Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 14:05:26 +1100 (EST)
From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
To: The Black Marble Wombat's cosm <masterbook@gojira.monsta.com>
Subject: Geos, draft 2, 1/2

GEOS  Part 1 of 2

  Okay, uhm. Here's the next bit of housecleaning. It's got most of the 
elements, I suppose, but its not really what you'd call complete. Still 
needs a *lot* of tidying up.
  I suppose I'd better talk you through this one. Uhm, for those've come 
late, and those you don't remember, this little [SFX: unpleasant 
sniggering in the background] project began around mid-94, when the 
group was discussing the Occult "world law" of Orrorsh. I made a 
comparison between the Occult and Weird Science, and then between 
the Occult as practised in Orrorsh and between the hypothetical version 
that would be practised in the Gaunt Man's alleged home cosm of Geos 
from Interview with Evil, and then kinda went anal and *had* to do a 
brief write-up of Geos from the book. From there things kinda 
snowballed. Over the next couple of months there were a number of 
animated discussions over the fundamental nature of Geos. Because the 
following write-up isn't quite a coherent as I would like, I'll reiterate 
what I think was the best point out of those discussions right here at the 
start, so that it doesn't have the chance to get lost among the details 
later on, okay?
  To wit: the fundamental nature of the superstition reality of Geos is 
probably best summarised by what Dave Oakes said in the following 
exchange between himself and myself, from September:
[Dave]
    		  geosians cling to ritual not out of hope, not that 
    it will deliver them from evil, but that it is the only thing that stands 
    between them and an evil that is already here.  much like the world of 
    the ancient aztec, geos' days are numbered, and all they can hope to do 
    is stave off the inevitable by slavishly repeating the rituals and
    superstitions that have gotten them this far.
[Saxon]
      There is a sense of hope, it just has to be clawed out in a long, slow 
    process rather than happening by default. This, as I see it, is the 
    fundamental difference between the horror and superstition realities. In 
    Orrorsh its the unknown nastiness waiting to get you *and there's almost 
    nothing you can do about it* (with the GM handing out just enough hope 
    to keep his cattle from falling out of fear into despair). Geos, OTOH, is 
    the unknown nastiness waiting to get you, but which can be put off (they 
    think in all cases, actually only in most/some) by going through the 
    motions of the rituals, etc. 
[Dave]
    exactly what i see, we just differ on the concept of "hope" - in orrorsh, 
    there is little you can do to stop the horrors, but they are few and far 
    between, and it is possible to forever vanquish them;  in geos, you can 
    stop a "horror" dead in his tracks with the proper ritual, but he will be 
    back the next day and the day after that, and every day until the day you 
    die.  gaeans have hope, because there is a chance they will one day be 
    free (or at least the perception of a chance).  geosians have been ground 
    to the nub, and continue on only because ritual dictates that they must.  
    they arent living, just going through the motions 
    (very much like tharkold actually...)
    [...]
      what you see is what you get in geos, and what you see isnt 
    very pretty.  the "horrors" of geos are not going to be some dark, nasty, 
    incomprehensible beast with 17 heads and two hearts, but common 
    everyday things taken to horrible proportions.  in geos, the apes really 
    do eat men. wolves really are savage killers.  the fear is not due to the 
    unknown, the known is scary enough.  the fear is that one day you might 
    forget the ritual, or misspeak an important word and <BAM!>  
    [...]
    i doubt there are monsters under _every_ bed in my geos either.  i was 
    just comparing it to gaea where the EoF is stable.  in gaea, there are 
    monsters under 10% of the beds, so you can be lulled into a false sense 
    of security and be really scared when the critter does pop out.  in geos, 
    there are monsters under 90% of the beds, so you have to be ever 
    vigilant or else.  

