World of the Drylanders Dark Sun

8/2/2019 World of the Drylanders Dark Sun

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Wisdom of the DrylandersBy Peter Nuttall (Brax, [email protected])

Authors: Brax, Will Kendrick (Kenku Wisdom, [email protected]), Neeva Barrens (ElvenWisdom)

Editing and Review: Chris Flipse (fl [email protected]

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Interior Layout: Chris Flipse ( l [email protected])

Cover Illustrator: Stephen James

Interior Illustrator: Neeva Barrens

Interior 3D Art: Nelson Baietti Miguel Pimentel ([email protected])

Copyright 2002,2006 Peter Nuttall, Wizards of the Coast

Table of C ontents:WELCOME TO THE SCHOOL OF SPIES .............................................................................................................4WISDOM OF STRENGTH........................................................................................................................................6

WISDOM OF BETTERS............................................................................................................................................7COMMON WISDOM...............................................................................................................................................10DWARVEN WISDOM ..............................................................................................................................................16ELVEN WISDOM .....................................................................................................................................................20WISDOM OF THE TREMBLING PLAIN.............................................................................................................23KENKU WISDOM....................................................................................................................................................27WISDOM OF TERROR...........................................................................................................................................32WISDOM OF THE STORM COAST......................................................................................................................40APPENDIX: SKILLS, FEATS AND PRESTIGE CLASSES ................................................................................44
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Wisdom of the Drylanderscontains cultural and role-playing material for the Dark Sun campaignsetting. Other than this introduction, this entire work is written from the point of view of KurnanNPCs, mostly master spies working for King Oronis of Kurn. Kurns school of spies is anorganization of Kurnan spies that studies non-Kurnan societies, and brings back information todefend 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 ofKurns spy organization; these articles are only part of one of the many training manuals for newand prospective spies. In Kurn, inexpensive paper is harvested from local domesticated wasps; as aresult most Kurnan paper tends to be stiff and card-like. Hence, Kurnans tend not to bind theirwritten works into books, or to roll up their writing in scrolls, but rather keep loose cards incollections. It is not unusual for cards in a collection to be re-written or replaced, or for an author toadd 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 theslave trade with the tablelands, Kurnans do not natively speak what people in the tablelands refer toas 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. InKurn, 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 adaptsthe Eldaarish word-symbols, which are called picts. Note that picts are an ideographic system likehieroglyphics, where one symbol corresponds to one word. If possible, Kurnans prefer to use atleast two colors while painting their words, in order to get across the proper emphasis, or to quote. Inorder to represent words in Drylander languages such as the Common speech, the Kurnan spiestend 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.

ContentsThe articles in this document are only a few cards of the Wisdom of the Drylanderscollection. Thetraining of spies lasts for years; this document represents only a few of the most interesting anduseful cards:

Welcome to the School of Spiesby the master of the school of spies, King Oronis of Kurn; acritical explanation of the purpose of the Wisdom of the Drylanderscollection.

Wisdom o S eng hf tr t

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by Spymaster Meret proverbs & folklore of the Tablelands; discussion ofcivic virtues.

Wisdom of Bettersby Spymaster Meret discussion of power, social class, and morality in theTablelands.

Common Wisdomby Spymaster Meret discussion of the Common speech, its popular

expressions and insults.Dwarven W sdomby Spymaster Klianis discussion of Athasian Dwarves, their language, culture,and eccentricities.

Elven W sdomby Spymaster Kalisvrani discussion of Athasian elves, their language, culture, andeccentricities.

Wisdom of the Trembling Plainsby Spymaster Andapho discussion of the vast area known asthe Trembling Plains, its herder clans, and why the area deserves closer attention.

Kenku W sdomby Spymaster Andapho -- an account of observation of mysterious AthasianKenku, their culture, isolation, motives, and tactics.

Wisdom of Te rorby Prodigy, a veteran spy an illumination of the unfathomed lands of

Eldaarich, its people, culture, and politics.Wisdom of The Storm Coastby Spymaster Meretupdating Wisdom of Terror, discussing SouthGuard and Fort Mudwatch, and suggesting how one swift military strike could reduce the DimLands to starvation.
http://wispowr.htm/http://wispowr.htm/http://wisdw.htm/http://wiselven.htm/http://wiskenku.htm/http://wisterror.htm/http://wiscom.htm/http://wisdw.htm/http://wiselven.htm/http://wiskenku.htm/http://wiskenku.htm/http://wisterror.htm/http://wisterror.htm/http://wisterror.htm/http://wisterror.htm/http://wiskenku.htm/http://wiskenku.htm/http://wiselven.htm/http://wisdw.htm/http://wiscom.htm/http://wispowr.htm/


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Welcome to the School of SpiesMy friend,

The cards before you will take you on ajourney into the minds of the Drylanders, ajourney that for your safety you should takebefore you depart into the dry lands. Thesecards sum up the wisdom won by many daringspies, not all of whom returned to paint theirown tales. But because of this wisdom won byblood and cunning, you will travel into the drylands armed with knowledge, and return aliveto paint new cards into this deck. Eachgeneration of spies goes into the dry landsmore prepared than the last. And none hasbeen as well-armed as you.

This deck is enough to prepare you, but thereis a word for you before you go:

Know yourself.

But before you peer out into the dust I wouldhave you gaze into the reflection of your ownKurnan eyes. You cannot fully unlock thewisdom contained in these cards until youcomprehend the elements that make youKurnan. Allow me to tell you about yourself,and never again take your upbringing forgranted:

You call your kingOronis, not The Kingor KingOronis. Your fellow Kurnans do not speak ofOronis any more deferentially in front of histemplars; he is Oronis, that is enough. Onlysome Kurnan nobles cling to archaicTitles a Drylander word for expressions thatproclaim that someone is more important thanthe rest of his name allows. You call thetemplars and your clave-chiefs by their names,granting them respect not according to theirpositions but according to how much you

actually respect them.You live without fear. Your neighbor weaves abasket, sells it, and enjoys the fruits of hislabors. Your sister bears a child, and neverfears that she or the baby will die of thirst.When your parents told you to watch your littlebrothers play, it was not out of fear that yourneighbors would snatch and sell them toprowling slave traders.

Such fears do not occur to you, but you carry aweapon with you everywhere, as does every

citizen of Kurn. As a citizen, you are requiredto own and master the longbow, and keep onewithin a breaths reach at all times. As children,you knew that your parents and friends parentsmight give their lives to protect Kurn, whetheragainst the Bandit-states, the Kreen, theEldaarish, or against the Grey Horde, and yetyou have seen more of your quick-temperedfriends die stupidly, accidentally, in petty inter-clave competitions and brawls, than inskirmishes with Kurns enemies. The few

bandits that have attacked Kurnan villagers saythat the villagersfight like the dragon, you wouldsay rather that theyfight like the wasp. Only afool attacks the wasps nest: unlike bees, each

wasp stings again and again, and Kurnans seeto it, like the wasp, that their nests offer nohoney or wealth of any sort to the successfulinvader. In spite of Oronis efforts to erase anunpleasant memory, you know that yourpeople once called themselves Kel Tasmeaningwasp nest, before Oronis restored Kurn to itsancient elven name. You humor your king, butyour parents have taught you what you are.

You have learned that to be wealthyis to livebetween walls of stone, and to be wretchedis to

live within a paper tent, but the most wretchedfolk that you see have not known hunger, norhave they considered selling their son to aTyrian fleshmonger. The wealthiest nobles thatyou know of never indulge in extravagantwaste, like the Nibenese merchant who poursout his mug of broyupon the sand in front ofa wide-eyed thirsty beggar child.

You think that slaverymeans being denied therights of citizenship because of some act orincapacity to carry out ones duties of

citizenship, being forced to work in exchangefor food and shelter, and being told when torise and when to sleep. Yet slavery among youis more bound than binding. Kurnan noblescomplain more about Kurnan slavery laws thantheir slaves do. Your nobles are forbidden tobuy or sell slaves, except with the templars,who will cease to sell slaves to cruel orneglectful masters. It is not lawful for the slave-owner to lie with the slave. Each slave has aweek of every month to study with the

templars, and any honest slave who learns toread and use the longbow may purchasefreedom and win citizenship. The children ofKurnan slaves do not become property of themaster. Drylander elves and merchant houseshave painfully learned that enslaving a singleKurnan citizen means declaring war on Oronis.

You will smile at a strangers child, and thechildren of your friends and kin are liketreasure. There is no translation in yourlanguage for the Raaminword Brat. You

glower at the Drylander that so much as looksat a Kurnan child. You will do little ofsignificance without thinkinghow will this affectmy children, even if you are childless at the time.While you despise the past and shy from yourelders as if they were ghosts, your mind is everon the future.

