedly, the Handmaidens are never 
  allowed to leave the city. My guess is that 
  Eldaarich’s current experiment with rational 
  inter-city trade is due to a handmaiden who 
  somehow obtained permission to travel to Silt 
  Side. I am fairly confident that Azeth does not 
  negotiate with the Red Guards! 
  The Temple of  the King’s Hand is the 
  Handmaiden’s complex of storehouses and 
  bakeries, surrounded with a high brown walls 
  covered in murals of bounteous harvests. Food 
  is exchanged for ceramic coins through barred 
  windows, and citizens of Eldaarich often 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  38 
  spend hours waiting in line for bread. Food is 
  illegally available in private establishments in 
  the Free district, but the prices are gouging. 
  Most of the handmaidens do not live in the 
  King’s Hand complex, but in the citadel itself, 
  with the King. 
  The Temple of the King’s Eye 
  Few set foot beyond the open gate, into the 
  circular pavilion of the Temple of the King’s 
  Eye. The Stalkers keep this temple, but the 
  Eldaarish never see them, and fear this place as 
  they fear the King. This is a place of judgment. 
  Only the most desperate of plaintiffs ever calls 
  for the King’s judgment, but when they do, the 
  accuser and accused are escorted by templars 
  to the Pavilion of the King’s Eye, where both 
  accuser and accused are interrogated until they 
  both collapse weeping and half-insane on the 
  pavilion floor. The condemned parties 
  (sometimes the accused, sometimes the 
  accuser, and often both) finally confess and 
  shriek out their own sentences. 
  The Temple of Founders 
  The Temple of  Founders is a partially open 
  complex of ancient buildings next to the city 
  arena. The Founders are a few hundred statues 
  of ancient templars, warriors, and heroes of 
  Eldaarich. Some of these statues are reputed to 
  speak, and to command the thousands of 
  wraiths that inhabit the lower levels of the 
  temple. I do not know if the Founders are real, 
  or if the statues are simply possessed by 
  wraiths; most likely the Founders are the 
  wraiths themselves, and the statues are the 
  images of the people that they once were, or 
  imagine that they were. 
  The Nobles often consult with the Founders 
  while running the Arena games next door.  
  The Founders also consult with the Red Guard 
  raiding parties that sometimes leave the Dim 
  lands against the herders, the Aarakokra, and, 
  until an age ago, against Kurnan villages. 
  Sometimes these hunting parties are 
  accompanied by wraith-possessed  villagers, 
  who return to Eldaarich with foreign prisoners 
  and animals who are to die in the arena games, 
  for the entertainment of Daskinor and his 
  people. 
  Orkuta Temple 
  Across from the Temple of the King’s Hand in 
  New Market Square, another set of templars, 
  the blue-robed Haleban, sell the worked goods 
  brought in by the Red Guards. For some 
  reason the Haleban seem to be contained to 
  the inner city, but not to the citadel. The 
  Haleban have an odd collection of duties – 
  they oversee construction of public works, 
  distribute worked goods, and run the state 
  schools. They are totally unarmed except for 
  walking canes, live alongside privileged citizens 
  within the inner city, and yet for some reason 
  the Eldaarish seem to fear them as much as 
  they fear the Red Guards.  
  The Rock 
  Built on a great basalt pillar, the King’s citadel, 
  known as The Rock, looms hundreds of feet 
  above the city, its insane spire rising above the 
  highest dust clouds. Most of the citadel is 
  empty, except for a few favorites - unfortunate 
  handmaidens who are condemned to spend 
  every moment soothing the erratic King. 
  I noted another organization in the citadel: 
  The Watchers, a group of powerful psions who 
  maintain the unparalleled psionic defenses over 
  the Dim Lands. The Watchers spend days at a 
  time in a state of convergence, dropping out to 
  rest and regain psychic strength. At least one 
  of the converged psions must be living, so that 
  the Watchers can switch personalities with an 
  unfortunate whose harbinger crosses their 
  interceptive fields. As you may have heard 
  from the school gossips, this is how my own 
  interesting sojourn into Eldaarich began. 
  Be warned. Do not scry the Dim Lands. Do 
  not use telepathy to contact someone who is 
  near the borders of the Dim Lands -- unless 
  you think you can best a dozen converged 
  mindbenders. 
  Postscript: Eldaarich in Recent 
  Years -- and Future Ages 
  In the six years since I first painted Wisdom of 
  Terror, the number of Eldaarish refugees has 
  increased, and they bring stories of changes 
  within the Dim Lands that I have chosen to 
  add to my card. After decades of persistence, 
  House Azeth has managed to open negotiation 
  with Eldaarish templars, and so for the first 
  time in ages, Kurnan food, water, and clothing 
  are exchanged for Eldaarish gold, silver, and 
  copper through Azeth’s trade village at Silt 
  Side.  
  Recent Eldaarish refugees also bring back talk 
  of an anti-psionic purge in Eldaarich – even 
  the templars banned from using psionics on 
  pain of death. It is not that I think Daskinor is 
  too sane to make such a blunder, but rather 
  than I find the news too good to believe. If 
  this news were true, and if the prohibition 
  held, then Daskinor’s ages-old hold on the 
  islands would falter. There is no way he could 
  have kept such tight control for two thousand 
  years without the power of his psionic 
  templars and undead. Without the psionic 
  wards, we could get spies in and out of his 
  borders as easily as we do in the Seven Cities. 
  Perhaps Kurnan wizards might even be able to 
  revive the Eldaarish Veiled Alliance. 
  My training and experience teaches me to 
  distrust appearances. I do not see liberty on the 
  Eldaarish horizon. Some templars are clearly 