  Have you got all that? Good. Now, there was lots of other nifty stuff, 
but I'll include that at more or less the relevant places. Some of it can 
left as is, others are just ideas that still need work (in some cases, a lot 
of work. I'm sure Ks. Jim still gets cold sweats thinking about the 
"Gaunt Man as cosmic patsy for the Nameless One and Heketon theory" 
of Geos' world law creation :-) (of which the extremely watered-down 
version is used herein).

Acknowledgements:
  Thanks go to all the people who contributed to this project, including:
    John Terra, for writing Interview With Evil upon which much of this 
is based
    Dave Spitzley, for pointing out that the Gaunt Man didn't necessarily 
have to be Heketon's first High Lord, and for pointing out that the Gaunt 
Man wouldn't necessarily be upset by it (and Smooge for agreeing with 
him :-)
     Dave Oaks, for suggestions to numerous to mention, but sepecially 
for revealing that Macbeth and other tragedies aren't necessarily fiction 
on Geos, and supplying lots of quotable quotes.
    And Kansas Jim, also for suggestions too numerous to mention, and 
for the near infinite patience that comes with being a Guru in handling 
my wilder flights of fancy.
----------

    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
    Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - William Shakespeare, 
    Hamlet I:5

    Superstition is the poetry of life. - Goethe, Spruche in Prosa III

    Of course I don't believe in it. But I understand that it brings you luck 
    whether you believe in it or not. - Niels Bohr

    If my dream was true, then everything we know, everything we think 
    we know is a lie. It means that the world's about as solid and reliable 
    as a layer of scum on the top of a well of black water which goes down 
    forever, and there are things in the depths that I don't even want to 
    think about. It means that we are just dolls. We really don't have a 
    clue what's really going down, we just kid ourselves that we are in 
    control of our lives while a paper's thickness away things that would 
    drive us mad if we thought about them for too long play with us, and 
    move us from room to room, and put us away at night when they're 
    tired, or bored. Rose Walker - "A Doll's house", part 7, Neil 
    Gaiman's _Sandman_ #16

CONTENTS
Part 1  The Cosm
   General history
   Cultures

Part 2  The Rules
   Axioms and world laws
   Skills
   Spells
   Superstitions
   Creatures of Geos
   Fringe realities
   Bibliography

Caveat
  The cosm of Geos is almost entirely dependent on the description of it 
given in John Terra's novel _Interview With Evil_, and a substantial 
section of this text is either based on it, or occasionally copied directly. 
On the other hand, in order to make Geos something other than what has 
jokingly been referred to as a "boring old Core Earth clone (tm)", 
substantial chunks of history and geography have been added that 
should, logically, have been included by the Gaunt Man when he 
described his homeworld to the reporter Leslie Borden. How can this 
be so? Simple, for various reasons the Gaunt Man lied through his teeth.
  One possible reason is because there are things about Geos that he 
does not recall, an interesting and revealing idea that is included in his 
description in the Orrorsh sourcebook (p. 18):
    "Finally, there are those who beleive that he does nor speak of his 
past because he does not know it. Their opinion is that the twisted and 
deranged mind required to construct such a reality as Orrorsh would of 
necessity be unstable - that the Gaunt Man has simply lost touch with 
certain parts of his identity."
  The parts of his identity that he has lost touch with are, of course, 
selective. As a creature of evil dedicated to creating fear and spreading 
destruction he naturally retains the recollections of events that relate to 
his position as High Lord, as well as to events of evil and the macabre. 
Thus, when he describes his early life we can be reasonably sure that 
this is a lie; boring and normal is not something that this creature is 
likely to bother even trying to remember, and so under the circumstances 
he was forced to make something up. On the other hand, when he makes 
the comment that there is the possibility that he was conceived  when his 
mother was impregnated by a monster summoned by one of the Cultists 
of the Nameless One, then this is gruesome enough that we can be 
reasonably sure that he does indeed remember it correctly, providing it 
ever happened at all (even he wasn't certian about this detail) or he 
wasn't embellishing.
  And this brings us to the second possible reason for the Gaunt man to 
lie: to create fear. He may well remember perfectly some details, but 
choose instead to give a highly selective - and therefore more fearsome 
- account of himself; again the Orrorsh sb:
    "Others suspect that he does it only to add an air of mystery and 
tension to his presence. The unknown is an elemental part of the reality 
he created in Orrorsh."
  Remember that the Gaunt Man feeds on fear, and that his entire 
interview was basically a horror story to milk Ms. Borden of a tasty 
snack. He didn't need to give her any amount of the truth; to do so would 
be counterproductive in a reality where fear is generated through the use 
of the unknown. One wonders which storm knights he'll lure to their 
doom with the potential misinformation in those biographies he forced 
Leslie's ghost to write up...