Your people tend to marry young. Themarriages in your community aremonogamous, a Drylander word which meansthat no more than woman marries no more


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than one man. You wonder that there would beneed for such a word! Yet you make allowancesfor the wives of infertile husbands. For thisreason the men in your community speakcurtly to Drylander humans. The rumor amongyou is that it is easier for a woman to conceivea healthy child with a Drylander than with aKurnan, You only apply the word dallyto theactions of an indiscreetwife. If a Kurnan manwere to dallywith a Drylander woman, hewould become a traitorin your eyes not onlyto his wife but to his clave and to the largercommunity of Kurn, and you would beunderstanding of the jealous wife that slewsuch a husband. Your word dallydoes not evenapply to the woman who discreetly trysts asingle time with a Drylander. Though this act iscommon, you have no word for this act, for

you have been taught not to notice it.Your selective blindness passes for naivet, butyour people are more indifferent than naive. Inyour waxed-linen clave tents shared by fortyfellow clavers, it is politeness, not naivet, topretend you know nothing of the impotenceof the clave-chief s new husband, the gamblinglosses of your uncle, the sixth consecutivemiscarriage of a claver that you dislike.

The fact that you have petitioned to serve asOronis spy shows you to be more curious andmeddlesome than the average Kurnan. Youhave always noted and pieced togetherunspoken details, and communicatedknowledge to other curious ones through hintsand innuendoes. Your slower, less curiousfriends were left behind, because you wereloathe to repeat yourself, or to explain anythingstraightforwardly.

As sharp as you are, you have begun to observedanger in what you perceive as the dullness ofyour fellow Kurnans. You have wished thatOronis would take a greater share in thegovernment of the city, would set all thingsaright. It is perhaps for this reason that youhave petitioned to serve him, to call hisattention to the problems that he has somehowneglected.

You may think, for example, that theDrylanders are taking advantage of yourpeople. Indeed, accustomed to plenty, Kurnansmake poor bargains, and lose their purses tothe elves at dice. Only the high walls andremoteness of Kurn, and the machinations ofshrewd templars keep the naivet of Kurnfrom passing into a Drylander by-word.Perhaps it bothers you that your fellowKurnans would rather sell the fruits of theirlabors for a song, rather than let a single berryrot on their shelves. Rather than admiring yourpeoples thrift and respect for the gifts of theland, you are angered that foreigners shouldtake advantage of them.

You may also have ideas of increasing thewealth of Kurn; you have heard, for example, arumor of gold discovered in the stream nearFort Protector. You have heard that themountain fungus that long ago produced therich blue dye that coveted by Drylanders, is notin fact extinct, but thrives in some hiddenvalley in the White Mountains. Whether true orfalse, such rumors must be extinguished.Kurns poverty in metal and other loot protectsit more than its high walls, its arrows, its magic.Poverty is our greatest defense.

Our greatest weapon is knowledge. As thetemplars taught you reading and archery as achild, in this school you will be armed withknowledge of the Drylanders. You will notonly learn the tongues of the Drylanders; youwill learn to speak to them, to deal with them,to steer them like stupid beasts, to pass as oneof them. Armed with knowledge, you will goforth with the blessing of Oronis, to enrichyour land and people with the Wisdom of theDrylanders.

Welcome to the school of spies.-Oronis


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Wisdom of StrengthAs children of Kurn, we often heard storiesand fables that were composed for ouramusement and edification. As adults, we canlook back on these stories and see how they

were constructed to teach us what we call civicvirtues: restraint, patience, generosity, discipline,wisdom. These are the virtues that make usKurnan.

Stories told to the children of the dry landsreflect a very different set of virtues. As youmust pass for a Drylander, I want you to listento these stories with the mind of a child:

The BeginningOn the eve of the age of kings, the Dragon destroyedthe land, sea, and the sky. The sky was filled withstars, until the dragon swallowed most of them, leavingonly the brightest. The sun was a brilliant yellow fire inthe sky, until the Dragon burnt it to a red ember. Thesea was full of water, until the Dragon sucked it dryand breathed dust into the place of the waters. Theland was full of cities, trees, wells and grass, until theDragon began to gnaw, and it gnawed until almostnone were left. Gorged, Dragon lifted its head, and sawthat a few cities, fields, and wells remained in distantpockets on the land. But as it reached out its claws todevour the last city, a great slumber came over the beast.Thanks to the power of the seven Kings, it has slept formany ages, and will sleep for ages more, if you do notwake 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, thenleave. Walk away from these city walls, and see if theeaten lands are more to your liking.

The Elven BrothersTwo elven brothers returned from a hunt to find thattheir tribe had packed up and left them stranded in thedesert.

The water hole had only six days of water left, so theelder, stronger brother gathered the water into skins,and gave three days worth to his younger, weakerbrother. With the water, they sprinted after the tracksof their tribe.

They traveled for four days, never catching up to theirtribe. Each day, the younger, weaker brother drank hisfill of water, while the older, stronger brother only

drank half rations, looking with disapproval at his

brothers gluttony. On the morning of the fourth day, asthe younger brother drained the final drops from hiswater 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 mediscipline and sacrifice. You have drunk your water andhave no more. Now your gluttony will be yourdownfall.

Not so, brother, replied the younger, drawing hisdagger. My water packs have been lighter the pastthree days, and my body is refreshed from its fill ofwater. You are tired from carrying your load, and weakfrom deprivation. Now I am the stronger.

Proverbs of the Dry LandsThe beast snarls. The snake hisses. The strangersmiles. Take warning!

Birth is painful. Life is short. Death is forever.

You cannot quench the hunger of a fire, the thirst ofa desert, or the greed of a templar.

The cut worm forgives the plow.

The locusts share no king, yet the desert tremblesbefore 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 slaves face, but spit quietly into thetemplars cup.

The elements reclaim us all, but better you than me.

An open wound attracts flies.

Lessons from StrengthSo what have you learned, mychild? Can you

set aside Kurnan notions offairness, to enter aworld where strengthis the only virtue, wheremight makes right, where laws are painted withthe sword rather than the brush? And havingdone so, will you remember Kurnan notions ofright and wrong when you come home to us?

Settle this in your mind, sister, that you will dowhat is necessary to survive in the dry lands.But remember who you are. Go forth andlearn, but return and live.

-Spymaster Mereth


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Wisdom of BettersA Word on the Common SpeechWhen you report to me, I will refine your skills

in the most widely spoken language in theseven cities: the common speech. Before youleave my instruction, you must learn fluency incommon and some appreciation of itssubtleties. Because of the importance of thislanguage to virtually all missions and all spies, Iwill 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 inthe common speech: the Bslavsekcodex,which is titled Slave Tribes. My second card,

CommonWisdom, advances our discussion ofthe common speech and what I call thecommoncultureof the six cities. My secondcard will assume that you have read this firstcard, and that you have thoroughly studiedBslavsek. One of your sister spies recentlyobtained the Bslavsekcodex in Nibenay andtransported it to our school at great risk.

We cannot verify the identity ofBslavseksnarrator, since we purchased the codex from adubious elven Drylander named Bslavsek, but

the descriptions of slavery in the seven citiesare true to our experiences. To help youunderstand Bslavsek, I will outline theDrylander structure of betters:

The Drylander Structure ofBettersTemplarsIn terms of food, shelter, possessions, legalrights, and personal power, templars live atleast as well as the freeborn artisans, and themost powerful Templars far exceed the richestof nobles. And yet the highest dry landstemplar is the object of contempt fromeveryone that they know. Their sovereign usesthem as dispensable slaves; the nobles sneer atthem, slaves spit in their footsteps when theirbacks are turned; and their fellow templarsdespise them most of all. Templars are the buttof the harshest jokes of the dry lands, andother Drylanders submit to them only when

templars invoke the terrors of their office. Fewslaves or freemen are so unwise as to insulttemplars to their faces, but sullen obedience,averted eyes, and other not-so-subtle messagesconvey their derision in clear tones. Templarsrespond to this general contempt witharrogance, aggression, gaudiness, andpretentious dignity, but everyone knows thattemplar privileges are unearned and fleeting.Privileges such as literacy set templars apart asdespised.

A contact of a junior spy stationed near Urikdescribes the templars as broken men.

Drylanders focus the inseparable powers ofreading and management into one hated,contemptible office, and blame the templarsfor the inevitable abuses of power. Without

templars, the dry lands cities fall into anarchy.Tyr succeeded in ridding itself of slavery atgreat cost, but failed to rid itself of theTemplarate.

