The Clockwork Jungle

[Polycarp]

A new feature on Teven has been posted.  I noticed it sitting around the other day, almost entirely written up already, so I thought I might as well bring it up to date and fire it off.  Though not the largest of the Netai cities, I think it has the most interesting concept.

[Steerpike]

Very, very cool city.

There was a touch posted about crime - I was wondering more about crime in Clockwork Jungle.  Is it common?  Uncommon?

I want to know more about Ineven-Nel Oran.  He sounds pretty whacky.

Are there marine cogs, like cog fish/dolphins/squids?

[Polycarp]

[spoiler=A brief postscript on Vanam Dur]Vanam Dur's misery didn't end with Ineven-Nel's death.  The "city" was impossible to control, so the subsequent Oranids ignored it.  It became a haven for pirates, and that eventually led the Oranids to resume Ineven-Nel's raids to suppress piracy and smuggling (and prolonged this process to "train the soldiers" as Ineven-Nel had done).  Eventually the bandits were sufficiently "suppressed" (in part because of recurring plagues caused by all the unburied bodies), but the isle was later taken over by a Saffronite cult which put the last of Vanam Dur's inhabitants out of their misery by converting them all into Abominations.  Even the sheltered and incompetent Varan-Etun Oran could not let this slide, and the isle was finally purged of the Peril, the cultists, and all its former residents in a bloody invasion only a few years before the start of the Scourge Crisis.  It was a gory end that Ineven-Nel would have enjoyed.[/spoiler]

Are there marine cogs, like cog fish/dolphins/squids?

You know, I think someone asked this before... my answer is that no, there aren't right now, but there's no reason why there couldn't be - I just haven't really given it much thought.  That would be a good explanation as to why there are some monsters deep in Teven - a Cog shark won't die if it gets lost in the tunnels.  Also a Cog squid just sounds really cool in general.

Actually, part of the reason I haven't thought about it much is because I haven't yet figured out how my concept of the Breath applies to undersea life.  If the Breath is literally the air all around, and is also literally the "life force" of all living things, how do fish live?  They must have some way of sharing the Breath even though a channeler is cut off when he's drowning.  It's a metaphysical puzzle I haven't really formed a clear answer to yet.

[Steerpike]

[blockquote=Polycarp]Actually, part of the reason I haven't thought about it much is because I haven't yet figured out how my concept of the Breath applies to undersea life. If the Breath is literally the air all around, and is also literally the "life force" of all living things, how do fish live? They must have some way of sharing the Breath even though a channeler is cut off when he's drowning. It's a metaphysical puzzle I haven't really formed a clear answer to yet.[/blockquote]The Breath is actually... Oxygen?  Midichlorians?

Ineven-Nel is great.  Sort of a cross between the Marquis de Sade and Vlad the Impaler.  Except also an anthropomorphic toadstool.

[Polycarp]

The Breath is actually... Oxygen?  Midichlorians?

Well, maybe that's the "real" explanation, but I'm more interested in how the natives would see it.  If Breath=air=life, that means either:

a) Fish have some means of acquiring the Breath despite being underwater, or
b) Fish are not alive.

The latter is interesting, but it causes problems - I mean, even the Cogs are considered "alive."  The only thing that "lives" but doesn't interact with the Breath is the Peril itself (and possibly some unique creatures/"demons" like the Caretaker).  To make every aquatic organism live without the Breath would require a drastic revision of how the natives of CJ see the world; there are suddenly whole categories of things that have life outside of the Breath, so suddenly the Peril being Breath-less isn't so weird any more.

Option A is more plausible but requires some explanation given that the natives don't know about oxygen, molecules, or anything else like that.  When they submerge themselves, they are cut off from the Breath's currents (and die shortly thereafter); it makes sense that the same thing should happen to fish, yet it doesn't.  There must be something different about fish, then, that allows them to be a part of the universal currents.  The question is whether I can leave it at that or whether it would be worthwhile to come up with a more specific metaphysical explanation.

But this isn't just fluff, it also impacts how Breath can be used in the game environment.  Can a channeler standing on the shore target a fish in a pond with a form (a Breath "spell")?  If the Breath can't penetrate water, the answer is "no," but if the fish has some means of accessing the Breath regardless, maybe the form would work on it.  And what about Aspection?  Aspection, one of the four disciplines of channeling, allows one to take on the attributes of other creatures (by changing one's currents to match the currents of others).  Could a channeler acquire that same ability to access the Breath through water by taking the aspect of a fish/squid/shark, thus being able to breathe and channel underwater?  Would he lose the ability to breathe and channel in air as a result?

[Steerpike]

It could simply be a mystery still unsolved, the kind of question "occult" thinkers (or their equivalent) lie awake thinking about at night, and/or debate with one another.  Depends on how well understood the Breath is in CJ.