THE COSM 
  The cosm of Geos takes its name from the planet Geos, an Earth-like 
world that is the original home of the Gaunt Man. Or at least so he 
relates in "Interview with Evil".
  Geographically Geos closely resembles the planet Gaea. This may 
help to explain the Gaunt Man's delight with the latter world. Not only 
does the arrogance of the Victorians of Gaea make them prime dupes for 
aiding him in his invasion of Earth, but the Victorians' world is in many 
ways reminiscent of his own up to the time he departed it to become a 
possibility raider. This is not to imply that the Gaunt Man is homesick 
or is in any way fond of Geos. Rather, the sight of Gaea subjugated by 
his horror reality creates for the Gaunt Man a sense of pleasant 
anticipation of the time when he will carry out his threat to return to 
Geos to destroy his birthworld.
  Use the map on page 16 of the Orrorsh sourcebook for the general 
arrangement of Geos' continents, with particular reference to the "19th 
century cartography" style appearance of the place. Note, however, that 
Geos is not totally identical to Gaea; for one thing Geos is flat, rather 
like Magna Verita, the home world of the Cyperpapacy, for another the 
tectonic upheavals caused by the departure of Heketon with the Gaunt 
Man changed some parts of its layout.
  A further reason for consulting the Orrorsh sourcebook is its excellent 
advice on creating a mood of fear. The superstition reality of Geos is, in 
many ways, reminiscent of its offspring, the horror reality of Orrorsh. 
Both realities are typified by the unknown (albeit Gaea more than 
Geos), and the often irrational and fearful reactions of people to the 
unknown (Geos more than Gaea). Thus, while Geos is not as advanced 
in the ability to create fear as Orrorsh (the Gaunt Man has spent more 
than three millennia actively trying to perfect the Ecology of Horror as a 
way to drain possibilities from people) the genre of Geos is close 
enough to be able to benefit from that style of storytelling.

  The Gaunt Man related the following summary of his world's publicly 
known geo-political history to the Core Earth reporter Leslie Borden 
shortly before he murdered her:
    "Geos is in many ways similar to Terra, Gaea, Magna Verita, and 
Earth, with the same general continental arrangements and historic 
parallels. Many of the nations are similar, though with some great 
differences."
    "On Geos, Europe consists of AngleSaxon Land instead of Great 
Britain and Ireland; Gaul instead of France; Iberia instead of Spain and 
Portuagal; Flanders instead of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the 
Neverlands. On Geos, the Roman Empire never completely fell, and the 
areas you know as Italy, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the 
Balkan nations, are all under the control of Emperor Phillipus Caesar 
XI. Germany, Poland, Austria, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia are called 
the Prussian Empire. Norway, Sweden, and Finland are called 
Scandinavia. Russia is called Muscovy, and has the same borders as 
your now-defunct Soviet Union. Africa is divided into three nations, the 
Egyptian Empire, which stretches across the northern third of the 
continent; the Ethiopian Alliance, in its center; and Azania.
  "The areas you know as Central and South America are under the rule 
of the Mayaztinca Empire. All of what is your United States west of the 
Mississippi, along with the western half of Canada, is controlled by the 
Nation of the Ten Tribes, an alliance of what you call Native Americans 
or Indians. The Europeans have colonised the lands east of the 
Mississippi, but have stopped there. The New AngleLand Colonies 
correspond to your New England, New Flanders is where your Middle 
Atlantic states are and is owned by Flanders, and the American South is 
owned by the Roman Empire, and called Terranova." (IWE, pp. 8-9).
  There is, however, a more fundamental secret history to the rise of 
civilisation on Geos. The Darkness Device Heketon arrived during the 
prehistory of the world, and created a chamber nearly two thousand 
miles below the surface of the planet where it could wait for the coming 
of a suitable High Lord. Heketon installed itself as the "heart" of Geos, 
attaching itself to the world with a web of red and blue stalactites and 
stalagmites. In doing so it attuned itself to Geos' reality, and began to 
shape it. Prior to Heketon's arrival the humans of Geos were little more 
than savages, to whom the Darkness Device bequeathed the gift of 
civilisation. The reason Heketon took this course of action was simple: 
it did so at the Nameless One's behest...