Unskilled slavesThe lowest of the low, unskilled slaves performbackbreaking, dirty tasks, every day of theirmiserable lives. But do not be misled: manywho are called slaves in the Seven Cities arenot considered the lowest of the low. The child

of a Drylander slave is automatically theproperty of the Drylander master, but in otherrespects, some Drylands slaves are treatedmuch as Kurnan slaves: as weak-minded orirresponsible involuntary workers; not asdisposable possessions.

In the Balican and Raamin fields and mines, ofcourse, it is clear who is free and who is slave.But in Raam and Balic itself, slaves aregenerally called Servants, and are consideredthe Betters of a free unskilled laborer. Before

the death of Ablach-Re and the chaos thatfollowed, this was particularly true in Raam,where the caste system superseded the issue ofslave or free. Raamin Viziers, artisans, laborers,or untouchables may all be slave or free, sinceno self-respecting Vizier could keep a personalhouse servant who was of a lower caste. (Thishas changed lately with the Raamin civil war;many Raamin servants have been seized byMke and other factions who treat them asdisposable instruments.)

The notion of Better slaves applies to Gulgnative slaves, some house slaves of theDrylander nobility, and to Nibenese artisan-slaves and soldier-slaves. In my next card,commonWisdom, I will focus on the culture ofthe commonslaveswho are bought, sold, andtreated like cattle. The concubines andpersonal slaves of templars may receive morefood, but the mistreatment they receive fromother slaves compensates for this. Lackeys thatare known to collaborate or inform the

templars, receive even crueler treatment. Slavesare most harsh with those slaves who take onqualities that remind them of templars, such asreading, authority, magical ability slaves hatethe very idea of their own rising above them.

Unskilled free day-laborers (Freemen)Free day-laborers either are ex-slaves, orrefugees from the drying and destroyed townsthat dot the dry lands. They starve or stealduring slow seasons, and stand daily in places

designated for employment -- any sort ofemployment. Nobles often require short-termlabor for planting, harvest, or other back-


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breaking tasks, and pay a ceramic bit per day,plus food and water, for sunrise-to-sunsetwork. One bit is enough to feed a child for aday, if it is not stolen, drunk or gambled away.Day laborers are usually freemen, not freeborn,and this is an important distinction for mostDrylanders. Female ex-slaves who bearfreeborn children often pay to have themapprenticed to freeborn artisan families.

Artisan SlavesIn Balic, prestige lines between freeborn andslave are blurred in service to the patricians,but in Tyr, Urik, and Nibenay, there is a clearline between slave and free artisans. Artisanslaves include those who perform tasks thatrequire training, and that carry some degree ofprestige. Artisan slaves cling to these skills that

make them better than the unskilled slaves andfreemen, whom they frequently callcommoners.

Skill prestige arbitrarily varies from city to city.For example, gladiators, soldiers, andcourtesans are all considered skilled artisans inUrik, but not in Draj, where these areconsidered common skills. In my next card, Iwill discuss this complex and fascinating wordin detail.

Freeborn ArtisansFreeborn artisans jealously preserve their skill,referring to these skills as a craft or mystery.Unable to own land (only nobles own land inthe six cities), Freeborn artisans know thatpreserving the secret of their craft is all thatseparates them from slavery and destitution.They despise artisan slaves, and prefer to takeapprentices from the freeborn. Freebornartisans are generally the least superstitious,least hysterical, most moral, and most

judgmental of the Drylanders. They work for aliving, as their own masters. Only the most lazyand corrupt among them leave to becometemplars. As Kurnans you will find Freebornartisans the easiest to understand, since theirfamily craft operations superficially resembleour own Clave industries. Artisans are thesource of Drylander morality. Slaves are bredfor profit, commoners and templars rut tobring a moment of pleasure to a hatefulexistence, nobles and Traders marry for

alliance; but generally only the freebornartisans marry for love, and remain faithfullymarried. The most skilled Freeborn titlethemselves master artisans, a title thatcontinues to grow in prestige. Psionics schoolstend to fall into the artisan caste, althoughthese organizations are not based on family;master psions clearly borrow the term fromthe artisans.

Sadly, in their dedication to their particularmystery, Drylander artisans and mindbenders

shun skills that would give them power: asreading, writing, and magic. Artisans do notobject to mindbenders in their midst, but are

incensed by the very idea of a master wizard.Our spies in Tyr report that when Tyriancounsel voted to proclaim preserver magic alegal craft, artisans rioted and stoned reputedwizards behind the council building.

Servants and StewardsAlthough they are usually slaves by law,Stewards are often considered part of thenoble family, and even more often, are literallyfamily. Since nobles only marry other nobles,nobility itself would have fallen to inbreedingages ago if noblewomen did not frequentlybear children from their discreet matches withthe help. Stewards and house servants arequick to see opportunities in relationships withtheir owners, in spite of the frequently mortalrisk of offending noble spouses.

Raamins and Balicans, whose noble familiescontrol whole districts of the city, oftendownplay the distinction between Slave andFree. Most citizens, from the nobles to theslaves, are bound to a noble house with astrong head of the family. This head (called thevizier in Raam, or the patrician in Balic) isobeyed without question it is consideredmore acceptable to kill the family head over adisagreement than to express thatdisagreement publicly!

Honored slaves such as stewards, or soldier-slaves that rise to officer ranks, have beenknown to accumulate property and to put onairs. Some Nibenese noble houses have left allreal power and practical decisions in the handsof house stewards, and more than oneNibenese noble has fallen ill to bad food afterdisagreements with thehelp.

TradersThese inter-city travelers are prohibitedcitizenship in all seven cities, but frequentlylease city buildings from nobles, and hold landwithin a days travel of the city. Hold, not own,since force is the only basis of legal ownershipin the lawless wild. Traders are foreigners toevery city and town. The eldest trade houseshave whole languages and societies of theirown. Dependent on the goodwill of the cities,Traders are generally polite to all, and work topreserve a reputation for good business,without acquiring a fatal reputation for

softness.As powerful outlanders, Traders do not fitprecisely into the system of betters; thus theytend to title themselves according to theirfancy. Most heads of Trade houses titlethemselves after the tradition of artisans:MasterWavir orMasterRees. A few powerfulones, such as LordShom, pretend to the titlesof nobles. Their assumption of noble titlingisgenerally considered pretentious, but no onesuggests this to LordShoms face. By nature of

their business, Traders must work closely withartisans, templars, and nobles, so they oftenlearn the language of each in order to gain


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social advantage. Nobles and traders frequentlyexchange loans, and have been known tooccasionally intermarry for the sake of alliance nobles consider such alliances beneaththem, but not so much that a saving Tradehouse alliance would not be worthUndermarryinga third or fourth child. Tradehouses pay dearly for such prestigious alliances,typically covenanting not to purchase goodsfrom rival noble houses.

NoblesLike Kurnan nobles, Drylander nobles livefrom the labors of others on their own lands.In most of the seven cities, these nobles arethe onlyproperty- owners; there are no smallfarms, and no other large industries tocompete with them. Nobles run the industries

that range from farming, to the mining ofBalican silver and lead, to the quarries andbrickyards in Urik. Generally, if a largeindustry is within a days travel from the city,nobles or templars probably own it; if fartheraway, then it is owned by a king, a trade house,or a tribe.

Nobles flatter themselves with traditions ofnames, titles, and descent. Noble titlingsystems vary from city to city, so few freemenor slaves grasp which precise titles and names a

given addresser should call a given noble in agiven situation. Again, common speech comesto your rescue. Since nobles rarely speakdirectly to slaves or freemen, and since theirStewards will find ways of making you feelfoolish even if you got the names and titlesright, simply referring to a noble as lord shouldsuffice. In the unlikely event that a noble talksto you directly, and wants you to reply to her,great one should do the trick.

Like our own stolid nobles, Drylander noblesalmost never look beyond their own interestsand land. They are prohibited from traveling(the kings probably fear they would make inter-city allegiances that would compromise thepower of the templars and crown). Forexample, some trade houses such as Vordonand Shom seem to have originated as noblehouses whose lands were seized as they madeforeign allegiances.

Those noble houses that have survived ages oftemplar intrigue and jealousy, can be said toboth profit and suffer from a narrow, inbredcunning. Within their own city-states, theyoutwit the very templars, and yet all of theirwisdom dries out at the edges of their citysverdant belt. Eight years ago, as Urikite forcesmarched on their city, Tyrian nobles squabbledand bickered over their obligations to supportthe war, as if oblivious to the threat ofHamanus armies to their own lands andpersons! The sheer narrowness of the noblemind is best summed up by the words of ayoung Nibenese noble who had broken a edictof his king, slaying a peer over somehotheaded love story. His servant (one of ourspies) attempted to persuade him to flee toRaam. Facing penalty of death if he remainedin his city, this noble retorted: there is no world

outside the Nibenese lands.You probably smile at that late young noblesnaivet. Save such smiles until you returnsafely. You are going into a land of madness,where absurdity and irony are as common asdust and sunshine. I bless you that you maymaster their madness, and return to us as thesane sister that we knew.