  trying to stave off collapse of the villages that 
  sustain their power. They have their desperate 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  39 
  people by the throat; if their grip loosens it is 
  only because they do not wish their prey to 
  strangle. Tighten—loosen—tighten again … it 
  is a dangerous dance that has lasted dozens of 
  ages in the dim islands. 
  If you are ever assigned to Eldaarich, may you 
  be ready. Do not volunteer for such 
  assignments unless you have nerves of steel 
  and a mind of ice. Weigh my words carefully 
  before you set foot into the land of endless 
  drums. 
  -Prodigy, Veteran Spy 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  40 
  Wisdom of the Storm Coast
  Eleven years have passed and much has 
  changed since Prodigy first painted “Wisdom 
  of Terror.,” The Dragon is dead. Sorceror-
  kings are missing or dead, some of their cities 
  fallen to chaos, and some have new masters. 
  And in the five years since Prodigy painted the 
  post-script to her work on Eldaarich, our own 
  organization has seen some change as well. So 
  naturally, some of you ask why we keep the 
  ramblings of a defected traitor in our decks of 
  wisdom. I never trusted Prodigy, and her 
  hostility to me and to others in our 
  organization is apparent in the words of her 
  report, but I am persuaded that when she 
  wrote “Wisdom of Terror,” she had not yet 
  even thought of betraying Kurn or defecting 
  to the Order. More importantly, subsequent 
  missions by more reliable agents have 
  confirmed most of Prodigy’s claims about 
  Eldaarich. Our operatives in House Azeth 
  confirm that the timing of Azeth’s first 
  shipment to Kerillis correspond to the 
  increases in rations and supplies that Prodigy 
  reported were delivered to the villages.  
  “Wisdom of Terror” paved the way for a 
  handful of spies and overoptimistic Kurnan 
  wizards to enter the Dim Lands. Prodigy’s 
  suggestions of reviving a Veiled Alliance have 
  proved a deadly fiasco for some of our 
  wizards, but most of them returned alive, 
  thanks in no small part to the Wisdom that 
  Prodigy brought us eleven years ago. In this 
  card, I will bring you up to date on what we 
  have learned about the Dim Lands, before 
  focusing my discussion on the Storm Coast, 
  South Guard, and Fort Mudwatch. 
  New developments since 
  Prodigy’s mission to the Dim 
  Lands: 
  House Azeth’s Trade with Eldaarich 
  As “prophesied” by Azeth wind priests, an 
  Eloy herder named Korik who married into 
  House Azeth has risen to lead that house to 
  greatness. Korik Azeth seems to have 
  established an unprecedented relationship of  trust 
  with Kerrillis, High Templar of the Kulag fleet. 
  Those of you who have read Spymaster 
  Andapho’s recent Wisdom of  the Kulag fleet, 
  consider what this means. Each of the seven 
  Eldaarish orders mistrusts the others, but the 
  Kulags seem to be the best at keeping their 
  secrets, and sailing the sea of silt seems to fill 
  them with the spirit of independence. And yet 
  the Kulag leader appears to have formed a 
  trusting relationship with Korik Azeth, a man 
  that could almost pass for a Kurnan. Needless 
  to say, we are watching House Azeth more 
  closely these days.  
  Psionics in the Dim Lands 
  For some reason Daskinor has banned even his 
  most trusted servants from using psionics. 
  Only Daskinor himself is exempt from the 
  ban. This move has created obvious caps in 
  Daskinor’s surveillance of the land. Daskinor’s 
  servants have managed to conceal some of 
  their psionic agents from Daskinor; the Kulag 
  fleet remains afloat through psionics, for 
  example, and some of the drummers on the 
  edges of the dim lands appear to use psionics 
  to conceal themselves.  
  It appears that the “stalkers” no longer exist. 
  Spymaster Andapho’s brief but fruitful 
  penetration of the Red Guard revealed that 
  much.  It seems that the different Eldaarish 
  Orders were all too eager to catch and 
  denounce each other’s psionic agents, and the 
  Red Guards had never liked the stalkers or 
  understood their purpose. Before deserting her 
  second mission in Eldaarich and defecting to 
  the Order, Prodigy reported that the 
  organization of watchers no longer existed, so 
  Daskinor apparently purged that organization 
  entirely along with other psionic servants.  
  Nevertheless, powerful psionic wards over 
  Eldaarich and the Dim Lands remain in place, 
  although the danger of attempting to penetrate 
  them seems to have diminished.  
  The Psionic Wards on the Dim Lands 
  Our psionic loremasters suggest that this 
  means that the wards are powered by some 
  psionic artifact, possibly controlled by 
  Daskinor himself, whereas the artifact used to 
  be controlled by multiple psions, these 
  “watchers.” This means we can expect to find 
  gaps in the system. Daskinor on his own may 
  be distracted.  But the wards still pose a 
  significant threat, and we do not use magic or 
  psionics to peer into, transport into, or 
  communicate with persons in the Dim Lands, 
  let alone into Eldaarich itself. The ever 
  ingenious Spymaster Andapho has shown us 
  that the protective field does not extend to the 
  Huuros Islands, but I am not sure what use we 
  can make of this information at present. The 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  41 
  inner ward protects the city itself. The outer 
  circle wards off most of the Storm Coast. 
  The Storm Coast 
  The Storm Coast is the area where the 
  Trembling Plains meets the sea of silt. The 
  Storm Coast plays host to violent annual 
  clashes between the two regions’ weather 
  systems and inhabitants. For most of the year, 
  the Storm Coast’s weather is no different than 
  that of the Trembling Plains, but the Mudflood 
  season brings lightning storms lasting up to a 
  week that are so violent and constant that one 
  cannot tell whether it is day or night. 
