The content of this page is © copyright Stephen Deas 2003 and is used here with permission.
It may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the permission of the author.
The shadow Skyrie found in which to raise his children, Pathat-Naar is a round world with a single sun and two moons, where time flows somewhat faster than in Amber and magic is strong. It is very far from Amber (months of normal shadow-shifting) so Skyrie travels there using super-Trumps. The place is open to Trump travel, but any other means of travelling in and out of the shadow involves using one of a limited number of extremely heavily-defended routes. These are sufficiently well defended that even Amberites would be hard-pushed to force entrance to the shadow.
Pathat-Naar is a world which uses magic as a form of, and substitute for, technology. All of its citizens are linked by magical telepathic communications devices, and use a great many magical devices in their daily lives. The people of the shadow are divided into two distinct species. First, there are the Kresh, who are the citizens of Pathat-Naar; they are somewhat elf-like. At the bottom of the society of Pathat-Naar are the slaves, who are more like 'normal' humans.
The society of Pathat-Naar is governed by a Council. This Council is dominated by the priesthood, but always includes representatives of the Artificer and the Landed Nobility classes. It's often the latter of these two who are allowed to drive internal policy decisions. Exactly how the Council gets together is something of a mystery, but the general feeling is that's it's done telepathically, using something like a priests-only version of the telepathic net.
The society of Pathat-Naar is very much a class-based one. The significant classes (in decreasing order of importance) are:
The priesthood are in charge. Not only do they control all things spiritual, they also can outvote the rest of the Council if they choose. They are all, to a lesser or greater extent, sorcerers, although their powers tend to cover more subtle, spiritual areas than do those of the artificers. The priesthood tend not to have much contact with slaves, as they are usually waited on by adepts-in-training. The priesthood have a complicated internal ranking structure. This is also true of the nobility and the artificers, resulting in a fair degree of confusion over who is more important than whom.
Why are the priests so dominant?
The priests have no leader as far as anyone knows. There are acolytes, priests and high priests. Theoretically, within these ranks, all are equal. Having a place on the Council doesn't mean a thing. Oh no.
Sometimes the priests can be quite active in interfering with things. Every now and then, they become very riled up about something and insist on massive expeditions into, for example, the Necrobi desert and the like. No-one knows why. Currently they seem to be in a reclusive state. Apart from their general presence on the telepathic net, you usually wouldn't know they existed...
This class controls the day-to-day running of essentially everything outside of the capital. They are responsible for managing vast numbers of slaves, ensuring a steady flow of food and raw materials from the country to the capital (and to their own enclaves). The nobility also have a complicated ranking structure, based on number of slaves and acreage of land. The more significant nobles have vast elegant palaces (built for style rather than defence), around which some quite large towns have grown up. Even the lowest landowner will have a splendid country house, several dozen mages and tradesmen, several dozen personal slaves and thousands more in the fields. Since invasion is unheard of and civil disorder kept in check by the priests, nobles are forced to vie with one another in other ways such as outrageous styles, extravagance, decadence, and so on. A recent fashion among the nobility of the inland sea was for long beards. Then came long animated beards. Then came beard fights. The whole episode is now regarded in much the same way as those of shadow Earth regard most of the nineteen seventies...
The artificers make the things which allows society to function. They also make everything which keeps slaves in their place. As with the priesthood, the artificers are all sorcerers, but unlike them, they have a figurehead, the Guildmaster. Sometimes they appear to be little more than a bunch of puppets for the priests, but at other times they can be a force of their own; this depends on the personality of the Guildmaster of the day. The current Guildmaster, Axan, is a forceful personality, and these days artificers tend to strut about like they own the place. All Axan has done (apart from talk a lot) is to replace several rather functional guild houses with far more opulent palaces. The nobility have found this to be generally irritating, and wish Axan would shut up.
Mages are mostly trained soldiers, though there are a few minor sorcerers among the ranks. Usually this class is composed of the younger brothers and sisters (or the wrong generation) of the landed nobility - the ones without any great sorcerous talent. Trained mages are elite fighters even without their artificer equipment; with that equipment, half a dozen mages is easily enough to keep a few hundred slaves in their place.
Most citizens fall into this category. Tradesmen includes all forms of skilled craftsmen, administrators and regular soldiers. Even a tradesman can expect to own a few slaves. There are a wide variety of tradesmans tools produced by the Artificers. On average, these are shared so that an active business will have one artefact for every two active citizens working. These tools are built by the artificers on request, and are all aimed at producing more and better stuff without needing more slaves. As such, the nature of these tools can vary enormously, and are best dealt with on an ad-hoc basis.
Citizens who don't fall into any of the above categories are usually treated as outlaws, though they may be entirely law-abiding. If you don't do anything for society, society doesn't do much for you. However, even the genuine outlaws, criminals, and so on still receive considerably better treatment than slaves.
Slaves are a noticeably different species to the Kresh who make up the other classes of Pathat-Naar. They are used for simple manual labour and for general pleasure and amusement. They do all the things that no one else wants to do, but that everyone else wants done. They till the fields, mine the mines, serve the rich and basically do all the work. The average life-expectancy of a slave is some 40 years (for those that make it out of infancy), while the birth rate is some 500000 per year. While some 70-80% do die in infancy, the Kresh conduct periodic culls of the elderly, the disabled and the infirm. This is partially to keep the slave population under control, but mostly to feed the artificers with psychic batteries to power their devices. One of the most important functions of the priesthood is to sacrifice slaves to obtain these souls, and with some 25000 killings a year, priests can be busy men...