-Spymaster Mereth


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Common WisdomForewardSince my discussion builds upon the matter

and manner of the Bslavsekcodex, I stronglyrecommend that you peruse this documentbefore reading further. Certainly my discussionwill confuse you if you have not achieved arudimentary grasp of common. No language,indeed, no skill, even your knowledge of theWay, is as critical to your mission as a masteryof the common speech.

Reading and Writing in theDrylands.Your sisters teach you to read commonbecause reading helps you to acquire fluency,but in the field, you must obviously hide yourreading skill! Study the BslavsekandWanderercodices. These texts represent a rareopportunity to study native use of common,before you go out into the field, where youmust pass for a native.

Once in the field, you will have fewopportunities to read common. As you know,

in the dry lands, only templars and nobles canread without risking the legal penalty of death.The few Drylanders that do read and createtexts do not actually use paint and brushes, butuse sharpened sticks and feathers to scribbletheir funny letters in dyes called ink.Drylanders call this processwriting. We willnot train you to paint in common this skillwould not benefit you. The common languageis rarely painted at all orwritten, as theywould say, since templars and nobles usuallywrite in their own ancient city or house scripts.

Like the dwarven script that I use to paint thecommon words on this card, most Drylanderscripts languages use sound-characters calledLetters. Tyrian and Balican, and most ofRaamin family scripts also employ dwarvenletters. (Tyrian and Balican nobles of courseclaim this script-system as their own, calling itthe alphabet). Drylander elves have lostknowledge of the ancient elven characters thatremain engraved in the old monumentssurrounding Kurn; when they write they tend

to use dwarven letters. Nibenay and Urik haveunique systems of Letters, and the two oldestRaamin noble houses adapt the Nibenesescript for their own house dialects. Draj uses aword-glyph system, but none of their symbolsresemble the Kurnan and Eldaarish glyphs.

The Urikite letters are fastest for the scribe if the scribe does not mind having to writeexclusively in soft clay with a wedged stick. TheNibenese letters and Drajan word-glyphs, likeour own, are a labor of art elaborate, time-

consuming, and impractical for adapting fornew languages. The dwarven letters seem the

logical choice to write common, in the rarecases when this is desired. Such is the case withthe BslavsekandWanderer codices, whichseem to be intended for the largest possible

range of readers. Note that this is an unusualpurpose, since most Drylander documents areusually intended for the smallestpossible rangeof readers!

Naturally, Drylanders have developed a fewscript-like systems that seem designed to avoidthe legal dangers of writing. Traders employsymbols somewhat like our own figures,allowing templars to formally pretend thatTraders accounting texts are not writing.Nibenay has a popularly known dance-script

that could be used for other purposes;templars allow the dance-figures whenengraved in stone, but treat them aswritingifthey are placed onto paper. Desperate toconceal their craft, Drylander wizards employ ahodge-podge of concealable spell-scriptingsystems that include elaborate patterns ofbeads and weaving.

The Common SpeechAfter reading the Bslavsekcodex, your mind isdoubtlessly caught up in the image of a societythat treats its slaves more cruelly than wewould treat our cattle. This image is generallyaccurate; indeed the narrator chooses rathermild examples, given the reality of Drylanderslavery. But look beyond the codex matter, tothe codex language itself. Does it not seem oddthat six distant and isolated cities would share aconvenient language? In our own tongue, thisDrylander word common translates into threeunrelated terms: shared,frequently encountered, and

worthy of contempt. Usually, when a Drylanderuses the word common, she means all three ofthese meanings at once. What does this mean?First, common is sharedby six cities and mostof the villages and nomads in that livebetween; so second, the language isfrequentlyencountered; Third, common is despised becauseitis shared and frequent. Most non-slaves willspeak another, native language among their kin,and reserve common speech for strangers.Many Drylander nobles do not speakcommon

at all, or at least pretend not to.You will soon be exposed to a second originaltext in the common speech: theWanderercodex.Wanderers authenticity is confirmedsince I debriefed its author myself when hevisited Kurn, but the accuracy ofWanderersspeculations are often in question.

Origins of the Common SpeechMy predecessor theorized that common wasdeveloped by merchant houses, but the idea is

absurd. The oldest merchant houses have theirown languages; and the theory is belied by therichness and flexibility of common speech.


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Most importantly, the dune traders make it amatter of pride to master the languages of thepeople that they encounter -- it would beutterly against the character and interests ofthe merchant houses to create and share alanguage that would make it easier for city-states to communicate with each other!Merchant houses make their living by servingas the bridge between isolated cultures.Breaking that isolation is the very last thingthat a merchant house would want to do.

Wanderer argues that the common speech isinherent in all sentient beings because itdescends from the language of halflings.Wanderers theory does not mesh with the factthat the common speech is onlycommon tothe vicinity of the Seven cities. Furthermore,the theory ignoresWanderers own claim thatall humanoids descend from Halflings! If allpeoples and cultures descend from theRhulisti Halflings, then allhumanoidlanguages are then descended from the originalRhulisti language, so theWanderersexplanation does not really tell us anythingdistinctive about the Common speech.

I care less how the common speech originated,than how it spread and came to be shared byso many very different human and humanoidsocieties. Clearly the operating factor here isthe inter-city slave trade -- huge groups ofslaves traded from one city to the next. Theseslaves have to communicate with local templarsand overseers, and also with other slaves whocome from various city-states. This situationrequiresa shared language -- if the commonspeech had not existed previously, then alanguage would have developed to fill thisneed!

The Common speech is rarely spoken in Gulg,for a simple reason: by decree of the Oba. TheBslavsekcodex describes the exceptionalmistreatment of non-Gulg slaves in Gulg.Slaves sold to Gulg from other cities are givena new, Gulg name, and are severely punishedfor speaking any other language. This Gulg-only policy has made Gulg the most isolated ofthe seven cities, and the city where outsidersfeel the least comfortable. Master spies oftenrefer to the Six Cities, meaning the seven minusGulg, which is exceptional in many ways.

In contrast to Gulg, Raam is the city most

open to the common tongue; only a fewRaamin nobles speak other tongues, and thesetongues are not called Raamin, but specific to anoble family. In other cities, nobles andartisans (both slave and free) speak thelanguage associated with the city: Tyrian,Balican, Urikite, Draji, Gulg, or Nibenese.Most Drylander nobles and artisans speakcommon as well, depending on whether or notit is convenient to speak to a given stranger.Your mastery over multiple languages will

influence where we can place you.

Breeding AnarchyTo avoid the bitter danger of slave revolts,nobles and templars tend to sell off the mostrebellious slaves before trouble starts. Slavetraders always make sure to separate familiesand friends as soon as possible, in order to

isolate and conquer every spark of sentience.There are slaves living who have worked in sixcities at one time or another. I do not say allseven, since the Oba (who technically owns allslaves in Gulg), tends to kill troublemakingoutsiders, and sells only native trouble makersto other cities (a fate the native slaves regardworse than death). In the short term, thesepractices quell rebellion. The isolated slaves arestripped of influence over others, and deniedthe security that one needs to assert ones

rights. Yet I will show you that over time, theunplanned effects of this slave trade have setthe stage for bloody revolts and anarchy.

Templars are bound to their king; nobles totheir lands and families; artisans to their citiesand craft; traders to their clans; all are boundby local laws, long-standing traditions, tight-knit cultures, and most importantly by familybonds. But slaves in the Six Cities share aversatile language and a compelling culture thattranscends cities, government, and family.

Slaves are discouraged from forming naturalfamilial bonds. Since the master of a womanthat gives birth owns the child, and since themaster of the father gets nothing, nobles oftenpunish male slaves for spending strength, butencourage promiscuity among females,particularly rewarding those who attract strongslaves of other nobles. While childbirth isgenerally encouraged and accommodated bymost masters, maternal behaviors arediscouraged, and paternal behaviors are strictlyprohibited. Newly delivered mothers returnwithout nursing, and elderly slaves take onfeeding and caring for the young, until thebabies are old enough to sell to another noblehouse. One sign that common speech is atongue of slaves is that their only words forfatherhood and motherhood are tasks: siredand mothered. Slaves often speak of theirmothers as the one who motheredme.