  Some element in the dust in this region causes 
  frequent lightning storms, particularly when 
  there are irregular winds. Lightning always 
  strikes the same place twice in the Storm 
  Coast. If you get struck by lightning, and 
  survive, then move! When a lightning storm 
  approaches, wise travelers will lie down, or at 
  least hold their spears and pole arms 
  horizontally rather than vertically. Tall creatures 
  such as half giants are in particular danger of 
  being struck by lightning while standing up 
  during a lightning storm. Lightning often sets 
  fire to the scrublands, but the frequency of 
  lightning and fires prevents the dry brush from 
  building up. 
  These lightning storms interfere with psionics, 
  blanketing the area with the equivalent of the 
  catapsi power. The cause for this phenomenon 
  is unknown. Kurnan sages that have gone to 
  study the matter ended up enslaved at South 
  Guard, and those that survived their seven 
  years of slavery seemed to have lost their 
  interest in the question when they returned to 
  Kurn. We have not yet determined how the 
  lightning storms interact with Daskinor’s ward 
  along the same coast. 
  South Guard 
  Separated by four miles of bridge, South 
  Guard and Fort Mudwatch in some respects 
  function as a single compound. Red Guards 
  supply drinkable water to South Guard as they 
  do to their craft villages, but unlike the craft 
  villages, the South Guard slave camps produce 
  their own food, and possibly more than half 
  of the food in the Dim Lands. Aside from 
  than the wells controlled by the Takrit Order in 
  Eldaarich itself, the Red Guards’ operation at 
  Camp Zero and Fort Mudwatch appear to 
  produce most of the drinkable water 
  consumed in the Dim Lands. In other words, 
  without South Guard and Fort Mudwatch, 
  Eldaarich would have no means of supporting 
  any of the sixty-odd slave-camps that Prodigy 
  referred to as the “villages.” Eldaarich would 
  lose its ability to produce weapons, armor, and 
  virtually all other goods.  
  You already know about South Guard, the 
  largest slave camp in the known world.  Until 
  Prodigy’s mission to the Dim Lands, almost 
  everything that the School of Spies knew 
  about those lands came from the mouths of 
  South Guard slaves that had escaped or had 
  been released after surviving seven years of 
  labor. Most slaves at South Guard were 
  captured from herder clans on the mainland. 
  Their overseers are the Shtas, a lesser templar 
  order that completely depends on provisions 
  and equipment that the Red Guard provide, or 
  refuse to provide, at their whim. Shtas soldiers 
  are demoralized and unequipped, and at South 
  Guard, face overwhelming foes, harsh weather, 
  and must keep charge of angry foreign slaves 
  that outnumber them eight to one. 
  The Red Guards do not keep barracks in South 
  Guard, but patrol it periodically. It seems that 
  the Shtas overseers are as prone to run away as 
  the slaves. 
  In recent years, the Shtas have surprisingly 
  adopted Trembling Plains’ the seven-year law 
  on slavery. Do not mistake this for mercy. 
  Most South Guard slaves die before their seven 
  years are up, from thirst, mistreatment, and 
  overwork. Those that cannot work die for the 
  amusement of the guards. But the seven-year 
  rule has reduced the number of slave escapes, 
  and gives slaves just enough hope to keep them 
  working. Slaves caught trying to, start their 
  seven years over again. 
  In the last week of Flamesky, there is invariably 
  at least one massive thri-trin attack against 
  South Guard. The fact that there are more 
  two-legged meat creatures guarding the four-
  legged meat creatures at South Guard than in 
  the other forts does not dissuade the hungrier 
  thri-trin from attacking South Guard. 
  Within the city of Eldaarich, the Shtas 
  Browncloak officers provide the honeyed voices 
  to recruit foolish Eldaarish youths to service in 
  the Shtas. Other Browncloaks become 
  responsible for putting and keeping these fools 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  in harm’s way. At South Guard, Browncloaks 
  prevent desertion by a combination of 
  patriotism, coercion, terror, and a generous 
  supply of psychoactive and addictive 
  substances. And yet South Guard somehow 
  manages to survive the yearly wave of mantis 
  attacks during the Flamesky Season. 
  But the fact that South Guard withstands the 
  Flamesky trin attacks, year to year, despite its 
  bungling leadership and demoralized under 
  equipped guards, suggests something subtle is 
  afoot. Our reports describe year after year, that 
  South Guard looks on the brink of 
  succumbing to trin attack – when suddenly a 
  handful of slaves and guards stop fleeing, and 
  turn and dismember their attackers with 
  courage and grace.  These “replaceable 
  heroes,” as the Shtas call them, usually die, 
  when other suddenly “take up the standard.” 
  In my mind, this is sufficient evidence to 
  support Prodigy’s theory about the wraiths. 
  Fort Mudwatch 
  42 
  Prodigy briefly discussed how the Red Guards 
  obtain drinkable water in Fort Mudwatch, but I 
  think the process deserves more attention here. 
  Huge pullies lift the mud from Camp Zero to 
  Fort Mudwatch at the top of the cliffs. Huge 
  pitiful creatures that the Red Guards call “giant 
  halfs” man the pullies beneath the cliffs. These 
  “giant halfs” appear to be silt giants whose legs 
  have been amputated to prevent them from 
  escaping. 
  At the top of the cliff, large rectangular 
  buckets dump the mud into a large trench, and 
  the mud eventually makes its way into one of 
  several settling tanks called heptynders. When 
  one heptynder fills up, the Red Guard 
  heptynder. 
  After allowi
  alchemists direct the mud towards another 
  ng the mud to settle for a few days, 
  t in 
  s 
  cks 
  s to be 
  steam, the 
  inkable 
   the 
   
