Cities of Abraxas: Utesh

Set on an island beyond the easternmost exit arch of the Vadem Causeway, Utesh can only be reached by boat or flier. From a distance the city resembles one vast pyramid shimmering in the white coastal light. But in fact there is no pyramid in the whole city: the buildings are arranged in a grid with the smallest at the perimeter rising to the central tower called the Sky Axis wherein are the dual thrones of the Ward of the Red Crown and the Ward of the White Crown. Thus the overall form of all the buildings sketches out a pyramid, ensuring that the cosmic energy collected by the Sky Axis is properly focused and conveyed to all the inhabitants.

The city is built of golden stone, the buildings comprising broad spire-topped towers (shaped like Cleopatra's needle) or square arched colonnades. Often the tops of columns are carved to resemble stylized sea fronds, for the Uteshi believe themselves descended from the merfolk who dwell on the ocean bed. Murals commonly depict the city's bird- and animal-headed gods, or replicate in stylized form the all seeing Eye of Horus that stares from the summit of the Sky Axis.

To the west, on the mainland, is the necropolis. Here the tombs are pyramid-shaped, again the aim being to focus cosmic forces so as to preserve the bodies that lie within.

Government: Utesh is a theocracy. The priesthoods of the different gods function
like ministries, in theory comprising two factions whose heads (and supreme priests of the temples of that faction) are the Wards of the White and Red Crowns. In practice, byzantine intrigues and alliances blur the simple factionalism of the system.

People: The Uteshi average slightly over six feet and are of slender build. Faces are typically high-cheekboned, eyes almost feline, jaw sharp, skin tawny olive-gold. Hair is white or very pale fawn. However, men usually shave their heads but may have long sideburns or small straight beards; women keep their hair very short except for Mohican-style crests.
Culture: More important than monetary wealth in Utesh is neth - literally, "eye". A man's degree of neth shows how well respected he is. Nobles are born with more neth than commoners, citizens have more than foreigners. Certain professions (notably the priesthood) carry more neth than others. You can earn more by good manners, poise, learning and heroism. Neth is used up like spiritual currency - in return for favors from the gods, and to balance against any wrongdoing that might otherwise result in imprisonment, torture or death.

Cities of Abraxas: Tamo Anchan

Tamo Anchan is set atop a granite plateau above a sweeping jungle. Much of the city is built of a dark blue stone, which in the case of the noblemen's palaces is inlaid with rectangular gold plaques. The major buildings stand on pyramidal platforms, with high stairways simulating the city’s own position above the Tershen forest, and have tall Mansard-roofs, often adorned with "horns" along the ridge. Arches are corbeled or trefoil. Wide esplanades open from the streets around the perimeter of the city, the parapets of which overlook the jungle.

Throughout the city are parks planted with bright green moss. Here and there can be seen the ivy-twined stela which depict the rulers of ancient times and, in hieroglyphics, relate the great deeds they accomplished.

To the north is the great Lake of Stars, down towards which is directed a giant viewing scope. This device, left over from ancient times, monitors the pattern of stars in the lake (which do not mirror the stars above) and represents them as a three-dimensional matrix in the tower that supports the scope. The Anchan priests believe the lake is a portal through to another place, perhaps the underside of the world, and that the stars shown there have a sacred influence on their dream lives, just as the stars above affect their waking lives.

Government: The city's king is called the Deodand. He is appointed by a council of high priests and clan-chiefs, who take advice from astrologers. As long as his rule goes well, the Deodand enjoys the luxurious comforts of a god on Earth. But in times of trouble he must be sacrificed, the theory being that his soul can then go to plead the city's case in the Court of the Gods. From this custom derives the euphemism, "He has been sent to petition the gods," said of anyone dying violently or unexpectedly.

The clans of Tamo Anchan are: the Blood Ritual Clan, the Celestial Beast Clan, the Ceraunic Beast Clan, the Serpent Guide Clan, the Clan of the Vision Quest, the Axis Tree Clan, the Bird of Time Clan, the Manta's Spine Clan, the Fruiting Body Clan, and the Jade Skull Clan. Highly trusted individuals can be appointed Ahau, or "bannermen", by the clan-chief. Bannermen have special status. There are very severe penalties for a non-bannerman (of any clan) who insults or harms a bannerman, regardless of circumstances.

People: Anchans tend to be shorter than average (5'5") but nonetheless sturdily built. Noses are slightly flattened, eyes oriental, full-lipped mouths; skin color is glossy ochre; hair blue-black. Hair is straight and worn long. Facial hair is uncommon. Clothing is often woven of flax or feathers from the jungle birds, dyed in brilliant colors and set off with fire opals and black pearls from the lake.

