From: tuff@ellis.uchicago.edu (Geoff Tuffli)
Subject: ARTICLE: Taeis Intro
Reply-To: tuff@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 23:42:51 GMT


TaeisMUSH...


tuff@ellis.uchicago.edu			          FTP Info at...
dwb@att1.mankato.msus.edu			       bigred.cit.cornell.edu
diederich.a.k@p9955.wlu.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________

General Guidelines:

	1) TaeisMUSH is a fantasy themed world, and though it is not
		based upon a particular author's work, NO non-theme
		objects, rooms, character names and such forth are
		permitted.

	2) TaeisMUSH is heavily plot-driven, with a vast number of
		interwoven plots, almost all of these player-initiated.
		The intention is not for there to be a single climactic
		event, necessarily, but to represent a flow of history
		in the world, Ea. As such, we are planning to run this
		for as long as we can.

	3) Unlike the vast majority of MUSH/MUSEs, TaeisMUSH is going
		to operate with a system of economics, a working,
		functional combat system, a system for miltary simulation,
		character development, including skills and attributes,
		weather, time, diseases, sailing.

	4) The key to TaeisMUSH is that its intention is to be DYNAMIC!


The World, Ea:

	The known and well-documented lands of Ea consist primarily of a large
continent that reaches up from the southern pole and a rather large archipelago
that is situated to the northeast of the continent.

	The archipelago consists of 13 main islands, and is the home of the
Petrocean Empire, the second most powerful political and military force in
the known world.

	The continent is the home to the largest. On the central plain is
situated the heart of the Ohs Empire, a vast leviathon composed of five Great
Houses and a number of subject territories and provinces. With a history of
nearly 3,000 years, it is the longest, most enduring, and most powerful
empire to ever exist in the known lands of Ea.

	The western fifth of the continent is a vast tractless forest known
as the Western Wilde, home to the Paeni Clans. The Paeni are nominally
subject to the Empire, though this in fact is not a domination that many
in the Empire would care to count on. The clans themselves have an extra-
ordinarily high rate of lycanthropy, as high as 10-15% in certain of them.
The Paeni themselves live in intricate, interconnected tree-cities that rest
within the boughs of the huge Greatwoods of the Western Wilde.

	To the east of the heart of the Ohs Empire lies a mountain range
that follows the eastern coast up onto a penninsula that reaches above the
continent. On the eastern coast, near the north, four kingdoms, roughly
feudal in nature, lie. The Eastern Kingdoms, as they are called, have in the
past often been subject to rule of the Ohs Empire. Now, they are technically
vassals, but in fact they are by this point almost completely self-ruled,
though some in the Empire mutter about making the rule in name rule in fact
again.

	South of the Eastern Kingdoms, on a thumb of land that pokes into
the eastern sea, lies the undisputed commercial center of the known world -
the city of Stormgate. The independant city in fact serves as the almost
exclusive tie between the Ohs Empire and the Petrocea Empire, and wields its
economic influence with a hand mighty enough to stave off the hungry desires
of the Ohs Empire to claim it as their prize.

	On the western side of the mountains, near their ending in the south,
a region of swampland surrounded almost entirely by rivers on the west is
Iniel. The Inielese, a matriarchal, demon-worshipping society has resisted
time and time again the advances of the Ohs Empire to absorb it. Never has
it been successfully held, and even the attempts to penetrate the intensely
xenophobic Inielese have proved devestatingly expensive to the Empire.

	The southern border of the Ohs Empire is a vast range of mountains
known as the Southern Wall. The Southern Wall is truly incomparable to
nearly any range of mountains in our world, save in sheer height the Tibet.
Unlike the Tibet, however, the mountains are far steeper, and rise from the
central plain of the continent to their tallest heights in a space far
narrower than the Tibet. Endless caverns and tunnels run through the roots
of the mountains, tunnels which even in a million years no human could
explore even a fraction of. Reaching deep into the earth, they hide mysteries
that have laid buried in the range's rocky embrace for millenia.