  f 
   
  f 
   its 
  y of my proposal does not 
  the alchemists remove the now-clear liquid 
  from above the settled sediment, and carry i
  large wheeled buckets to tall pointed buildings 
  that the Red Guards call heptamids. Heptamids 
  are built from lightning glass taken from the 
  Storm Coast, and mortared with what appear
  to be lead. It takes several Red Guards to seal 
  the white round door, turning it shut like a 
  screw. During the day, steam hisses from cra
  in the heptamids, which are known to 
  occasionally explode; there always seem
  at least one heptamid being rebuilt.  
  When a heptamid stops hissing with 
  Red Guards know that the water has all boiled 
  off, forcing most of the steam into 
  underground caverns to cool into dr
  water. They unscrew the door, scrape up the 
  dry residue contaminants of the water boiled 
  away, and seal more impure water in the 
  heptamid for purification. 
  To the point: If 
  one were to 
  destroy all of
  heptamids at 
  once, creating
  large enough 
  cracks for all o
  the steam to 
  escape in each
  heptamid, then 
  the Dim Lands 
  would be 
  deprived o
  nearly half of
  water supply.  
  The inhumanit
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  43 
   
  the 
   
  that 
  escape my attention. The slaves at South 
  Guard — some of them Kurnan, most of
  them Eloy — would be the first to die, but 
  Shtas at South Guard and the Red Guards 
  would also go thirsty. Those two groups 
  constitute the vast majority of Eldaarich’s land-
  based military forces. We have been unable to 
  verify or disprove Prodigy’s claims about the 
  mysterious Founders, other than the temple 
  exists in Eldaarich as she described it. But the
  stories of South Guard’s “replaceable heroes,” 
  combined with South Guard’s otherwise 
  inexplicable survival, force us to presume 
  Eldaarich indeed possesses an active Wraith 
  army. An Eldaarish attack would probably take 
  the form of wraith-possessed humanoids or 
  cattle. While we are developing 
  countermeasures for the wraith, the most likely 
  way for Kurn to survive would be to draw the 
  wraith army’s attention away from Kurn. The 
  South Guard-Mudwatch complex, along with 
  “Camp Zero,” is vulnerable, and sufficiently 
  important, I believe, to draw an attacking army 
  home. 
  -Spymaster Mereth 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  44 
  Appendix: Skills, Feats and Prestige Classes 
  Skills: 
  Literacy (Picts) 
  Kurn, Eldaarich, and many of the peoples of 
  the Trembling Plains use an ideographic 
  writing system known as Picts, where a single 
  symbol corresponds to an idea. People that 
  speak drastically different languages can 
  communicate with each other in writing if 
  both of them have the Literacy (Picts) skill. 
  Picts are compact and take up less space than 
  alphabetical writing, but painting picts is a slow 
  and laborious process. 
  Speak Language (Cuurnu) 
  This is an Eldaarish code of body language, 
  and has a limited vocabulary. Cuurnu is closely 
  associated with a martial art of the same name. 
  In Cuurnu, a dance can contain a poem, and 
  fight often communicates an argument as well 
  as actual blows.  
  Speak Language (Neshtap Hand 
  Signals) 
  This is the language of the Neshtap, who do 
  not speak verbally. 
  Speak Language (Savak Drumcode) 
  This is the language of the heartbeat drums. 
  Anyone with this skill can understand the 
  heartbeat drums, or could communicate ideas 
  to someone else who knew the language, by 
  clapping or otherwise simulating a drum. 
  However, to use the heartbeat drums to 
  communicate the code over long distances, you 
  need the Perform (Drums) skill. See also the 
  Code Drummer Feat. 
  Feats 
  Coldsmith 
  You use psionics to work metal, without heat 
  or fire. 
  Prerequisites: Kenku, psionic focus 
  Benefits: You can work metal without heat or 
  fire, using psionics to temporarily soften the 
  metal as if it had been heated. This feat has no 
  combat application since you must be in 
  contact with the metal for at least ten minutes 
  for this power to work. Coldsmithing takes 
  double the time as conventional metalworking. 
  Normal: Without this feat, you need heat 
  and/or fire in order to work any metal harder 
  than gold or lead. 
  Maintenance Focus [Regional] 
  You can focus on protecting a person, object 
  or community. 
  Prerequisites: Dwarf, Charisma 13+ 
  Benefits: You can apply your dwarven focus 
  bonus to protect a person, object or 
  community, even though this is a general 
  purpose that cannot be “accomplished.” Any 
  act directly related to protecting the person, 
  object, or community, receives the morale 
  bonus normally associated with the dwarven 
  focus. Setting a maintenance focus requires an 
  hour of quiet meditation. A dwarf with this 
  feat can focus on preserving his own life, but 
  only a corrupt dwarf would do so, and other 
  dwarves would hold him in contempt.  
  Normal: A dwarf normally only gets the 
  benefit of focus when there is an objective that 
  can be accomplished. A focus must take at 
  least a week to complete; anything less than 
  that is too simple a task to be considered a 
  focus. 
  Vow [General] 
  You can increase the power of your focus with 
  an irrevocable vow. 
  Region: Dwarf, Base attack bonus +3 or 
  greater. 
  Benefits: In addition to the benefits of a 
  dwarven focus, you gain a +3 morale bonus to 
  any one skill check when you are pursuing an 
  avowed objective. Making a vow requires that 
  you already have the objective as your dwarven 
  focus, and requires that you take one hour to 
  mediate quietly. You decide which skill to 
  enhance when you make the vow. Once made, 
  a vow is irrevocable until accomplished. You 
  cannot change your focus until you have 
  fulfilled your vow. 
  Prestige Classes 
  Browncloak 
  Dating back to the early Cleansing Wars, the 
  Shtas are the most ancient of Daskinor’s 
  Orders still in operation, and may be the most 
  ancient existing templar organization on 
  Athas.  Regardless of their past glories, the 
  Shtas today are little more than puppets of the 
  Red Guards; their outlying posts such as South 
  Guard completely depend on provisions and 
  equipment that the Red Guard provide, or 
  refuse to provide, at their whim. Shtas soldiers 
  are demoralized and unequipped, and at South 
  Guard, face overwhelming foes, harsh weather, 
  and must keep charge of angry foreign slaves 
  that outnumber them eight to one. 
  Shtas Officers, the Browncloaks, provide the 
  honeyed voices to recruit foolish Eldaarish 
  youths to service in the Shtas. Other 
  Browncloaks become responsible for putting 
  and keeping these fools in harm’s way. 
  Browncloaks prevent desertion by a 
  combination of patriotism, coercion, terror, 
  
   
   
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  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  45 
  and a 
  erou
  uppl
  f p
  hoa
  addictive substances. 
  gen
  s s
  y o
  syc
  ctive and 
  Since Shtas posts are typically undermanned, 
  Shtas soldiers cannot be allowed to quit 
  fighting merely because they’ve had a limb or a 
  head torn off. Shtas officers are especially 
  adept at animating and commanding the dead 
  corpses of soldiers under their command. 
  Some Shtas officers would prefer to dispense 
  with the living soldiers altogether, since 
  zombies are so much more obedient, and never 
  complain about the quantity or quality of 
  rations. Alas, the laws of Eldaarich give the 
  Shtas no rights to keep the bodies of dead 
  humanoids. Naturally, the Browncloaks violate 
  this law whenever they can get away with it. 
  Requirements 
  Alignment: Evl 
  Skills: Diplomacy 7 ranks, Bluff 7 ranks 
  Special: Rebuke undead, cast 2nd level divine 
  spells spontaneously and promotion to officer 
  in the Shtas Order 
  Class Skills 
  Class skills: Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, 
  Intimidate, Knowledge (Local), Knowledge 
  (Religion), Ride, Psicraft, Sense Motive, 
  Spellcraft.  
  Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. 
  Class Features 
  Weapon: All Martial Weapons, Whip, Bolas, 
  Lasso  
  Armor: All Armors, All Shields, including 
  tower shields. 
  Hit Dice: d8 
  Manipulator (ex): From duping potential 
  recruits to bullying terrified troops, the 
  ncloak is a skilled manipulator g ining+2 
  to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate. 
  Brow
  , a
    