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 studdutycarries twisted sort of prestige, since thestuds are selected for their strength, endurance,and attractiveness. Only mul and dwarvenslaves resent the stud title. long-living dwarvesmaintain some of their own culturethroughout the slavery, and the word stud istoo close to the dwarven insult mulfather.furthermore, the women they must mate withare usually drugged and unwilling, especiallythe humans women who will usually die in

childbirth bearing the mul offspring. Ofcourse, anyone calling a mul a stud has either a


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cruel sarcastic wit, or an astonishing ignoranceof sex. Muls do not typically enjoy beingreminded of their sterility.

Even when freed, former slaves tend to holdon to concepts and traditions of their slaveupbringing, and even influence their freeborn

children: Freeman and freeborn marriages andrelationships tend to be temporary, and freefathers often abandon and neglect theirchildren. To make matters worse, slaves havelittle means to learn of concepts such asprincipleor law.

Drylander artisans, templars, and nobles alikemust deal day-to-day with more-or-lessconsistent rules of behavior. Obedience tothese laws and rules usually means continuedfreedom. Slaves on the other hand face an

ever-fickle set of overseers, whose mandatesfrequently contradict each other. One scenarioyou will often see: an angry overseer shouts aquestion into a slaves face. Slaves who try toanswer (however submissively) are punishedfor talking back. Slaves who hold their silenceare punished for playing dumb.

With their lives filled with these daily doublebinds, the cleverest slaves learn to choose theiractions in terms of which action will get thembeaten least severely. And most slaves rarely

take the luxury of choice at all, but react to themost powerful drive in their being. Overseersare employed to ensure that this most powerfuldrive remains: fear of the lash. When the lashfails to inspire the most striking impulse, thingsfall apart.

Without bonds of family, city, or society, slaveshonor only strength, power and brutality, butthey also feel a powerful needfor family, butthey fail to comprehend what it is that theylack, other thanfreedom. Their compelling,

shared, common culture can easily be woveninto the illusionof brotherhood. Few leadersemerge from the ranks of slaves, but the voiceof a charismatic leader can whip slave andfreeman alike into a fearless rage. Once roused,slaves make a powerful destructive force, butthey possess none of the skills to rebuild.Once their common enemy is vanquished,their unity and brotherhood falls apart likeglass, and they begin to oppress each other asharshly as they were ever oppressed. As youread Bslavseks descriptions of the Drylanderslave tribes, observe the simple repeated pattern:Oppression. Hope. Struggle. Freedom. Brotherhood.Anarchy. Return to Oppression.

Recently, the slave revolt chaos has spread evento the cities, beginning withTyr. Kalaks follywas to seize all of the slaves of the nobles, andpool them in a single, long-term project. Astemplars were executed for falling behind intheir deadlines, their successors resorted tomore and more desperate means to increasetheir labor pool. Slave traders slid intoTyr like

a storm; freeborn artisans and foreigners wereenslaved without cause; the wells of the city

ran dry quenching the thirst of slaves andstill the labor pool was too small for Kalaksziggurat. Mercenaries and soldiers wereemployed to capture free villages and slavetribes from the neighboring desert. Treasuryfunds evaporated. Templars, mercenaries, andsoldiers were strained to the limits justcontaining slave revolts! Distribution of foodand water became unwieldy. Settling disputesamong the slaves was out of the question; theoverseers were few and terrified. AsDrylanders often do, templars cloaked theirown terror in cruelty. To fill the void, gangsand leaders formed among the slaves, fordistributing resources and space, and forresolving quarrels. When Kalakwas slain, andthe templars suddenly lost their spells, therewas simply no possibility of sending the slaves

back to their masters! Revolted slave bands hadalready seized whole portions of the city, andthe decimated and quarreling templars, nobles,and guards were in no position to face a unitedmass that outnumbered them twenty to one. IfTythian had not freed the slaves in thatmoment, that day, the golden walls ofTyrmight have dissolved in blood.

While power seems to have shiftedpermanently into the hands ofTyrian ex-slaves, they have failed to use it to raise

themselves from poverty or desperation. ThefewTyrian successes can be attributed to theunique situation inTyr where freeborn artisanswere enslaved in mass, bringing a degree ofconsciousness and discipline to the ragingslave-born mob.

Unbound to city, law, or language, slavesidentify more closely with a slave from anothercity, than a noble would identify with a fellownoble from the same city. Slaves tend to expectthe same treatment that another slave receives.

If one slave eats, other slaves salivate. If oneslave gets flogged, others wince or falter atevery stroke of the lash. If one slave escapesto the desert, others, still in chains, eitherdream of freedom, or sit up contemplating themiseries of dying in the wastes. Every slave inthe six cities knows another slave who at onetime was inTyr; and it follows, to the mind ofa slave, that what happens inTyr, could happenin Balic. Many interpreted the unexplainedfailing of the Messenger comet as a long-

awaited sign to the sky-watching, superstitiousDrylanders. Since the recent deaths of localmonarchs, the entire region is on the verge oferupting in bloody slave revolts.

Common Insults and PraisesSome of the first targets of angry slaves seemto be the most harmless of wizards. The slavesblame magic for their misery, and do not fearthe quiet independent preservers as they fearthe agents of the nobles and the kings. The

popular sayings among the slaves are filled withcontempt towards the arts of magic and even


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of reading, and these sayings have spread tothe Freemen and even to the Freeborn:

Weak-eyed is a reference to reading, sincemages and others who read secretly use candlesat night, ruining their eyes. Stained fingers is areference to writing. Remember that

Drylanders do not paint, butwrite, that is, theyscribblewith a sharpened stick or feather-tip (apen), in dyes which Drylanders call ink.Drylander templars often use stained fingers toaccuse someone of writing or wizardry both punishable by death.Weak-eyed andfingerstain are not only insults, but epithetsthat if taken seriously, could result in yourbeing executed by the templars, or lynched by arabble. If you are called a weak-eyed firefly, orfingerstain, be willing to fight for your goodname, or die for your bad name.

Better humored, but still a provocation tofight, are these gladiators taunts, which useliteracy as signs of laughable, pitiful weakness:

When comparing scars: thats not a wound;thats a paper cut!

To an opponent that scratches you in combat:are you trying to write a love-note on mycloak?

To intimidate an opponent with a bigger spearthan yours: that big pen of yours just signed

your death warrant.

Distance yourself from anyone who usesreading-insults against templars! Always readyto brutally protect their battered dignity,templars are especially sensitive to readinginsults, since their reading sets them apart asdespised.

Slaves are even harsher with other slaves whotake on qualities that remind them of templars.As the Bslavsekcodex shows, ex-slaves cannotabide the peace-time leaders, counselors, orwould-be teachers or lawmakers. Slaves and ex-slaves despise words, which remind them oftemplars; they prefer actions; they hate the onethat instructs them more than the one whoflogs them. Hence the slave proverb, famous inthe slave tribes: one law is oppression. two lawsmake tyranny. three laws make slavery. (theelves add a fourth phrase to the proverb: fourlaws make marriage.)

The common speech is filled with expressionsof contempt for learning and wisdom. I amgoing to teach you a lesson does not offeractual instruction; but rather threatens physicalassault! We are unable to come to anagreement of what dont get smart with memeans, but if someone says it to you, then bevery careful what you say to them from thenon any word you say risks offending yournew enemys sense of pride.

If reading is associated with weakness anddistrust, magic is distrusted with a fanaticalterror. One who loses in a contest, may saveface by accusing her rival of using magic tobest her: you glow!, your eyes still shine,was

that thunder? . . . among friends theseexpressions of the loser may be considered astrong jest, but among strangers, theseexpressions may give deadly insult. Take carenot to translate Kurnan compliments intocommon terms! Some of our expressionstranslate into backhanded insults, such as youhave a charming smile or isnt this anenchanting song?

While harmless suggestions of magic turnvirulent in the common slang, some of themost severe insults that we might imagine, areused as casual greetings, or even to terms ofaffection. Slaves, freemen, and even somefreeborn use terms like dirt rag, scum, dustbag, tumbleweed freely on their fellows.Templars address this semi-derogatory slangterms to equal or lesser-rank templars, and toslaves and free alike, but never to those thatthey consider to be powerful enough to injurethem politically: Nobles, greater templars, andmaster artisans and traders. All these, thetemplars call great one, strong one, or theincreasingly popular Nibenese term boss.

Common Knowledge and theSeven CitiesAs one would expect, the names and slangexpressions of most Drylander languageseventually make their way into commonspeech, as do needed crafts and concepts.Other tongues have their slight advantages. Butwith few exceptions, common offers the fullestvocabulary for any given task. The exceptionsare remote:Vordons merchants script seemsthe best for maintaining records, Drajan fordiscussing star-study and navigation, the ForestRidge halfling dialect for herbology andmedicine, Urikite for large-scale military

strategy, and arguably Kreen for physicalmaneuvering in battle. For all other tasks, thosewho knowcommon tend to switch into it, orto borrow its words, in order to describe agiven task. You will notice that your sisterteachers often do the same thing from our ownKurnan Speech into Common there is oftenno clearer means of expressing actions anddirections.