The Secret Pre-History of Geos

    I get this [...] view of a great black stone striding the countryside 
    strewing stelae around like a horrifying Johnny Appleseed. - Jim Ogle

  In the beginning Aperios created the cosmverse, and in response the NO 
dispatched its own creations, the Darkness Devices, to wreak Aperios' 
creation. However, an unexpected flaw developed in the DDs, since when 
they entered a cosm they began to loose their original humanoid shape 
as well as their mobility (IWE p. 55), which hindered their ability to 
wreak destruction. This prompted them into linking with mortals, who 
became High Lords. Together these duos spread destruction across the 
cosmverse, with the intent (on the DDs part at least) of so weakening 
the fabric of the realities that once a critical threshold was reached 
the NO would be released from imprisonment in The Place into the 
cosmverse (Torg Rulebook p. 86).
  But problem arose with the motivations of the HLs, since more often 
than not they became more interested in personal glory than with spreading 
destruction. An example of this resulted in the recent alliance of Rec 
Pakken and the Kefertiri Idol to exploit the Land Below for a more 
destructive HL.
  To this end the NO gave Heketon, one of the most powerful of the DDs 
(or if you believe Heketon's claims, the most powerful) a special project 
- to create a HL beyond the lure of petty personal trappings. The DD was 
dispatched to a cosm with a suitable reality to use as raw materials and 
bring forth such a HL. That cosm was the Earth-like world of Geos. When 
Heketon arrived on Geos circa 7,000 BC the humans of that world were 
still in caves, but already their primitive fears had formed the initial 
version of the Law of Superstition that the DD was later to tailor slightly.
  As a general rule DDs require the use of stelae to transmit their 
powers (Torg Rulebook p 83). To this end Heketon set about covering 
Geos with stelae; before it lost its mobility to the force of the reality of
Geos it travelled about the world, tricking, coercing, or otherwise 
getting humans to create and plant stelae for it. Sometimes it took
HLs for short terms to do this, then dumping them later without ever
having explained the principles of intercosm raids. These little 
alliances weren't really necessary as long as Heketon still retained 
its mobility, but by doing so it was able to incite intertribal wars that
appealed to its DD love of destruction. One bit of fun that Heketon had 
involved a now long gone nation on the island continent of Lemuria in 
what is now the south Pacific. The DD took as its "High Lord" the vain 
and petty emperor of the place, gave him a taste of just enough power to 
form an alliance with him, then set the empire to terrorising the Pacific 
Rim and planting stelae. When it had finished with them after a few 
decades it tricked them into an attempt to gain more power through a 
magical rite that summoned up Something Horrible. The continent was 
ravaged and sank in the course of one night, and Heketon went on its 
way. The ruins of some of its cities are still down there, somewhere, 
maybe (or maybe nor) with an entity slumbering in the remains, heedless 
of the life leaching effect that covers the southern half of the world (see 
below).
  Once Geos was covered with stelae, including lots of spares, Heketon 
retired to a chamber it had created nearly 2,000 miles below the surface 
of the planet to begin shaping the raw materials of Geos' reality. It 
raised the Social axiom (hence its claims of giving the gift of 
civilisation to the humans of Geos), and altered the LoSuperstition - 