Birth rates are low in Pathat-Naar, and because of this promiscuity is both common and unashamed. Children are highly prized and viewed as being the responsibility of the entire family. There is very little discrimination against the disabled (as they can often get something artificed to compensate for their disability). There is no official discrimination between sexes among citizens. Kreshan society originally found itself in the unusual situation of a largely matriarchal society faced with a definitively male god. In practice, the landed nobility are more women than men, while the priesthood and particularly the artificers are more men than women. Mages are roughly equal. Slaves, of course, are another matter - a disabled slave is a useless slave, while male and female slaves have some different uses...
Inheritance is strictly via the first grandchild. This tends to mean women inherit more than men (some 20% of children don't have official fathers, although in many cases the 'official' father and the genetic father are not the same). Incest is vaguely frowned on, but only vaguely, and it's not uncommon for sisters to have children by the same father (after all, he's proved himself...). However, in the (relatively rare) event that a householder dies and has no grandchildren, inheritance goes to the eldest male.
Skyrie does not rule Pathat-Naar, instead taking the role of a powerful Duke, nominally answering only (as if!) to the Priesthood. His children are of the Mage caste, possibly aiming for the Priesthood or Artificer castes. They are generally being raised like nobility, under a strict but fair regime, emphasising discipline, co-operation and lots of hard work, at least until they start to become fully grown.
There are a number of guards for Skyrie's children. The shadow people Skyrie is mainly guarding his shadow against are his cousins. As such the place is sufficiently well guarded that even a group of Amberites would have trouble getting in - there being no point in guarding against a threat that his children are perfectly capable of dealing with anyway!
Some artificer tools are available to any citizen, while other tools are restricted by caste or other criteria. Many tools are all powered by captured souls, mostly of murdered slaves, but members of the priesthood will voluntarily allow their souls to be captured to power an item; such items are invariably reserved for other members of the priesthood. However, the artificers also make a goodly number of single shot devices, particularly for the mage caste.
Greater artefacts (those which recharge themselves) have a life expectancy of some hundred years, and some have been around for many centuries. Discipline wands, on the other hand, have a life expectancy of some 20 years, and some eighty percent of the souls harvested each year go into making replacements. This means that (apart from discipline wands) there are some half a million artefacts in circulation.
Discipline Wand
Upon reaching maturity, every citizen is presented with a discipline wand, either from the artificers, or from the priesthood. At death, the wand is supposed to be returned, but in practice, many are lost or destroyed - slaves will go out of their way to destroy a discipline wand, and the average citizen goes through a couple. In the higher castes (all except tradesmen and outlaws), every individual will have a discipline wand. Tradesmen will usually have one or two per household. The discipline wand inflicts extreme pain on its target, who must be in line of sight. There is no limit to the number of times it can do this.
Public Wardings
Certain areas are off-limits for slaves. These include many areas controlled by the priesthood, the artificers and the military, and some public refuges in case of slave revolt. These areas are protected by warding which will kill through psychic assault any slave who tries to cross them. The wardings can apply to specific entrances, or to entire buildings or areas. There are also many portable wardings belonging to the senior castes, which can be configured as and when to protect whatever is necessary at the time. These need a priest or an artificer to set up. There are also pass-keys which, when correctly configured, allow the wearer to pass through a particular warding. Pass-keys are specific to wardings, and usually given out only to the most trusted servants, and even then only in unusual circumstances. Once a warding has been crossed, there's nothing to stop someone from, for example, taking the pass-key off and throwing to the next armed rebel slave... Wardings can be (and are) used to keep slaves confined, as opposed to keeping them out, and not all wardings kill - some work in the same way as the discipline wand. Wardings can be reconfigured between different functions by a priest or an artificer.
There are a certain set of tools handed out to every mage which include:
In general, the landed nobility will have all the artefacts listed for a mage and a good five or six others. These other tools may include wardings and pass-keys, but will also include items of pure decadence. Many of these are made by special commission, and are often unique, sometimes bizarre. Even inactive members of this caste can be expected to own a few artefacts.
Every artificer has their own configurable warding artefact and pass-key(s). This can be made to operate against citizens as well as slaves. They will also have some or all the tools of a mage available to them and, on average, a small number of tools they have made themselves for their own use (junior artificers will have perhaps one, senior artificers will have half a dozen or even more). Artificer halls will also have numerous artefacts being used for communal purposes.
Every priest has their own configurable warding artefact and pass-key(s). This can be made to operate against citizens as well as slaves, and as many of the priesthood items are constructed around the souls of former priests, their power is considerably greater. They will also have all the tools of a mage available to them. As with artificers, there will be items used communally, and also personal items - however, the priesthood tend to use items powered by the souls of departed priests. It is also very likely that there is also no shortage of rather powerful items in the high temple of Pathat-Naar itself, most of which have never seen the light of day.
The content of this page is © copyright Stephen Deas 2003 and is used here with permission.
It may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the permission of the author.