Even when it comes to these topics whereother languages excel, common competes by

absorbing new and needed words. Forexample, the common word tacticobviouslyderive from Kreen terms such as tak-tik orchak-tik., which relate to the hunters mentaledge over the prey. The simple structure of theslave language fosters adaptation andinnovation. Ironically, the language of thelowest adapts to encompass the riches ofDrylander wisdom.

Even more ironically, slaves are the source ofmost common knowledge in the dry lands.

Elves, traders, and slaves are the only regularinter-city travelers. Drylander elves arenotoriously un-trusted; the Traders are closed-


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lipped and deceptive about their travels, sinceregarding knowledge of different places andcultures is their only commodity. Thus, mostof the common knowledge that the sevencities have of each other, comes from theslaves exchange.

Wise to this, templars frequently purchaseslaves fresh from other cities, interrogate themabout news from their previous city, and resellthem to the local nobles. I attribute part ofGulgs 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 Gulgs defense deficiencies remainunknown. The elements help the unfortunatetemplars who try to interrogate native Gulgsfor knowledge of that citys defenses! Gulg is apoor language for conveying numbers, and thisfacet remains undeveloped since they have noland-owning nobles, and all accounting is doneby Gulg templars.

Although everyone else in the city must speakthe Gulg tongue, Our double Templar in Gulg,reports that the templars there templarssecretly use common speech foradministration, numbers, and accounting, usingdwarven letters.

A Word About PurposeI must reiterate: no skill is as critical to yourmission as the common speech. If you areswift with tongues, you have already inferredfrom myWisdom of Betterscard that the wordmasteryderives from the artisans mystery. Youmay notice that your eldest sisters all bear thetitle of masterSpies. You should nowunderstand what this title means. Your eldersisters use many such words with you,sometimes to train you in common speech, and

sometimes since these words simply fit betterthan any of our own. When you return fromthe dry lands, you will share many such wordswith your sister spies, and find yourselvesunable to fully express yourselves with yourfellow Kurnans.

The words and ideas of the Drylanders canbecome intoxicating. In spite of their madness,the Drylanders have wisdom for us to exploit,otherwise we would not bother to spy themout. In the last three ages, most of the rapid

improvements in our communications,defenses, agriculture, medicine and trade derivefrom the Drylander wisdom gathered by yoursister spies. Our profit from the wisdom of theDrylanders is no shame to Kurn there aremore Drylanders than Kurnans, so it followsthat the Drylanders develop a greater numberof striking ideas. After learning a littleknowledge, many junior spies arrive at whatthey think is a tremendous realization. Let mesave you the embarrassment of blurting yoursout in a report to Oronis:

Any fool can see that the dry lands are in astate of transition. Seventeen Ages of dull

steady slumber have suddenly given way toviolent and unpredictable convulsion. But letus not mistake threat for opportunity.

Certainly the butcher-kings of the south wereneedlessly oppressive, wasteful, and cruel.Certainly their templars are corrupt, harsh, and

in every way despicable. Certainly our naturalsympathies are drawn to the heroes thatoppose these kings: preserving wizards whodefy prejudice and ignorance, slaves with thehoney of freedom on their tongues, orphanswith a hope of a better world. We would notbe Kurnans if we did not sympathize. But letus not risk ourselves or our missions for thesake of sympathy. Do not involve yourselves inDrylander politics. You will find that there areworse things than to be subject to tyranny(acurious newcommon word that compares allbad rulers to the late king ofTyr).Anarchyisworse than tyranny ask anyRaamin, thesedays. Our well-intentioned meddling wouldworsenthe matter.

As Kurnans, we must remember where ourduties lie. Spying for Kurn means that we mustpass up worthy Drylander causes. If youcannot single-mindedly embrace your Kurnanduty, then you do not have the heart to spy. Ifpity and sympathy move you to help theDrylanders, rather than to protect your ownland, now is the time to resign yourcommission. As your training progresses, youwill know too much for your sisters to let youleave Kurnan lands, except as a loyal, single-minded spy.

As a spy, it is unavoidable that you shouldbegin 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 thesympathies that you accumulate in your role.You are forbidden, unless specifically directedotherwise, to associate yourselves with VeiledAlliances, or other secretive organizations. Thereasons for this prohibition:

First, our agents in these organizations haveplumbed the depths of Alliance secrets, andfound that Veil mystique shrouds moreignorance than wisdom.

Second, such an affiliation puts an agent inunnecessary jeopardy, as the Veil assigns much

more deadly tasks than we ever do, and theirranks are often penetrated by the localtemplars.

Third, our sad experience shows thatinvolvement in such organizationscompromises a spys commitment anddiscretion. Working so closely, you come todepend on your fellow conspirators, and totrust them more than is ever appropriate.However we might train you, Kurnans are onlycapable of so much guile, and deceiving your

fellow conspirators is more than you shouldexpect of yourselves.


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Fourth, your revealing your origins to trustedDrylanders would burden one of your sisterswith the heavy task of silencing you and yourtoo-beloved and too-knowledgeablecompanions. Do not impose this hateful dutyupon your sisters. I have had this cruelassignment myself. Believe me, silence dutydestroys your sisters soul, turns a bright-eyedsister into an embittered old bitch like myself.

Do not harshly judge your elder sisters for thispolicy. The relative safety of your missions isdue to our vigilance.

The prohibition against infiltrating DrylanderTemplarates comes for a much simpler reason.The alienation and unending suspicion amongthe Drylander templars would ideally suit oneof our agents, if it were not for the detail ofthe medallion connects the templars mind tothe Sorceror-King . . .

A word before we finish: calm your mind. Thewisdom in my card may have angered you. Bestill and remember the purpose of yourtraining: to pass as a Drylander and live.

-Spymaster Mereth


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Dwarven WisdomDwarves and KurnOf all the drylanders, the dwarves seem like

the easiest to understand, because they are littledifferent from the Dwarves who live among usin the Kurnan lands. As we all know, dwarvesare a closed and guarded people. To call themworkerswould be a laughable understatement;they are a driven people. From our cradles wehave heard tales of the banshees, and of thedwarven focus; from a distance we admiredwarven dedication to a purpose, but ouradmiration of dwarven seriousness is mingledwith pity and even fear. Most of us haveenjoyed the camaraderie of a dwarven co-

worker or fellow-at-arms, but few of us havebeen into their homes, or know the particularsof their personal lives. Dwarves manage thekip-herds, and much of the leather and finestone work in Kurn; and if we take trouble togreet them in our shops and streets, we takemore trouble to leave them alone. There ismuch that we do not know about a people thathas lived side-by-side with us for nineteenAges.

Unlike the elves and aaracokra who judge their

identity by their tribes, and the humans thatjudge it by their city, Dwarves tend to considerthemselves dwarven above all. Many dwarvesin the Drylands feign allegiance to a lord orking or city, but among their own kind theyhold these allegiances lightly. Kurnan Dwarveswill frequently remind us, as a token of goodwill, that nineteen Kings ages ago, our Kingand city (whose ancient and obsolete namesthe Dwarves insist on remembering) was thefirst human city-state to welcome the Dwarves.

While other cities welcome dwarves toentrapment and enslavement, Dwarves are freein Kurn to live according to their traditions.Yet for all their gratitude, they considerthemselves not Kurnans but Dwarves.

Dwarves do not forget, they tell us. Kurnans tendto respond that when it comes to day-to-daymatters, dwarves do not have any bettermemories than we do. One might even callthem absent-mindedabout certain details. TheirKurnan friends are inclined to tell them to forget

about the past, and to regard instead the future, whichto the dwarves is a terrible affront to betold by a human where to place their focus.One dwarven proverb that they do not sharewith us translates roughly that the future is boundup in the past. Since todays dwarf-child will liveto see your great grandchildren grow old,dwarves do tend to live with one foot in thepast. Their leaders hone this trait into ritual,poring over the writings, stories, and opinionsof their ancestors. Dwarves remember a favor

rendered, even when those that rendered thefavor have passed into the Grey. Mostimportantly, they do not forget who they are.

Dwarven WritingsIn Kurn, all dwarves are literate in the Kurnanlanguage as well as in their own curious script.Dwarven lore is painted in single-color ontolong strips of linen cloth, which is bound inrolls which dwarves call scrolls. Even in thedrylands, where reading is forbidden by death,the leaders of the dwarven communitiescontinue their tedious study of history. To addto the jeopardy, dwarven ancestral writings maynever be burnt or discarded! Hence manydwarves become masters of hiding places,locks and traps. Never discuss this knowledgeof the dwarven writing with dwarves; non-

dwarves are not supposed to know about suchthings.