so that the Spirit axiom was kept below 5 and any piety that was able to
develop was factored through a sieve of superstitious fear and envious 
power lust.
  As a result, what little sense of spirituality developed on Geos was 
directed towards the unknown and the unnatural; people feared the 
unknown and tried to placate it, but at the same time they envied its 
power and tried to propagate it. Religion, such as it was, was about 
gaining power through magic and/or the occult. Hence the Gaunt Man's 
comments: 
  "Perhaps the greatest difference between my cosm and yours is that, on 
Geos, there is not, nor has there ever been, any established religion. No 
gods are worshipped, for there has never been a prophet or messenger 
telling my world that gods are real. There have been no martyrs to such 
beliefs, no festivals dedicated to nonsensical ideals like "universal 
brotherhood", none such wastes of time and energy. Sorcery, alchemy, 
witchcraft, and superstitions make up the belief system of Geos, no 
matter the nation or culture." (IWE, p. 9).
  Heketon also made other changes purely to suit its DD tastes; 
originally the Law of Superstition made some superstitions literally real 
at random, more or less evenly between benign and malign beliefs. 
After tinkering this balance shifted towards destructive superstitions in 
a 2:1 ratio. That done, Heketon prompted the creation of the Cult of the 
Nameless One, and fostered the Cult's beleif in the preordained coming 
of the NO's Chosen One, something that Heketon nudged into becoming 
reality through a combination of the Law of Superstition, certain 
powerful occult rituals, and occasional manipulation of human agents 
(the cosmverse helps those who help themselves). The NO took 
virtually no part in the activities of the Cult; the only time it intervened 
was when it had to do something that Heketon could not - to infuse the 
Gaunt Man with a fraction of its power. This partly accounts for the 
derision Heketon exhibits towards them in IWE - they were easily led 
fools. 
  Note that in the account the GM gave to the CE reporter Leslie Borden 
Heketon attributes the creation of the Cult to the NO by it touching upon 
the minds of madmen (IWE p. 67). This is most likely a lie on the part 
of the GM to give himself an air of unstoppable destiny that would 
enable him to wring more fear from her, although it has been pointed out 
that it could have happened the other way around, with Heketon 
arranging for the Cultists to come in contact with the Nameless One, 
whatever the case. The depiction of the NO when encountered by the 
GM during his internment in the charnel pit is of an entity too detached 
to concern itself with being worshipped by mortals, whether mad or 
sane. Moreover, there is too much evidence, both in the mechanics of 
how DDs work and the nature of the NO itself, that the GM must have 
found out sooner or later for him not to be aware that Heketon must have 
made preparations for his arrival, or for Heketon to risk lying to the GM 
that things were otherwise.
  Once the Cult was in existence, and the Chosen One born,the Cult was 
the perfect place for the formation of the NO's "perfect" HL - one who 
was contemptuous of life and goodness, knowledgeable in the ways of 
creating fear, knowledgeable of the NO, and desirous to learn more, all 
while remaining undistracted by personal glory.
  Heketon's' assignment was wildly successful, as the GM became the 
most destructive HL ever, and came very close to becoming the Torg, 
whose presence is supposed to mark the threshold of destruction that 
will release the NO. The outlay of effort put in to create him seemed to 
have been worth it. 

