54mm Tekumel: Heroes for A Band of Joyous Heroes

Imagine a world slightly larger than Earth, and slightly
hotter, with two moons and four sister planets, all
revolving around a star much like ours. A planet
discovered by our star-faring descendants and their
alien allies. This is Tékumel.



Its hostile indigenous races conquered and subdued,
its poisonous flora all but eradicated, the world
becomes a hub for the interstellar commerce of a
vast star empire and home to a multitude of species
as well as mankind.



Imagine this world engulfed by some unknown – and
now unknowable – catastrophe that shifted its system
out of normal space and into some sort of other dimensional
rift. In this “Time of Darkness”, as this era is known in legends,
cut off from the rest of human-space, their world racked by volcanoes, earthquakes and tidal waves, the remnants of human and
alien communities alike struggled to survive. Civilization crashed
and began the inexorable plunge into barbarity and despair.



Now imagine the same world renewed: civilization
rebuilt from the ground up over the course of some
twenty-five millennia as the survivors struggled to get
on their feet again. It is an altered world. Much has
been lost and the new cultures remember their
distant origins only in vague myths and legends.
Humanity is the most numerous and powerful of
these. Five great empires now sprawl across the
surface of the planet Tékumel, interspersed with
numerous lesser nations and tribal groups.



Technology is only half-remembered, the current level
being roughly equivalent to that of ancient Rome at
its height. In its place mankind has learned to
harness inter-planar forces to create what we would
call magic.



Humanity’s alien allies survive in their enclaves in a
similar state, sometimes warring on their human
neighbors, sometimes befriending them. And
Tékumel’s original inhabitants still exist in their own
enclaves, hostile to all the invaders of their home
world, biding their time.



The greatest human empire is Tsolyánu, also known
as the Empire of the Petal Throne. To the north lies
Yán Kór, a land of squabbling city-states and petty
overlords, united by the Baron Áld. To the west is
Mu’ugalavyá, a militaristic land ruled by a rigid
oligarchy. To the east lies Salarvyá, the Ebon
Kingdom, ruled by a mad king. To the south is
Livyánu, a land of shadow gods and sorcery. Beyond
that are the lands of the Shén –  reptilian species
originally from Antares; the Empire of Shényu being
the greatest of their realms.