  BAB 
  Fort 
  Ref 
  Will 
  Special 
  Spells Per Day 
  1 
  0 
  +2 
  +0 
  +2 
  Manipulator, 
  Rebuke Undead, 
  Poison Use 
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  2 
  +1 
  +3 
  +0 
  +3 
  “Medicinal 
  Purposes” 
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  3 
  +2 
  +3 
  +1 
  +3 
  Patch Together 
    
  4 
  +3 
  +4 
  +1 
  +4 
  Leadership  
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  5 
  +3 
  +4 
  +1 
  +4 
    
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  6 
  +4 
  +5 
  +2 
  +5 
  War Caster  
    
  7 
  +5 
  +5 
  +2 
  +5 
    
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  8 
  +6 
  +6 
  +2 
  +6 
    
  +1 Level of existing Divine Spellcaster 
  class/Level 
  9 
  +6 
  +6 
  +3 
  +6 
  Quicken Undeath
    
  10
  +7
  +7
  +3
  +7
  C ll n th
  +1 L
  l f
  i tin Di in Sp ll
  t r
  Rebuke Undead (su): Browncloaks gain +3 
  to their effective templar level when rebuking 
  undead, and Browncloak levels stack with 
  Templar levels for purposes of rebuking 
  undead. This effectively puts the Browncloak 
  at a par with evil clerics for purposes of 
  rebuking undead. 
  Poison Use (ex): Browncloaks can apply 
  poisons without a 5% chance of accidentally 
  poisoning themselves. 
  “Medicinal Purposes” (ex): A Browncloak 
  can learn the Craft (Alchemy) skill, and gains 
  +4 to Craft (Alchemy) checks to prepare drugs 
  that are psychoactive, addictive, or both. 
  Patch Together (sp): At will, a Browncloak’s 
  Heal skill expands to include a new option, 
  “Patch together” (DC 10). Patching a wounded 
  creature takes 1 full round and converts 1d6 
  points of damage into an equal amount of 
  nonlethal damage. If the Heal check fails, no 
  damage is converted and the target suffers 1d4 
  points of damage. A creature may only be 
  Patched Together once per day. 
  Leadership (ex): A Browncloak gains the 
  Leadership feat, gaining command of the 
  number of Shtas soldier followers indicated by 
  his Leadership score. If the Browncloak 
  already has the Leadership feat, then he gains 
  +2 to his Leadership score. The Browncloak’s 
  followers may be living or undead, if a living 
  follower dies and the Browncloak animates the 
  follower. 
  War Caster (Ex): The Browncloak is 
  disciplined and coolheaded in the heat of 
  battle. He can take 10 on Concentration checks 
  to cast spells defensively. He also gains a +2 
  bonus to Will saves against Enchantment 
  (Charm) and (Compulsion) effects. 
  
   
   
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  Quicken Undeath (Sp): At 9th Level, the 
  Browncloak can cast Animate Dead as a swift 
  action. The Browncloak uses the normal spell 
  slot to cast the spell, e.g. 3rd level for Animate 
  Dead. 
  Call on the Founders (Ex): At tenth level, 
  the Browncloak is initiated into the dark 
  secrets of the organization’s inner circle. This 
  initiation involves meeting the persons that 
  founded the Shtas organization thousands of 
  years ago. “The Founders,” as these persons 
  are known, served Daskinor long ago, and are 
  now Athasian Wraiths. Once per week, the 
  Browncloak may summon two Athasian 
  wraiths from the Temple of the Founders in 
  Eldaarich. The Browncloak cannot command 
  or rebuke these Wraiths when they arrive, since 
  the Founders are the Browncloak’s superior 
  officers. The Founders will do what needs to 
  be done to protect what they see as Eldaarich’s 
  interests, by possessing bodies and fighting 
  enemies, but when the battle is over, if they 
  perceive that the Browncloak has been 
  negligent or incompetent in his command, the 
  Founders will seize the Browncloak and take 
  him back to the Temple of the Founders for 
  judgment. 
  Red Guard 
  In the Dim Lands, the Red Guard epitomizes 
  terror. Red Guards are the elite officers of the 
  Neshtap Order, which extorts tribute from 
  Eldaarich’s client villages on behalf of the 
  sorcerer-king Daskinor. Other than the 
  watchful Neshtap patrols, very little travels the 
  bridges or roads from Silt Side and South 
  Guard, to the walls of Eldaarich itself. 
  Candidates for the Neshtap are selected at 
  birth and taught hatred and contempt of other 
  sentient creatures.  Red Guards have 
  camaraderie only with other members of the 
  Neshtap,  and with their trained animals. 
  In combat, the Red Guards exploit the 
  common silt fogs of the Dim Lands to their 
  advantage in combat. Their spells help them to 
  enflame and fire arrows from concealment, 
  and to mislead enemies about their position, 
  they hit-and-run in the mist; sometimes 
  lassoing and dragging an enemy party member 
  away into the mist. Their strategy is to break 
  their enemies apart so they can pick them off 
  one by one in the mist, perhaps capturing one 
  of them alive. While other sadists get most 
  pleasure from inflicting actual physical pain 
  and death, a Red Guard find most pleasure in 
  his enemies’ terror and anguish as their 
  companions die horribly before their eyes.  For 
  example, the Red Guards will often burn a 
  captive alive on a hilltop on a clear night, in 
  view of her comrades.  Alternately, if the Red 
  Guards fear that the party might be brave 
  enough to try to rescue their comrade, they 
  might crucify the prisoner, after drenching her 
  in oil and magically trapping the area around 
  her to burst into flame when her allies come 
  within range for a rescue. The Red Guards 
  enjoy their notoriety, and often allow a single 
  person escape their massacres, to spread the 
  story.  
  Hit Die: d8. 
  Requirements 
  To qualify to become a Red Guard, a character 
  must fulfill all the following criteria. 
  Race: Character must be able to pass for 
  Human 
  Alignment: Any evil. 
  Feats: Point-Blank Shot 
  Skills: Handle Animal (4 ranks), Speak 
  Language (Savak Drumcode), Speak Language 
  (Neshtap Hand Signals). 
  Special: The character must be male, and have 
  been taken by the Neshtap as a child, and must 
  have refrained from speaking verbally for at 
  least four years.  
  Class Skills 
  The Red Guard’s class skills (and the key ability 
  for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft 
  (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide 
  (Dex), Knowledge (Nature), Intimidate (Cha), 
  Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Use 
  Rope (Dex). See Chapter 4 of the Player’s 
  Handbook for skill descriptions. 
  Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. 
  Class Features 
  All of the following are class features of the 
  Red Guard prestige class. 
  Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Composite 
  Longbow, Lasso 
  