This is kind of off-topic, but I recently read a novel called An Instance of the Fingerpost set during the 17th century.  A large part of the book was narrated by a physician.  The novel was quite well researched and gave a good idea how poorly understood medicine, physics, and anatomy really were during the 1600s.  For example, one group of scholars are doing experiments to see whether a chicken can breathe in a vacuum, using a vacuum pump to extract the air in a sealed glass chamber containing a chicken (!).  The common folk still fervently believe in the four humours, even though serious physicians have long since discredited the theory.[spoiler]The main character and some real-world figures in the novel essentially discover how to perform a blood transfusion, but they have *no idea* why it really works - just a bunch of disconnected, totally crazy theories.  The protagonist transfuses blood from a woman into her dying grandmother and assumes that there *must* be a sympathetic connection between the two afterwards, since the grandmother now somehow "shares" the woman's blood; he *definitely* doesn't understand that blood carries oxygen but instead comes to believe that blood must contain a "life-force" or soul-energy kind of thingy.  The woman is later convicted of murder and sentenced to execution.  Thoerizing that the woman's death would negatively affect the grandmother due to their supposed sympathetic connection, the guy proceeds to transfuse his own blood into the gradnmother's  veins to counteract the woman's death, but of course doesn't have any idea about blood types and just kills her (he blames it on the execution, of course). He further speculates that perhaps bull's blood would be more effective (yikes).  My point is, the protagonist is considered one of the most well-educated people around, and has access to knowledge that 99% of the population is totally oblvious about (Italian medical training, university qualifications, access to libraries, years of experience - heck, just literacy alone).

Things might be somewhat similar in CJ with respect to the Breath: lots of contradictory and conflicting theories, and big mysteries, misunderstandings, and gaps of logic as to how things actually work.[/spoiler]

[Ghostman]

Are the lower levels of the ziggurat interior waterlogged? You mentioned sea creatures getting in there, but I got the impression that those tunnels can still be explored by daring land-dwelling races.

Also, have there been any serious attempts to grow food on rooftop gardens?

[Polycarp]

Most of the tunnels below the waterline are flooded, yes.  Explorers can only venture there with some kind of enhanced ability to hold their breaths '" that is, certain forms of channeling.  The pool of potential explorers is thus limited to those with at least a basic knowledge of the Breath.

As for gardens, I mentioned them in the feature; there are certainly plenty of little gardens, many on rooftops, but all must be made with imported soil since the stone steps have none of their own.  Even established gardens must be renewed from time to time, as the limited soil is eventually exhausted.

Those gardens aren't a primary source of food, however '" most of the 'crops' are herbs with medicinal value, spices, and vegetables to supplement one's main diet.  The two most common races in Teven, Umbril and Ussik, are perfectly fine with a sea-based diet.  The Umbril can eat almost any kind of sea plant once it's been 'stewed' (spoiled) and Evne in particular eat more fish than most Umbril.  The Ussik, for their part, are used to a diet of fish and aquatic plants; that's what one eats in the Wash, where they're from.  

Gheen, Tahro, and (non-Ussik) Iskites have a harder time of it.  Tahro can get used to a fish-based diet, though they consider it inferior to the flesh of Forest beasts.  Iskites consider a diet without grains to be unhealthy, and used to import a great deal of rice to the island before they were relocated.  I mentioned that the Gheen were probably the worst off '" most refuse to eat fish, and vegetables (including aquatic plants) aren't a big part of their normal diet.

Depends on how well understood the Breath is in CJ.

is[/i] life (which is essentially true).  He knows that "Deep Breathers" - channelers - have a kind of sorcery that comes from the currents of the Breath.  His perception of these currents is limited to the feeling of air in his lungs and the wind on his face.

A channeler, particularly an experienced one, feels these currents much more clearly and feels them far beyond his own skin and lungs.  Depending on his skill and focus, he can sense their movement far beyond his body and becomes aware of the Breath's precise movement within his own blood and tissues.  He can sense the close presence of a "void in the Breath" like the Peril and feel the currents within others, eventually gaining the ability to tell if someone is alive or dead without even looking at them.

Your example was really interesting, and that's exactly how I see a lot of science in the CJ universe.  While herbalism is advanced, for instance, even many leading herbalists and healers believe in sympathetic magic (specifically that certain plants have an effect on the body based on what organs or limbs they resemble, or that more "aerodynamic" leaves and tubers promote health because the wind/Breath moves more swiftly and easily around them).  Only since the Recentering has actual empiricism begun to rear its head, and even scholars at the forefront of empirical discovery justify their empirically-proven cures with theories about plant resemblance and shape.

In the case of the Breath, however, this is something that channelers really feel; it would be hard to have a false perception of it, because it is exactly the understanding of the Breath - the ability to feel it as it flows - that is required to channel it.  It's more like swimming than science, more martial arts than medicine.  There are certainly those who theorize about the Breath and its nature, but this is above and beyond the actual disciplines of channeling which require no special academic or intellectual expertise.

[Polycarp]

A new feature has been added.  As noted, this is the "first of a 28 part series" on the regions of CJ (there are actually 27 regions - the 28th will be on the Obsidian Plain).  I'm not saying that I'll only do regional updates until I get through all 28, but I will finish the series eventually.

The series has a few key goals:

To identify sub-regions, communities, and important sites for adventure and exploration*To display different regional cultures and demonstrate that all Iskites/Umbril/Gheen/Tahro aren't the same*To provide slightly more detailed information on the lay of the land that the world map can't provide

The Maw, in my opinion, is one of the best demonstrations of Goal #2, because its isolation allows me to craft cultures far outside the norm.  It's really the "lost world" of the Forest - there are plenty of poorly known regions within the so-called "known world," but the Maw is one of the only ones with native civilizations of its own.

It's also a site of considerable inter- (and intra-) species conflict (with the presence of foreigners complicating what was already a place of continual struggle between the native peoples), and conflict is the driving force for adventure.  Though it might be hard to start an adventuring party here (a multi-racial troupe of Maw natives would be exceedingly rare), it's a place that adventurers could be drawn to, either for their own reasons or because of their involvement with one of the various foreign groups with interests in this wild land.

[Ghostman]

Some nice stuff in that feature, particularly the Blight's Eye.

[Polycarp]

Just posted the second region feature.  I got tired of working on a map but that may come in time.  I've been doing a bit of other work on the wiki as well, which you can keep track of on my newly rebooted user talk page.

[Polycarp]

GREAT WALL OF TEXT

I've had that giant post on law and justice floating around on my hard drive for a while.  I finally decided to clean it up and post it, and it is now the current feature displayed above.  Whether you'll read it or not, however, is another matter entirely!

Bonus points if you picked up on the real-world inspiration of the Iskite "Confrontation."

[Polycarp]

CJ's hiatus has been temporarily suspended to give you this update (see the 3rd post in this thread, as usual).  Finally, the last of the Black Circle cities has a writeup.  Hopefully, the next month will see the wiki updated accordingly, and perhaps some articles whose topics were touched on here - the Haudavan faith and the Wrath's Eye Kaj have drafts already.  There's also a feature on the Golden Principality in the works, which - though it boasts no cities - is one of the major powers of the Circle.

The Principality already has a stub on the wiki, as a matter of fact, but it's a bit out of date.  More wrestling with the character of the Ajen as a people is required, however - their original incarnation was as "friendlier, more mercantile Umbril" but a different kind of society is coming out of my writing.  There's a definite tension between the fact that they're big players in the Circle trade and the seemingly incongruous fact that many live in fairly remote mountain colonies.  The Prince of the Ajen, originally devised as a simple puppet, is gaining importance in my mind as a figure who binds together the rival cosmopolitan and insular tendencies of its people.  And something must be said for a ruler who, considering the attitude of the CJ's people towards snow, chooses to build its palace on a mountaintop.  "I fear nothing - but you should fear me."

[Ghostman]

A fine writeup as usual :)

On most issues the Council is split fairly evenly between the 'Lotuses' (made up of Nevir and Ussik originally from the Wash, who promote a pro-White Lotus policy) and the 'Orchids' (composed of Gheen in league with the smaller groups of Iskites, Ajen, and Skyshield Nevir).

Are there no Tahro within the council? Or are they simply not participating in these factions?

[Polycarp]

Are there no Tahro within the council? Or are they simply not participating in these factions?

There are no Tahro in the Great Council.  The original purpose of the Great Council was to create a body to manage "alien affairs" in what was then still a majority Tahr settlement.  The Paramount Patriarch had very little interest in how the Gheen, Ussik, Nevir, and so on conducted themselves so long as they were beneficial and not detrimental to the use of the Wells as a Red Camp.  The Great Council was intended as an instrument to grant them some autonomy without ceding ultimate control over the city.

The Tahro generally consider themselves to be "represented" by the Paramount Patriarch, making positions in the Council for Tahro unnecessary.  There may be some settled Tahro who disagree with this, particularly the more urbanized types who have more in common with the alien society of the Wells than with the roaming bloods, but not enough to make any political difference.  Most of the settled Tahro who stray too far from tradition end up moving elsewhere on the Black Circle anyway - much of the Tahr population of the City of Orpiment, for example, consists of former Well-Tahro who became too "alienized" to fit in with Well-Tahr society.  Despite the settled nature of the Paramount Patriarch's tribe, they are still a fairly conservative bunch when it comes to Tahr tradition.