Anchans set great store by personal bravery in battle. The highest honor to which a young warrior can aspire is to earn his place in one of the War Lodges, each dedicated to its own totem constellation or planet.

Cities of Abraxas: Eibon

Eibon is built in the foothills of the Delenda Mountains, on the edge of the Akali Desert. Behind its battlements, the city rises on the swell of the three hills where it stands, its tall blockish buildings climbing in tiers. The biggest buildings are made of the reddish local stone, but this is hard to quarry and so most of the city is constructed of bricks made with lime and the crushed shells of sand-crabs which blaze like coral and diamond dust in the sun.
In the heart of the city, the temple groves stand out like lakes of greenery. Their sacred gardens are always well-watered, despite the low rainfall. Public squares can be seen on different levels of the city, connected by the steep streets with frequent steps. Cutting across the city are three old walls half fallen to ruin: the walls that separated the old quarters of the city, now ransacked for their stone and closely clustered with the poorer dwellings. In places overgrown with flowers, in others blackened and widely streaked where refuse has been thrown down, these walls stand like weathered rock ridges across the city.

On one hill, in the Byrsan quarter, can be seen a host of warlike monuments. Spiral pillars capped with bronze support the pediments of temples to Tirvecto, the local god of the desert's heart, patron deity of the Eibonites. On a lower hill is the teeming warren of the overcrowded Strangers' Quarter, given over to commerce; it is here that non-citizens have their homes. The bright cloths of the dyers' clans, stretched out on the rooftops, give this quarter the most color. Further back, against the mountainside, is the Megaran quarter with its high towers and curious obelisks like upturned cones. Here are found the temples of the universal gods, with their cylindrical minarets of iron that look like skeletal black chimneys. Above circle the sacred reptile-birds, grown fat on sacrifices.

Government: The ruler of Eibon is called the True Man. This is not a hereditary position: the True Man is that lord whose heraldic badge is worn by the majority of the city's elders. If things go badly, if the city suffers poor harvests or reversals in war, the True Man may wake to find the badges have changed, his support evaporated.

People: The Eibonites are average height, hook-nosed, swarthy brown in complexion with curly red, brown or black hair. Beards without moustaches are fashionable among men; women wear copious make-up and plait their hair up in elaborate styles.

The common beast of burden in these parts is a kind of waddling long-nosed camel (related to Macrauchenia). For warfare, the Eibonites use the massive long-necked parvum (related to Indricotherium) that grazes on the trees and shrubs of the desert fringes.

Cities of Abraxas: Vertis

Built on high cliffs overlooking the sea, the white marble of Vertis is shown off to good effect in the magnificent towers, domes and colonnades. Lovers of theatre and art, the Vertides have filled their avenues with slender statues of exquisite beauty, and each day in the open-air theatre above the bay there are masked plays telling the heroic tragedies of ancient times, interspersed with musical interludes and comedies.

But life is not mere leisure for the Vertides. They are keen philosophers, and devote much time to trying to recreate or even improve on the wonders of the past. Not only is Vertis's navy the envy of all Abraxas, but they have a fleet of two dozen sky-boats armed with ion projectors which help to deter enemies from supposing these peace-loving philosophers would be an easy conquest.

However, although as a people their grasp of ancient technology is impressive, the Vertides make poor individual sorcerers - perhaps because of some innate lack, perhaps only because their mind set is more directed towards logic than imagination.

Government: Affairs of state are debated in the Senate, a council made up of Vertis's most prestigious citizens.

People: The Vertides are average height, fair-skinned; hair is usually blond or brown, more rarely red or black, and wavy rather than curly. Long flowing beards are common in older men as a mark of wisdom. Clothing comprises tunics or togas, often clasped with silver, there being no gold mines near Vertis.

Another fabled land

Abraxas is a lost continent from before the beginning of recorded history, which is destined to give rise to myths of sunken lands like Atlantis and Mu. Here advanced technology coexists with magic, primordial animals stalk the jungles, incredible civilizations flourish, and Mankind must share the planet with alien races from other worlds and planes of reality.

The scan of Russ's map here hardly does justice to the almost luminous original, which is over a metre tall. The map shows how the inhabitants of Abraxas envisage their land. Its actual coastline, if you were to look down on it from space, would be recognizable enough to modern eyes to break the suspension of disbelief, which is why we keep it from the players. If we ever publish Abraxas as an RPG, however, that version of the map might find its way into the referee's book.