  Returning to history as it relates specifically to Geos, the departure of 
the Gaunt Man is not without note. The Gaunt Man, and several 
unwilling companions, travelled down a dimthread created stairwell to 
the chamber of Heketon. There the Darkness Device offered itself to the 
Gaunt Man, but cautioned him that to remove itself from its place as the 
heart of Geos would bring great death and destruction to the world 
above. The Gaunt Man cared about this only to the extent that he wanted 
only half the world to die, so that he would still have people to feed him 
with their fear. Heketon, as the heart of Geos, had some control over the 
matter, and arranged for only half the population to perish. Literally half 
the population. The southern half of that planet had the life force 
stripped from it, and is now dead and incapable of supporting the life of 
any creature for any great length of time.
  Additionally, the act of claiming Heketon caused immense psychic and 
seismic upheaval on Geos. In the northern half thousands went mad, and 
tectonic shifts of the continental plates caused massive earthquakes that 
threw much of Geos' civilisation back into barbarism. This event is 
referred to as the Great Death.
  The Gaunt Man, as a creature who feeds on fear, returned to the 
surface for long enough to spread the word that he was responsible for 
the cataclysm, and that one day he would return to destroy the rest of 
Geos. Then he left. Heketon, being attuned to Geos' reality through the 
stelae it had planted, is still in touch with the world. The Darkness 
Device is therefore able to siphon off the fear created by the population 
and feed it to the Gaunt Man. In this way the Gaunt Man knows that 
Geos is still alive (for the most part) and functioning (as best it can), 
but as he himself has noted, he can only estimate what level of development 
they have reached.

History - Post-Great Death
  That is what existed on Geos up to the time of the Gaunt Man's 
departure to become a possibility raider, which occurred in the 
equivalent of Core Earth's 17th century AD. Things have changed since 
then, partly because of the passage of time, and partly because of the 
world-wide devastation resulting from the Great Death. From this point 
onwards, any first time mention of Geosan locations whose names are at 
variance with their Earth counterparts will be followed by the Earth 
equivalent for ease of reference.
  Time does not flow at the same rate between cosms, a factor that is 
exaggerated by the ability of High Lords to cross between cosms with 
their maelstrom bridges. The full 3,500 years that the Gaunt Man has 
experienced has not passed on Geos. For them, only about 2,000 years 
have elapsed, putting them in the equivalent of Earth's 37th century AD. 
  Keeping track of time is further complicated for outsiders because of 
the different calendars of Geos. Unlike on Earth, no one group ever 
gained so much geopolitical power that their calendar, language, etc. 
could become the default for the whole world. Civilisations in Europe 
tend to use the Roman calendar, using the AUC system measuring the 
centuries from the founding of Rome in [753 BC] By this measure it is 
currently the 42nd century AUC. Since there are no indigenous 
religions, no-one on Geos uses the AD/BC system which measures time 
from the birth of Christ.
  The Mayaztincan calendar is essentially identical to that of the Aztecs 
of Earth, with cycles of 52 years. Periodically, at the close of one of 
those cycles, the world is destroyed, bringing to an end an era of 
history. By the Mayaztinca reckoning the world is in its sixth era. The 
first era was destroyed by Animals, the second by Hurricanes, the third 
by Volcanoes, and the fourth by the Great Flood. As predicted, the fifth 
era was ended by Earthquakes, corresponding to the tectonic upheavals 
caused by the Great Death. They believe that the sixth era will end when 
the world is destroyed by Evil (now I wonder who that could refer 
too... :-)   ). For the Mayaztincas it is the 39th bundle (cycle) of the 
sixth age.
  The Cathay Empire measures time in the manner of the Chinese 
calendar of Earth. And, of course, there are numerous less well known 
calendars specific to certain countries and ethnic groups.
  The Great Death both upset the global political situation, and threw 
back social development by centuries. Around the world empires were 
forced to withdraw back into themselves. Some were later able to 
reinstate their former borders. Others were not. In Europe the Roman 
Empire collapsed back to Italy, but in the confused centuries that 
followed was able to claw its way out to expand to an area greater than 
its former extent, partly through he control of trade, and partly through 
sheer bloody mindedness.
  The Mayaztinca, for their part, have wanted to expand northwards to 
gain ground equivalent to what was lost in the southern hemisphere in 
the Great Death. Since they were blocked from expansion to both the 
north and south, the Mayaztincas have expanded westwards to control 
much of the Pacific islands. When they became aware of this situation, 
the Cathay, who are normally insular with regards to affairs in the 
Pacific, did the same in response. 
  The Cathay constitute the third great Empire currently on Geos. They 
expanded to wrest control of Southeast Asia and the western Pacific 
Rim while the inhabitants of the area were still reeling from the effects 
of the Great Death. Since no-one dared to sail across the equator into 
the deadly southern half of the planet, they controlled the trade routes 
between the Indian ocean and the Pacific and grew powerful.
  AngleSaxon Land has been split into three separate kingdoms since the 
Great Death. Initially Prittany [England and Wales], Caledonia 
[Scotland], and Eire [Ireland] were at war, but recently the situation has 
stabilised, partly because of the external threat of annexation by the 
likes of the Romans. There has occasionally been the suggestion that the 
three royal houses intermarry to solidify a united kingdom, but all of 
them jealously guard their sovereignty and these suggestions always 
come to naught.
  In the Americas the European colonies were cut-off form their parent 
nations across the Atlan [Atlantic] Ocean, and entered a period of on 
and off struggle between themselves and with the Nations of the Ten 
Tribes. Eventually the regions of the AngleSaxon Land colonies, New 
Flanders and Terranova united as the Confederacy of Terranova under 
the threat of an invasion from the Mayaztinca Empire, and at the time 
even made a political alliance with the Ten Nations. Today they have a 
variable relationship with the Ten Nations, and cool relations with the 
Mayaztinca. 