Although the written characters are identical tothose used in Tyr, Balic, Raam, and Gulg, (thedwarves say that these cities stolewritingfromthem), dwarves keep their documents secretfrom the eyes of all non-dwarves. Dwarvenelders, known as the urhomous, meet(periodically and secretly) with friends andrelatives to argue out and interpret thewritingsof the dead, and to reconcile contradictory

stories. Dwarven communities are ruled bytheir elders, and the elders consider themselvesruled by their oroscrit their word for thoseancient writings that they consider to havecanonical or privileged status. That thecanonized oroscrit themselves do not agreewith each other in significant points does notseem to dampen the enthusiasm of the elders,who frequently put a great deal of effort toreconcile contradictory rules or histories in theoroscrit. To be fair, dwarven scrolls contain

more than tedious histories; some includepractical applications of the Way. Dwarvenfocus gives many an advantage in the Way, andmany of us have come to believe that theirwritten tradition is an important part of theirfocus, and also enhances their powers of theWay.

My theory is not without detractors. Our ownProdigy(no doubt influenced by her friends ofthe Raamin Tarandan academy) suggests theopposing theory that writing weakens the mind

and dulls memory and the psionic senses. Withdue respect to Oronis talented consort,Tarandan opinion is merely one tradition ofthe Way, albeit the most known and respectedtradition. Like all traditions, Tarandan psionicshas strengths and weaknesses. Dwarvenwritings on psionics suggest that unburdeningones mind onto paper frees the mind for otherpursuits, such as the Way.

Other than these instructions in the Way, and afew community by-laws, dwarves do not use

their documents for anything particularlyuseful. Most of their writing is full of histories,unforgotten grudges, and the Prophecies, that


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is, expectationsof their ancestors. Yet discovereddwarven writings prove useful to ourunderstanding of their culture, and help usunderstand dwarves better as we fulfill ourroles as neighbors, templars, or spies.

Dwarven TypesDwarven philosophical writings describe fourtypes of dwarves, and these classifications havehelped our spies to work with dwarves subtlyand effectively: proud , compromised, corrupt,and broken.

The ProudRoughly half of the dwarves of the dry landskeep all of the traditions, and limit theircontact with humans. Their lives focus on an

exclusively dwarven community such asHasken or Kled. Less rigorously proudcommunities will deal or bargain with humansand other non-dwarves on a regular basis;North and South Ledopoldus serve asexamples here. Proud dwarven communitieshave even been known to accept a humanleader who has proven himself, as the KurnanDwarves give homage to Oronis, as the ash-dwarves of Charvass give homage to thehuman merchantTrenbull, and as one

community of Tyrian dwarves follows a Tyrianhuman named Granj.

(As we will discuss in class, Granjs Ward is anunusual case of a proud dwarven communityinteracting closely with a human community;this is an unusual case because the humans inGranjs Ward are isolated and alienated fromthe rest of the City State of Tyr, which in turnhas been isolated and alienated from the restof Athas. Furthermore Granj and lately, theTyrian government have actively promotedgeneral literacy. Within this unique climatehumans and dwarves seem to have melded intoa common community but we will see withstudy and time whether reality reflects thisappearance. In any event, there is nointermarriage, and furthermore it is clearly thehumans of Granjs Ward that have adapted todwarven ways, not the other way around!)

Even the proudest of the proud have beenknown to deal with humans on a limited basis:Haskens well was recently re-dug with the helpof some drylander scouts working for HouseMke, and Kled has had some very friendlyinteractions with human drylanders, but Icannot share this information with you at thistime.

To the Dwarves, Proud simply meansunadapted. The proud never reveal their focusto humans, no matter how close a friend thathuman might be. They may accept humansovereignty, but they will also have their ownleaders from among the urhomous. Their focusnever serves outside the community. To useones focus to serve a human . . . that would becompromise.

The CompromisedNearly half of the dwarves in the dry landskeep all of the dwarven traditions, inasmuch asthey can remember them and can practicethem in safety. They elect an urhomous, if theyare allowed to; they live with other dwarves, if

they are allowed to; they keep and read theoroscrit, if the templars are not watching; theyteach their children the dwarven tongue, if thenobles that own them do not snatch the childfrom their laps and sell it to the slave-masters.In short, their focus adapts to survival, andthose that can determine the compromiseddwarf s survival, may find themselves servedwith a dwarven focus.

Yet even the most compromised of thecompromised are still stubborn and delightfully

dwarven in every way, and a compromiseddwarf will usually seek to regain her pride assoon as practical.

The CorruptThese are the dwarves who have gone beyondcompromise into acceptance of corruptionand servitude. They will lie about their focus,cheat other dwarves out of goods andfreedom, and even serve willingly asMulfathers (a deadly dwarven insult which you

will understand better when you have learnedfully about drylands slavery). Corrupt dwarvesare always individualistic; they care nothing fora dwarven community, and their communitycares nothing for them. The focus of a corruptdwarf is invariably greedy, whimsical, orvengeful; frequently it is an issue of a selfish ordestructive focus that caused them to beexpelled from their community. They hate thesight of their own kind, except for othercorrupt dwarves. These they still will not trust;

indeed they trust no one.The BrokenBroken Dwarves are those who without maliceor terrible wrongdoing have becomeunmanageable by the standards of the dwarvencommunity. You have heard tell of the dwarfwho set out alone with a wheelbarrow to levelthe ringing mountains, and you have heard theidle elven ballad of the dwarf afflicted with themalady known as the tribe of one.

But not all broken ones are insane; some arefocused on a lonely, ludicrous, and impossiblegoals (such as wiping out all clans of the SiltStalker tribe); others compulsively drink untiltheir focus becomes addled, still others havebroken faith with their focus the dwarvescall these living banshees, speak of them inwhispers, pity and fear them, and generouslypay them to leave the community.

Dwarven FocusThis issue of dwarven focus is greatlymisunderstood, and dwarves have no interestin explaining it more precisely to humans. As


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we might best surmise from the dwarves thatwe observe, and from the writings we haveuncovered, there are four types of dwarvenfocus:

MaintenanceUnlike the other types of focus, a Maintenancefocus is a type of focus that cannot beaccomplished. Dwarves mayfocus onprotecting a ward or an object, on acquiringwealth, and so on, and since this is a goal thatdoes not have an end, it is considered aMaintenance focus. Dwarves may change theirMaintenance focus, but cannot do so at a timewhen the current focus is being threatened.For example, an elder who is focused onprotecting the community will not suddenlychange focus when some event threatens that

community.PurposeWhile a dwarf has a maintenance focus, shemight focus on a specific goal related to hermaintenance focus. For example, a dwarffocused on serving a merchant house might seta purpose focus to guard a shipment vigilantlythroughout the night.

While set in a purpose focus, the dwarf stillremembers her maintenance focus and maygrudgingly set aside a purpose temporarily inorder to solve a higher-priority emergency. Adwarf focused on providing for their villagemight set a purpose focus to dig a well, butwould set the purpose aside if he learned that asilo of grain was on fire. But he would beannoyed and nervous about this shift inpurpose, for no dwarf ever wishes to set asidean unfulfilled purpose. The dwarf wouldprobably finish one minor step of the task athand, and set all of his tools down carefully,

before rushing to help put out the fire.AimAn aim focus is unconnected to anymaintenance focus; the dwarf must drop hismaintenance focus in order to focus on anAim. For example, a dwarf could bemaintenance -focused on raising his child; oneday the dwarf becomes convinced (sincerely)that his child can take care of himself, and hechooses the aim of returning to the village of

his birth. His wife and child might be angrythat he had chosen this aim but they would nottry to argue there would be no point.

VowVows are aims that are associated with aspecific penalty. A dwarf may vow: I will neithereat nor drink nor sleep until I have recovered my stolenkank and he will not become a banshee if hefails; only if he breaks his vow, fails, and eats,drinks or falls asleep without accomplishing his

focus. Sometimes bansheehood may be madepart of a penalty: and may I become abanshee if I fail but this is rare.

Vows are taken very seriously, andcommunities may exile dwarves who havevowed carelessly, e.g. sworn an oath on theirparents heads, etc. A frequent theme indwarven folk tales is the drunken vow, the vowmade in drunkenness, and regretted andfulfilled in soberness.

Another interesting tale about vows is themythical story of how dwarves becamehairless: a great dwarven king Vowed to killsome villain known as the dwarf-butcher longago, and apparently failed. Somehow the failureof this Vow demanded the penalty that alldwarves everywhere remove their hair.

Dwarven SocietyThe image of a hairy dwarf is amusing, since

dwarves have come to hate hair andcompulsively pick at the few hairs that do growfrom their noses, ears, and eyelashes.According to some of oroscrit, some dwarvesare not naturally bald at all, but are rituallyburied as children in a mixture of lye andspecial ashes that prevent hair growth. To helpthe children survive this ordeal, they are madeto breathe though a tube, and their eyes, ears,and nose are sealed with wax hence theseare the only areas on a dwarf that produce hair.

This balding ceremony is the ritual that marksthe passage of a young dwarf from infancyinto childhood. The dwarven infant, hairy andnaked, is ignored by all but his parents, until helearns to speak and demands that others payattention to him. Then the community elderssubmerge the infant in the lye mixture asdescribed above, and he is considered a childafter this ritual. We must remember thatdwarves age differently than we do: a dwarveninfantis frequently over six years old, and

dwarves are often in their forties before theyare considered adults.

Dwarven children are allowed to play as theyplease, but when they start to pay ask questionsof the elders, they are taught about the focus.To become adults, the dwarf must complete asignificant focus that satisfies the communityelders: repair a wall around the community, etc.

Generally, the rite of passage of childhood toadulthood is marked by introducing the newadult to strong drink. Strong fermented

beverages are not considered appropriate fordwarven children, since drunkenness inhibitsthe focus. (This guarded dwarven secret is thereason that no dwarf will willingly drink with anon-dwarf.) It may interest you to learn thatKurnan dwarves are horrified and disgusted atour method of calming children with strongdrink mixed with milk.No wonder they never learntofocus, I have heard dwarves mutter to eachother!

During the days between one focus and

another, dwarves try to meet alone with theirown kind, so they may stay safely, and becomeroaringly drunk. Dwarven sub-communities


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often set dates for the focus of all communityto be fulfilled, so that whole communities mayget drunk together; these celebrations areknown as days of accomplishment. Thesecelebrations last for sleepless days and nights;they begin jolly, with flutes and dancing, butinevitably end on a mournful note, as thehung-over dwarves begin to consider what isyet to be accomplished. Dwarves refer to thesemoments as the dregs of the party, and adwarf who is late in finishing his focus beforethe days of accomplishment is often warned tohurry lest she arrive on the dregs of a goodparty.

Days of accomplishment are determinedseason-to-season by the elders, according tothe needs and goals of the community. Theyare not fixed calendar days, otherwise enemiesof the dwarves would have destroyed thedwarven race years ago.

The Elders of a dwarven community do notdrink, for they are maintenance-focused on thewell-being of the community; they have noaims or specific purposes to accomplish, andsomeone must stand guard during the days ofaccomplishment.

Spies and DwarvesThe Dwarves are a strange and noble people,and while their minds may be rooted in adecaying past, their fruits are the fruits of

wisdom and discipline. Unfortunately, they arerarely inclined to share their wisdom or skillswith humans. We do not choose dwarven spies,for it would deeply offend the dwarvencommunity to learn just how much we knowabout them. So much arcane dwarven wisdom(such as metallurgy, masonry and leatherwork)remain unknown to us. For the time being, thisis acceptable to Oronis, since Kurnan dwarveslabor with their hidden wisdom on behalf ofKurn.

But it may be that some of these wisdoms willbe revealed in ancient scrolls. Should youhappen on a dwarven ruin, break up the floorsbeneath their old meeting-places. If you findsealed vessels, do not open them; bring themto Kurn at once. The fragile scrolls within maycontain wisdom of the old times that even theliving dwarves do not remember.

To gain the trust of the living dwarves, feignindifference to all that is different about theirculture. They guard their cultural secrets, andcuriosity frightens them. Talk about theiraccomplishments, not their focus. GiveDwarves the illusion of privacy, and you mayfind their wisdom left carelessly unguarded.

Close your mouth and open your eyes, andmay surprise never find you.

-Spymaster Klianis


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Elven WisdomYou know the elves; you see them every day.Our elves that have been raised in Kurn areour greatest storytellers and poets. Theinfrequent nomadic elves that visit Kurn

alternately frighten, amuse, and delight us. Itseems that elven blood has an infinite capacityfor emotion and the depth to share thatemotion with others. All the greatest poetry inKurn has been composed by elves. It seemsthat the elf can achieve a passion that wehumans can only brush against. Where wehumans carry our emotions like a torch, theelven heart burns like a bonfire. Rememberthat elves easily shed the soft cocoon ofcivilization, and you must see into the elven

soul to understand how the tunes that you lovein Kurnan elves can play out differently amongthe elves of the dry lands.

The NowMakom Kuu, Eetmakom Bato. ( My Now is swift;

yours is slow and sad. )

The elven heart is as erratic as it is bright. Likea falling star, the elven Heart can go out as ifthe light was never even there. One moment anelf can be enraptured in the romance of a newlove, only to regard the relationship as oldwithin a week. The elves of the dry lands areno different. They live in the eternal now. Theelven Heart keeps them so rooted in thepresent, the lingering emotions of the past thathumans are the victims of are unknowable toelves. They are a passionate, forgetful people,and that is their weakness. As long as what theyare doing is fun and interesting they willcontinue. If it turns boring or routine, elves

move on to something else.

Elves are prone to ecstatic states whether indance, in song or in the Run. Elves will becomeconsumed by an altered state of mind thatseems to control their actions. It is as if theiremotions eclipse their rational minds. They willallow themselves to dance until collapse, runfor hours on end, sing praises to the elementsall day. If any race is prone to shamanism, it isthe elves.

Imagine being in the heart of an elf, whetherDrylander or Kurn. Noble, terrible, loving,hating. All the passions that you are prone to multiplied a hundred-fold ... Only to havethat emotion blow away like sand, leaving avacuum for another inferno to fill you. Howfocused you would be on who you are. Youwould be unable to tolerate frustration. Youwould be unable to perform tasks you did notlove. You would be incapable of resistingtemptation.

While we envy the elves for their gifts, we pitythem for the plights that their impulsivenatures throw them into. Elves, on the otherhand, often speak of how horrible they wouldfind it to be human. To an elf, the idea ofbridling ones passions reeks of a lingeringdeath! It is no wonder that the dwarven mindand the elven one see so little in common.Whereas the dwarf is steeped in history and isfocused on the future, the elf is so forced inthe present moment, that thoughts of the pastand the future become indistinct andunrealistic.

HistoryElves share a rich oral tradition,with many myths about theirorigins, and twice as many mythsabout the successes of their tribes.But none of these stories seem toagree. For example, every tribeclaims that it was founded byCoraanu, and blessed byCoraanu tbe the greatest elven tribe. Coris the universal father of the elven

people, but the tales his exploitsvary from tribe to tribe, and evenfrom year to year ! In fact, the truthof Coraanus exploits is immaterialalthough at the time of a ritual orcelebration the tales are believedtotally. The true importance oftales of Coraanu is the importanceof the elven race, and their racialability to survive on speed and wits.Around the elven campfire, thesemyths are not only recounted, butalso performed, and all manner ofinsults towards the other races are

oaanu

,

the


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ee

tly.

k of the one who will return. This

to

. Seeing

t

acted out. If you have the opportunity to sthese rituals in progress, you are a luckyindividual, for outsiders are not taken in ligh

Elves often speaindividual will be carrying the sword of the lastgreat elven chieftain. These myths follow that

this individual will be the return of a Coraanuand the elves will once again take their rightfulplace in history. But like all elven stories, theexact particulars to this story vary from tribetribe. I think that these stories are ajustification for the elven self-esteemthat their place in society is nomadic, and theyare shunned by most settled civilizations, themyth of a redeemer gives a sense of hope thais vital to the survival of their society.

Elven Cultural TypesThere are four types of elves; Nomadic,Settled, Healers, and Savages.

Nomadic ElvesMupo Common? ( Do you speak common ?)

Nom e

ually

point

ai

ads are tribes of elves that wander wherthe mood sends them. They are raiders,herders, traders. They are versatile and usare some of the larger tribes. They can doanything to survive and usually do. Some

Nomads must walk their own path to theof forsaking their Tribe for a time. They walktheir own way. They are generally pacifists,unlike the Savage elf. Nomads do not desireconstant strife, they only seek for the horizonand what lay beyond. The best examples ofthese elves are the Swift Wings. ( Kuualko-din their own language ) They are primarily herdKanks and only stop to trade for supplies thatthey cannot make themselves.

Settled ElvesKomahh Ekomake! ( Drink Now - Pay Later ! )

T

bylver

ly

likely

otuu-Dai), have adopted

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