There are five great city-states of Abraxas: Vertis, Utesh, Tamo Anchan, Eibon and Argistillum. The wide plazas and towering palaces of the cities indicate high refinement, in some cases even decadence. Nobles are carried in carved sedan chairs by their slaves to watch the death-duels in the arena. Fortunes are gambled and lost at great feasts. Assassination and intrigue decide who holds power.

The cities are connected by the Vadem causeways designed by the great wizards of the still more distant past. On payment of a toll, the causeways allow rapid transit from one city gate to the next.

Other relics of old science-sorcery still remain, lighting the streets with glowing posts at night or enabling the very rich to glide over the forest in sky-yachts when they care to go hunting. Some actinic lances survive from ancient times - weapons capable of hurling blasts of electric energy. But few now know how to recharge them, nor how to make the causeways function when they grow dim. What was once technology is now becoming, through ignorance and secrecy, a magic art.

Each city has its own character. When Abraxas finally sinks (many millennia yet in the future though that is) some of its people will escape to create the civilizations of our own ancient history. Thus the city of Tamo Anchan shows similarities with Maya and Olmec culture; the descendents of Eibon will become the Carthaginians and the Etruscans; Argistillum's survivors are fated to found Babylon; Vertis gives rise to the halcyon image of Greece and Troy; Utesh's beliefs and customs will live on in Ancient Egypt.

For millennia the city-states of Abraxas have enjoyed peace, but now they are under attack by the Ulembi, ruthless aliens who come from a dying star cluster beyond the Coal Sack and are capable of psionically broadcasting their physical forms through outer space. The cities must put aside their rivalry and send champions to meet the menace before it is too late.

And that's where you come in...

Made to measure

Starting tomorrow and running for the better part of a month, we're going to be bringing you a wealth of development material from Abraxas, our MMOG that never got off the ground at Eidos Interactive but might yet appear in some other form - whether gamebooks or novels or comics we cannot yet say.

Abraxas is the kind of science fantasy world of "ivory, apes and peacocks" more familiar to readers of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard than the muddier medieval milieu of Middle Earth, Warcraft, Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Siege, Torchlight, Guild Wars, The Witcher... Or indeed of Dragon Warriors, come to that, though DW fans will not need me to tell them that it's not quite in the same orcs-n-elves vein as those others.

As for Abraxas: imagine a Cecil B DeMille epic with prehistoric animals, psionics, androids and rayguns, scripted by Leigh Brackett, concepted by Jack Kirby and directed by Zack Snyder. Yes, drugs may indeed help. Here's a look at Russ's costume designs to whet your appetite, and the line-up of articles over the next month is as follows:

March 22: Overview of the continent of Abraxas
March 24-April 2: Cities of Abraxas (5 parts)
April 4: Origins of Abraxas
April 6: Nonhuman races
April 8: Curiosities and artifacts
April 10: Fauna
April 18: Travel by Vadem Causeway
April 22: Ancient ruins
April 24: The Cabiri Archipelago

Blue skies

Following a request by Mike Mielke, we dug out some of our notes for books 7-12, among them some of the codewords that hint at subsequent quests:

Hurl: skin dyed blue, you will be mistaken for a pureblood Uttakin.
Hill: you learnt to dance a spectral minuet from ghosts in Tarshesh.
Hatch: you killed or blinded the giant in his lair in Gigantus Mountains.
Herbal: you are on the mission to rescue Princess Zobeida from the djinn, by order of the Caliph of Pethumar.
Hemlock: you have rescued Zobeida and returned her to the Caliph; you are now on his second quest.
Honour: on a mission for the Lord High Astrologer of the City of Stargazers to get a Kafiya bean.
Hounds: you got a desert orchid for the sultan and were rewarded with an ability bonus.
Hothouse: you got a Kafiya bean and gained a level.

Iota: you committed some crime of which the kirin disapproves.
Ink: you touched the saint on Thunder Peak (you can do it repeatedly).

Judas: you slew a guest at your villa, thereby attracting the ire of the Kindly Ones.

Kink: you did something wrong of which the kirin disapproves.

One of the good things about reworking the books for e-readers is that we can have many more codewords, because the app will handle them instead of you having to. This should allow for a much richer experience with more factors affecting each quest outcome.

The other useful thing to come out of searching out these codewords is that we've come across pretty extensive notes we made all those years ago covering the whole series. So if the e-gamebook versions take off, and build enough of a market to make the remaining six books viable, we have a lot of material now to work with.

Abraxas starts on Sunday. Be here.