Physical Geography and Ramifications of the Great Death

    In Geos you don't have to worry about sailing off the edge of the 
    world, you have to worry about the edge of the world jumping out 
    and eating your brain. - Dave Oakes

  The world of Geos is an inverted dome, floating with its flattened top 
level with the surface of an infinite cosmic ocean known, variously, as 
the Sea of Night, the Ebon Ocean, the Depths, Nightmare's Shores, and 
the Black Infinity, among others. The very edges of Geos are 
uninhabited and uninhabitable - the quote immediately above gives you 
a hint at why. Orbiting around Geos, at varying heights above the 
surface of the Sea of Night, are Geos' moon, Lunas, its Sun, and five 
other planets. In complete contrast to the flat Geos, all are globes, 
although most are considerably smaller than their counterparts in Core 
Earth's cosm. With the exception of Lunas, the ratio of their distances 
from Geos corresponds exactly to Hitharki's Ratio [Bode's Law]. Each 
orbit is slightly elliptical (to varying degrees) with Geos at one focus. 
The orbits also vary in height above the surface of the Sea of Night, 
such that they regularly bob up and down; when they approach the 
surface of the Sea, their luminosity (whether from the Sun's own output 
or the planet's reflected light) dims. The Sun does this the most 
frequently, causing the periods of day and night. Visitors from other 
cosms often wonder how such an arrangement can produce climatic 
zones of equatorial, temperate, and arctic that so closely mirror those 
of, say, Core Earth. The obvious answer is that it doesn't, something 
else produces that effect, but no-one's figured out what it is yet.
  The stars that move about in Geos' heavens are unknown factors. They 
are usually attributed to being the remains of exceptionally powerful 
good or evil beings that have taken a spot in the Canopy of Lights to 
influence the destiny and workings on Geos. What they really are is 
something that the Geosans, even with Tech 25 astromonical equipment, 
haven't been able to figure out. They're just points of light.
  The shape of Geos' cosm can best be visualised as a four dimensional 
sphere. The surface of the Sea of Night is represented by the inside of 
the sphere. By travelling just above the surface of the Sea of Night one 
would eventually circumnavigate the circumference of the sphere. If one 
were to travel upwards one would cut across the diameter of the sphere. 
However, by a curious piece of dimensional arrangement, if one were 
to try to plump the depths of the Sea itself, one would never reach the 
bottom, it goes down literally forever.

  If the Great Death upset the political situation of the time, then its 
effect on the physical environment did much the same. The death of the 
southern half of the world is but one dramatic example. Every living 
creature there died instantly, down to and including soil bacteria. 
Moreover, the biosphere in the area was perverted, such that any living 
creature that enters the region will suffer the same fate, albeit slightly 
more slowly. It is suspected that this effect isn't so much a unique 
feature of the land itself, but is rather the result of the energy dampening 
properties of the surface of the Sea of Night impinging through the 
weakened protective biosphere of Geos.
  In game terms any living creature that enters the south loses 1 point of 
TOU per hour until death occurs; this loss cannot be undone by any 
means while the being remains in the southern hemisphere. This 
situation is modified slightly in that there is a band straddling the 
equator, approximately ten kilometres wide, where the death-dealing 
effects begin at the northern limit and increase as one moves south. 
Plants and animals become increasingly more stunted and malformed as 
one heads south, until at the band's southern limit nothing will grow at 
all, let alone properly. Within this band the life-leeching effect exists, 
but the damage done can be reversed with proper attention. In the 
northern five kilometres the loss is 1 point of TOU per week, and 
healing attempts suffer a -2 penalty (whether technological, magical, or 
- where non-Geosans involved - miraculous). In the southern five 
kilometres of this zone the loss is 1 point of TOU per day, and the 
penalty on healing is -4.
  Even with artificial environments, like fully self-contained 
environmental suits, people still cannot enter the southern half of Geos' 
biosphere without suffering its life-leeching effects. It is only by 
travelling outside the planetary biosphere (i.e., above the atmosphere) 
that people are safe to cross over the area. Nevertheless, something 
seems to be animate down there. There is a large dust storm, some tens 
of kilometres across, roaming across the continent of Islandia 
[Australia]. It has been there for centuries at least (since the advent of 
satellite imaging), and may be much older. It is still unknown what 
causes and maintains this localised storm, and what moves it about. 
Chemical spectroanalysis indicates that it is only dust, but optical 
imaging shows that the shape of its upper side is reminiscent of a 
humanoid face. Moreover, it is hard to shake the feeling that not only is 
it aware that it is being watched and that the "face" is returning the gaze 
hungrily, but that it can also both see the satellites that have it under 
observation and the people watching through them.
  Other examples of physical effects upon the planet are no less 
profound. The Great Death created tectonic shifting the went beyond 
mere earthquakes. Many of the continental plates were given a hard jolt 
that resulted in accelerated movement to some degree. For example, 
massive earthquakes in the west of the North American continent caused 
most of coastline west of the San Andreas fault to subside into the 
ocean, while also prompting the creation of volcanoes that have created 
new stretches of land. Today the western coast is marked by an 
archipelago of islands. Similar events occurred with the submergence, 
and subsequent recreation, of part of Nihon [Japan]. By comparison, the 
Hawaiian islands were shaken but not badly damaged, and have since 
increased their surface area by about a third. Sadly, the death toll on 
Hawaii was still quite high because of the amount of volcanic fumes 
released.
  Most of the continental plates moved up to 10 kilometres that day, but 
within a week had returned to their normal rate of movement measured 
in centimetres per year. In such cases severe earthquakes and vulcanise 
were the only noticeable results. Others suffered far greater effects, and 
were shoved thousands of kilometres out of place, causing effects that 
would normally not have become obvious for millions of years. For 
instance, massive northwards movement of the South American 
continent has resulted in a rising of the sea floor in the Caribbean region 
because of continental compression. Parts of the area have already been 
raised to become dry (if salty) land, and the rest of the sea in those parts 
is no more than 200 meters deep in most places. Additionally, mountain 
creation along the western side of this uplift area has resulted in the 
formation of an isthmus between the northern and southern American 
continents (remember that, up until the Great Death, