History TabletopGame / EmpireOfThePetalThrone

[[StandardFantasySetting Highly nonstandard]] [[TabletopGames fantasy game]] created by M.A.R.[[hottip:*: for Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman]] Barker. First officially published in 1975.

* PsychicPowers: How [[MagicByAnyOtherName magic is justified]]. The psychic powers of humans are juiced by contact or near proximity of [[EldritchAbominations superpowerful beings]] from AnotherDimension.

* ConLang: This universe has some of the first examples, the most developed by far being Tsolyáni. Barker developed Tékumel for basically the same reasons [[LordOfTheRings Tolkien]] did: to build a language around. The results (there are several) are a combination of conversion and original.

* ConLang: One of the first, and most developed. Barker developed Tékumel for basically the same reasons [[LordOfTheRings Tolkien]] did: to build a language around. The results (there are several) are a combination of conversion and original.

[[StandardFantasySetting Highly nonstandard]] [[TabletopGames fantasy game]] created by M.A.R. Barker. First officially published in 1975.

The setting is Tekumel, home of the Tsolyani Empire and several other civilizations, both human and not.

* AfterTheEnd: ''multiple'' ends actually, including the "Latter Times" (sometime after the "Time of Darkness" when Tekumel dropped into a pocket dimension nearly 50,000 years ago), to the more current (5,000 or so years ago) collapse of the worldwide empire of Engsvan Hla Ganga.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Only because the ancient settlers [[{{Terraform}} made Tekumel]] that way, installing gravity generators, suppressing the native life forms, and cultivating various reserves. The reserves later mingled, after a great disaster, averting the SingleBiomePlanet.
* ApocalypseHow: Tekumel has survived unorthodox planetary destruction (dropped into a pocket dimension) and multiple societal collapses.

* ConLang: One of the first, and most developed. Barker developed Tekumel for basically the same reasons [[LordOfTheRings Tolkien]] did: to build a language around. The results (there are several) are a combination of conversion and original.

* LostTechnology: Tekumel is riddled with devices from the Time of Darkness and the Latter Times that are just barely comprehensible to modern Tekumelani, including an underground antigravity car system.

* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Some of the creatures on Tekumel are Expies of standard fantasy role-play monsters, but they are distinctly different from your average D&D hack-ups.

* TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies: ''Humans'' are the ones who did this when they invaded Tekumel. The native Ssu and Hluss were living together in peace, and had about the kind of technology that we have now in RealLife. Humans had developed far a more advanced starfaring civilization, so "obviously" the Tekumelani species were inferior. Humans had no problem allying peacefully with other advanced starfaring species, but they terraformed the hell out of Tekumel, rearranged its orbit and even gravity, and tried their best to genocide the "primitive" natives. [[HumansAreBastards It's even noted that the other starfaring races wouldn't have bothered invading at all, if humans hadn't spearheaded the project.]]

** SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Tsolyani, at least, tends to flowery language and titles.

* BizarreAlienGender: All over the place. Shén, Tinalíya, and Pygmy Folk have three genders, while the Hlüss and Ssú have hive like arrangements. The Ahoggyá are rumored to have ''eight'' genders, and nobody knows how they reproduce.

* TheStarsAreGoingOut: Actually, the stars went out thousands of years ago. There is only the local sun and the planets, because the setting is in a [[PocketDimension pocket universe]].

* AllPlanetsAreEarthlike: Only because the ancient settlers [[{{Terraform}}made Tekumel]] that way, installing gravity generators, suppressing the native life forms, and cultivating various reserves. The reserves later mingled, after a great disaster, averting the SingleBiomePlanet.

* AllPlanetsAreEarth-like: Only because the ancient settlers [[{{Terraform}}made Tekumel]] that way, installing gravity generators, suppressing the native life forms, and cultivating various reserves. The reserves later mingled, after a great disaster, averting the SingleBiomePlanet.

* {{Mayincatec}}: The whole setting is a blend of Mesoamerican, Indian, Mogul, Chinese, and certain African cultures.

* OrderVersusChaos: Or, in this case, Stability and Change, with attendant parallel pantheons, and not necessarily at odds.

* OurMonstersAreWeird: The monsters and other creatures are a hash chili of Earth creatures, genetically engineered Earth animals, alien creatures, native species, and possibly extradimensional creatures, all to some extent evolved over tens of thousands of years of history and adaptation. Some are friendly, some are neutral, some are hostile, some are animals, others intelligent, and most are exotic. No elves, dwarves, gnomes, goblins, trolls, or other standard Western fantasy creatures.

* TheStarsAreGoingOut: Actually, the stars went out thousands of years ago. There is only the local sun and the planets, because the setting is in a pocket universe.

OurMonstersAreDifferent: The monsters and other creatures are a hash chili of Earth creatures, genetically engineered Earth animals, alien creatures, native species, and possibly extradimensional creatures. Some are friendly, some are neutral, some are hostile, and most are exotic.

[[StandardFantasySetting Highly nonstandard]] fantasy game created by M.A.R. Barker. First officially published in 1975.