   
   
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  Vow of  Silence. Long ago, Daskinor ordered 
  the Red Guards’ tongues cut out, because he 
  did not want them to fraternize, fearing that 
  they might disobey his orders against 
  fraternizing with the citizens and slaves. The 
  Red Guards no longer cut their tongues out (it 
  inhibited spellcasting). They still do not speak; 
  they use drums and hand signs to 
  communicate with each other. A Red Guard 
  who speaks verbally to a non-Red Guard loses 
  all special benefits until he atones by 
  confessing to the High Templar of the 
  Neshtap, and accepts the High Templar’s 
  punishment. The severity of the punishment 
  depends on the circumstances, such as whether 
  the Red Guard spoke to a fellow member of 
  the Neshtap, to an Eldaarish citizen, to a slave, 
  or (worst of all) to a foreigner or to a member 
  of a different order. Severity also depends on 
  whether this was the Red Guard’s first 
  offense—the second punishment is always 
  more severe than the first. The three possible 
  punishments are: (1) brand him, (2) cut his 
  tongue cut out, (3) bury him alive. 
  The Eldaarish people and the slave-villagers all 
  believe that the Neshtap still have their tongues 
  cut out, which is what the Neshtap want them 
  to believe. 
  Enflame Arrow, As a swift action, a Red 
  Guard can cause his arrow to burst into flame 
  as it leaves his bow. Enflamed arrows cause +1 
  fire damage with each hit. The damage 
  increases to +2 at 5th level, and to +3 at 9th 
  level. At 9th level, the Red Guard can enflame 
  his arrows as a free action, allowing him to fire 
  multiple Enflamed arrows in the same round. 
  Catch Fire. Targets struck with Enflamed 
  arrows or melee weapons must make a Reflex 
  Save (DC 15) or be set on fire. See page 303 of 
  the Dungeon Master Guide for rules on 
  catching fire. Red Guards are immune to this 
  effect from each others’ arrows. Until 10th 
  level, the Red Guard can only use the Catch 
  Fire ability a limited number of times per day 
  equal to his Charisma modifier plus his Red 
  Guard level. A 10th level Red Guard can use his 
  Catch Fire ability an unlimited number of 
  times per day. 
  Silt Eyes. At second level, the Red Guard’s 
  enhanced senses reduce the effect of 
  concealment on him by 10%, and he becomes 
  immune to the Grey Death. At fifth level, the 
  Red Guard’s enhanced senses reduce the effect 
  of concealment by a total of 20%. 
  Enflame Melee Weapon. As a move-
  equivalent action, a Red Guard can cause his 
  melee weapon to burst into flame for one 
  minute/Red Guard Level. Enflamed melee 
  weapons gain the same bonus as the character’s 
  enflamed arrows, and also have the potential to 
  cause the target to catch fire. The flame does 
  not consume or harm a melee weapon. 
  Sending. At 7th level, the Red Guard can 
  instantly communicate a short thought of 25 
  words or less, to any other Red Guard, at any 
  distance. The Red Guard can use this spell-like 
  ability up to three times per day.  
  Archery Feat. The Red Guard can take any 
  archery related feat: Far Shot, Precise Shot, 
  Level BAB Fort  
  Ref  
  Will  Special 
  Spells per Day 
  1 
  +1 
  +2 
  0 
  0 
  Enflame Missile (catch fire) +1,  
  Vow of Silence,  
   
  2 
  +2 
  +3 
  0 
  0 
  Archery Feat, Silt Eyes (10%) 
  +1 level of existing 
  Spellcaster class  
  3 
  +3 
  +3 
  +1 
  +1 
  Enflame Melee Weapon (catch 
  fire) 
   
  4 
  +4 
  +4 
  +1 
  +1 
  Archery Feat  
  +1 level of existing 
  Spellcaster class  
  5 
  +5 
  +4 
  +1 
  +1 
  Enflame +2, Silt Eyes (20%) 
   
  6 
  +6 
  +5 
  +2 
  +2 
  Archery Feat 
  +1 level of existing 
  Spellcaster class  
  7 
  +7 
  +5 
  +2 
  +2 
  Sending 
   
  8 
  +8 
  +6 
  +2 
  +2 
  Archery Feat 
  +1 level of existing 
  Spellcaster class  
  9 
  +9 
  +6 
  +3 
  +3 
  Enflame +3, Enflame Arrow as 
  free action 
   
  10 
  +10 
  +7 
  +3 
  +3 
  Archery Feat, Unlimited Catch 
  Fire  
  +1 level of existing 
  Spellcaster class  
  
   
   