	South even of the Southern Wall, a region of endless forests, then
further south than that, empty miles upon miles of tundra stretches out
from the foothills of the Southern Wall. Barbarian tribes, known to themselves
as the Milannorim, lead a nomadic warrior lifestyle, the various tribes
battling among themselves with ceaseless ferocity. A long-dead prophesy speaks
of the day when a Chief-of-All-Tribes will rise up and unite the Peoples,
and sweep down across the Southern Wall to raze the Empire to the ground, and
some, even now, whisper that that time is coming soon, and that the one who
will lead the tribes already walks the earth, and that the Empire trembles at
his coming....


The Ohs Empire:

	The Ohs Empire is composed of the Five Great Houses, each of which is
named after an animal. Certain personality traits, due to inbreeding, have
become representitive of each House, though of course there is reasonably
wide variation within the Houses.


	The House of the Dragon is known for their ferocity and dedication
to war and conquest - they are known as the First House, as it was a member
of their House whom brought together the Empire about 3,000 years ago, the
first emperor, Taeis Dubogula.

	The House of the Unicorn is known for their pursuit of the art of
sorcery and in their firm belief and dedication to ritual. They are known
as the Second House, and are the second most powerful House after the Dragon,
though they are widely disliked for several reasons, most notably that it
was the last emperor of the last Unicorn Dynasty that caused the Empire
several thousand years ago to fall apart for over two hundred years.

	The House of the Preothai is known for their insatiable desire to
build, and it is they who are responsible for the building of the great roads
which link the Empire and it is they who have built many of the greatest
monuments such as the Tael'shadi that stands on a rock poking out of the waters
of the great bay west of Sejn Ohs. They are by far the most generally liked
of the Houses, and have proved their competence many times in the past in
many more dynasties than any of the other Houses can claim. They are known as
the Third House.

	The House of the Uma is known for their love of the sea, and it is
this House that sails the vast majority of the Empire's fleet. Their ability
at sailing is unsurpassed by any save the navigators of the Petrocea Empire.
They, next to the House of the Dragon, are the most warlike, and in days long
past, before the Empire was even formed, they had built an Empire along nearly
the entire rim of the great bay north of Marn Ohs and west of Sejn Ohs. They
are known as the Fourth House.

	The House of the Kapati is known for many things, their arrogance,
their tendency to plot against members of their own House as often as against
other Houses, the fact that in the 3,000 years of the Empire, that the one
time they managed to grab the Imperial Throne, one of their own sent an
assassin after the new Emperor, cutting him down in his own throne room. They
are also consumate spies, and are unmatched in their cunning and cleverness.
They are known as the Fifth House, and are generally sneered upon by every
other House but the House of the Preothai, who usually merely raise an eyebrow
at their activities, but say nothing...

_____________________________________________________________________________

Taeis Intro File (this)
Taeis Update of Major Characters taken and email addresses
Taeis Administrative Structure (note that it is different from standard MU*)

Gods of Ea (cosmology - the real story behind the religions)
Sorcery in the Ohs Empire
High Sorcery in the Ohs Empire*
Necromancy*
Demonology

Dragons (3 files)

Iniel (matriarchal demon-worshippers)
Milannorim (barbarians beyond the Southern Wall)
Petrocean Empire (islandic empire)
Ohs Empire Timeline (timeline for the Ohs Empire)

Names within the Ohs Empire (guidelines and examples of common names)

Petrocean Language (includes dictionary)
Dragons' Language (2 files, including dictionary)
Ohs Language

Fiction: Suicide of Meia Dubogula


* not ready for distribution yet
note also that there are several unlisted files which will soon be put on
	the list here and announced, including one piece of fiction (not by me)

_____________________________________________________________________________


	At this point, the number of documents has begun to multiply at such
an astounding pace that after quite literally crashing several peoples' mail
spoolers, I am going to alter the system slightly. This file is the basic guts
of TaeisMUSH, and I will continue to update this as it become necessary. This
will also serve as the introductory briefing and at the end, an updated
listing of what files are available publically. If you do write anything,
please feel free to send it to me and I can put it into the standardized file
format and will put it on the list. If you are missing a file, please feel free
to send me a note and I'll send the one or ones you are interested in. Also,
we hope to have most, if not all the files available via FTP at bigred.cit.
cornell.edu soon, and are toying with the idea of a newgroup for Taeis, though
this may very likely prove to be an unrealistic goal.


		Geoff Tuffli
		The Green Griffin

Newsgroups: alt.world.taeis