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  Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Shot on the Run, 
  Improved Precise Shot, Psionic Shot, Greater 
  Psionic Shot, Fell Shot, Return Shot, Weapon 
  Focus (Longbow), Greater Weapon Focus 
  (Longbow). 
  Spellcaster Progression 
  At every even level, the Red Guard increases 
  his spellcasting ability, if he has any. The Red 
  Guard does not gain any other benefit a 
  character of either character class would have 
  gained (bonus metamagic or item creation 
  feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). If 
  the Red Guard gains spells through more than 
  one base class, then at 2nd level he must decide 
  to which class he adds his Red Guard levels for 
  purpose of determining spells known, spells 
  per day and caster level, or power points per 
  day.  
  As an additional benefit, the animal companion 
  benefits from any spell stick that the Red 
  Guard uses, so long as the animal companion 
  remains within 30 feet of the Red Guard. 
  (Spell sticks are a special magic item to be 
  detailed in Lost Cities of  the Trembling Plains. 
  Mounted Red Guards almost invariably take 
  Crodlu as their animal companions; 
  nonmounted Red Guards almost invariably 
  take Jhakhar.as their companions. 
  Double Templar 
  Double Templars are trained to spy on foreign 
  states for long periods of time. Of all the 
  sorcerer-kings, Oronis has the most ambitious 
  spy program, but other city-states have their 
  spies and sleepers as well. Double templars 
  sometimes pass themselves off as templars of 
  another city-state, passing loyalty tests, 
  deceiving psionic probes, and even channeling 
  a foreign sorcerer-king's spell power. 
  Requirements 
  To qualify to become a Double Templar, a 
  character must fulfill all the following criteria. 
  Feats: Deceitful 
  Skills: Bluff (8 ranks), Gather Information (5 
  ranks), Literacy, Disguise (5 ranks), Speak 
  Language (at least one foreign city-state), 
  Spellcraft (5 ranks) 
  Spells: Comprehend Languages, Undetectable 
  Alignment 
  Special: The Templar's Secular Authority and 
  Sigil. 
  Class Skills 
  The Double Templar class skills (and the key 
  ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), 
  Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Decipher 
  Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), 
  Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (All), 
  Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Int), 
  Psicraft (Wis), Search (Wis), Sleight of Hand 
  (Dex), Speak Language (none), Spellcraft (Int), 
  Spot (Wis), Use Magic/Psionic Item (Cha). See 
  Chapter 4 of the Player's Handbook for skill 
  descriptions. 
  Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier. 
  Class Features: 
  Weapons and Armor: The Double Templar 
  gains proficiency in the Bard's Garrote. 
  Hit Die: d6 
   Double-Minded: The character gains a +1 
  Will bonus per Double Templar level against 
  any magical or psionic attempt to read or 
  control her mind or emotions. If the Double 
  Templar makes a successful saving throw 
  against any magical or psionic attempt to read 
  or control his mind, he can attempt a 
  successful Bluff check against his attacker's 
  Sense Motive. If this Bluff is successful, the 
  attacker believes that he was successful, and 
  the Double Templar can "feed" the attacker 
  false information. For example, if a Double 
  Templar was captured and examined 
  psionically with the Mind Probe power, she 
  could learn what her captors wished to 
  discover, and choose what information that 
  they "found," if he made a successful saving 
  throw and Bluff check. A person using Mind 
  Probe against a sleeping Double Templar does 
  not get an automatic answer to their question; 
  the Double Templar gets a saving throw to 
  avoid giving a truthful answer to that first 
  question. 
  Two-Faced: The character gains +1 
  competence bonus per Double Templar level 
  to her Disguise and Bluff skills. 
  Poison Use (ex): The Double Templar can 
  use poisons without the 5% danger of 
  Level 
  BAB 
  Fort 
  Ref  
  Will 
  Special 
  Spells per Day 
  1 
  0 
  0 
  0 
  +2 
  Double-Minded, 
  Two-Faced, Poison 
  Use 
  +1 level of existing divine 
  spellcasting class 
  2 
  +1 
  0 
  0 
  +3 
  Usurp Authority  
  +1 level of existing divine 
  spellcasting class 
  3 
  +2 
  +1 
  +1 
  +3 
  Two Masters, 
  Duplicitous 
  +1 level of existing divine 
  spellcasting class 
  4 
  +3 
  +1 
  +1 
  +4 
  Double Meaning 
  +1 level of existing divine 
  spellcasting class 
  5 
  +3 
  +1 
  +1 
  +4 
  Double-Cross 
  +1 level of existing divine 
  
   
   
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  accidentally poisoning herself. 
  Usurp Authority (ex): At second level, the 
  Double Templar can attempt to pass herself 
  off as a templar of any city-state whose 
  language she knows, can act as if she had 
  Secular Authority in that city. Each time she 
  tries to use Secular Authority in the foreign 
  city, she must make a successful Bluff check 
  against the secular authority DC of what she is 
  trying to accomplish. Use Forgery instead of 
  Bluff for written deceptions.  
  Two Masters (sp): At third level, the Double 
  Templar gains the ability to channel spell 
  power from another sorcerer-king. A Double 
  Templar who has infiltrated another sorcerer-
  king's templar organization, can receive a sigil 
  from that other sorcerer-king, and act as a 
  templar in another city—so long as she is not 
  caught! A Templar that can draw power from 
  multiple sorcerer-kings does *not* gain any 
  more spells per day, or gain knowledge of a 
  greater number of spells, than any other 
  templar with the same number of spontaneous 
  divine casting levels. Instead, this ability helps a 
  templar of one sorcerer-king to infiltrate the 
  templar organization of another sorcerer-king.  
  Now that she has a her own sigil within the 
  templarate of her “second master,” the Double 
  Templar gains +2 to her Bluff and Forgery 
  checks when using her Usurp Authority ability. 
  Duplicitous (sp): Since the Double Templar's 
  dishonesty now permeates to the level of her 
  psyche, she gains the ability to disguise her 
  own aura. In game terms, the Double Templar 
  is treated as if using the Aura Alteration power 
  continuously and at will, but can only affect 
  herself, and is not a psionic power that can be 
  dispelled.  
  Double Meaning (ex): Whether speaking or 
  writing, the Double Templar can convey a 
  specific message to one familiar person, so 
  long as that one person hears or reads her 
  message. A message must be able to be 
  conveyed in 25 words or less in order for the 
  Double Templar to pass it as a Double 
  Meaning. In game terms, the Double Templar 
  receives a +10 competency bonus to any 
  opposed Bluff check against an opponent's 
  Sense Motive check to deliver a secret message 
  without being detected. See “Delivering a 
  Secret Message,” on page 68 of the Players’ 
  Handbook. 
  Double Cross (ex): When using a melee 
  weapon to attack someone who mistakes her 
  for his ally, the Double Templar can choose 
  between paralyzing or killing the target if her 
  melee attack successfully deals damage. If the 
  victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save 
  (DC 10 + the Double Templar's class level + 
  the Double Templar’s Cha modifier) against 
  the kill effect, he dies. If the saving throw fails 
  against the paralysis effect, the victim's mind 
  and body become enervated, rendering him 
  helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 
  1 round per level of the Double Templar. If 
  the victim's saving throw succeeds, the attack 
  deals normal damage.  
  The Double Templar can only use this ability 
  if the victim trusted her immediately prior to 
  the attack, i.e. the victim currently had a 
  "friendly" disposition to the Double Templar. 
  NPCs 
  Founder 
  Athasian Wraith Human Fighter 10 
  Lawful Evil Medium Humanoid 
  Init +8  Improved Initiative 
  Languages Classic Eldaarish 
  AC 18 (Dodge, Mobility) 
  Hp 107 
  Saves Fort +10, Ref +11, Will +11 
  Speed 30 feet (6 squares), Spring Attack 
  Melee [Possessing human]: 1d4+4+[host’s 
  strength bonus] 
  Base Atk +13,  Grp (+18 Corporeal) 
  Atk Options: Combat Expertise, Combat 
  Reflexes, Whirlwind Attack, 
  Special Actions: Animate object, heart grip, 
  possession, Strength damage, taint weapon 
   
   
   
   
   
  Abilities 
  Str 0 Dex 18 Con 0 Int 14 Wis 
  14 Cha 14 
  SQ Darkvision 60 ft., enduring focus, 
  incorporeal traits, necromant, temporary 
  corporeality, undead traits, vulnerability to raise 
  dead  
  Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Combat 
  Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility, 
  Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack, Improved 
  Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus, [Unarmed], 
  Greater Weapon Focus,  [Unarmed], Weapon 
  Specialization,  [Unarmed], Greater Weapon 
  Specialization, [Unarmed],  
  Skills Diplomacy +6, Hide +14, Intimidate 
  +24, Jump +18, Listen +14, Search +12, Sense 
  Motive +12, Spot +20 
  NPC: Spymaster Mereth 
  CR 18 
  Female Human Templar/13 Double 
  Templar/5 
  LN medium humanoid(human) 
  Init +1; Senses Listen +2, Spot +2 
  Languages Common, Eloy, Elven, Kurnan, 
  Tyrian 
  AC 25, touch 16, flat-footed 24 (+1 Dex, +5 
  deflection, +6 armor, +3 shield) 
  hp 79 (18 HD) 
  Immune Detect thoughts, discern lies, detect 
  alignment 
  
   
   
  http://athas.org/ 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  50 
  Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +14 (+17 vs. mind-
  affecting/compulsion powers, 
      +22 vs. attempts to read or control mind or 
  emotions) 
  Speed 30 ft. (6 squares) 
  Melee +2 Macahuitl of Wounding +14/+9/+4 
  (1d8+2 and 1 con/19-20) 
  Base Atk +12/+7/+2; Grp +12 
  Space 5ft, Reach 5ft 
  Spells Known (CL 18th): 
  9th (3/day): Energy Drain(Fort 23), Power 
  Word Blind 
  8th (5/day): Symbol of Death(Fort 22), 
  Regenerate, Antipathy(Will 22) 
  7th (6/day): Confessor's Flame, Crusade, Greater 
  Scrying, Symbol of Stunning(Will 21) 
  6th (6/day): Greater Dispel Magic, Braxatskin, 
  Raise Dead, Word of Recall 
  5th (6/day): Mark of Justice, Break 
  Enchantment, Elemental Strike(Ref 19), Symbol 
  of Sleep(Will 19), True Seeing 
  4th (7/day): Greater Command(Will 18), Cure 
  Critical Wounds, Greater Magic Weapon, 
  Sending, Modify Memory(Will 18) 
  3rd (7/day): Dispel Magic, Locate Object, 
  Magic Vestment, Prayer, Speak with Dead 
  2nd (7/day): Hold Person(Will 16), 
  Undetectable Alignment, Zone of Truth, 
  Return to Earth, Silence, Enthrall(Will 16) 
  1st (7/day): Bless, Comprehend Languages, 
  Detect Secret Doors, Hand of  the Sorcerer King, 
  Sanctuary(Will 15), Divine Favor 
  0th (6/day): Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Cure 
  Minor Wounds, Defiler Scent, Light, Mending, 
  Read Magic, Virtue, Resistance, Guidance 
  Powers Known (2 ppts) Mindlink 
  Abilities Str 10, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 
  14, Cha 24 
  SA Double Cross 
  SQ Aura Alteration, Double Templar, Secular 
  Authority (Kurn, Tyr) 
  Feats Deceitful, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, 
  Hidden Talent, Iron Will, Loosen Tongues, 
  Martial Weapon Proficiency (Macahuitl) , 
  Martial Weapon Proficiency (Composite 
  longbow), Negotiator, Skill Focus (Bluff) 
  Skills Autohypnosis +7, Bluff +36, 
  Concentration +15, Craft (Sculpture) +10, 
  Diplomacy +34, Disguise +36, Forgery +8, 
  Gather Information +32, Intimidate +9, 
  Knowledge(Tyr) +7, Literacy(Picts), 
  Literacy(Tyrian), Sense Motive +21, Slight of 
  Hand +1, Speak Language(Eloy), Speak 
  Language(Elven), Spellcraft +17, Use 
  Magic/Psionic Device +22 
  Possessions  
  Cloak of Charisma +6, Hat of Disguise, Ring 
  of Protection +5, +3 Hide Mindarmor of 
  Power Resistance (15), power stone: Mind 
  Probe x3, Gloves of Object Reading, +2 
  macahuitl of Wounding, +1 shield of 
  Vanishing, Ring of Mind Shielding, Third Eye: 
  Gather. 
  Skills Mereth has a +2 synergy bonus to 
  appraise sculptures.  She gains a +2 synergy 
  bonus to disguise checks when she's aware that 
  she's being observed. 
  Usurp Authority  Merth gains a +2 bonus to 
  Bluff and Forgery checks when attempting to 
  pass as a templar of Tyr. 
  Secular Authority  Mereth has the ability to 
  requisition up to 88,000 gp worth of 
  equipment from the city treasury, including 
  whatever magical or psionic equipment she 
  may find necessary for her job. 
   
  Mereth is the School of Spies’ expert on the 
  tablelands, and the only member of the school 
  of spies with the distinction of having served 
  as another sorcerer-king’s High Templar. 
  Before promoting her to High Templar, Kalak 
  himself probed Mereth and could not discern 
  treachery in her heart. As far as anyone in Tyr 
  knows, Mereth died as loyally as she lived; 
  Kalak himself attended her funeral. Mereth 
  accomplished deception by sculpting her body 
  out of stone, using a Stone to Flesh scroll to 
  complete the resemblance, and disguising 
  herself to hire an assassin to “kill” the body 
  laying in her bed. 
  In Kurn, Mereth often meets with people from 
  the Tablelands, to find out what information 
  she can. She often has a young trainee along to 
  observe Mereth’s disarming way of gathering 
  information, but the trainee is along to 
  observe. Mereth is married to a wizard that 
  belongs to the Scholar’s clave. Mereth and her 
  husband can often be found in Kurn’s great 
  library. 
  
   
   
  http://athas.org/ 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Wisdom of the Drylanders v2 
  51 
  Open Game License 
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  12 Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or 
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  13 Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such 
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
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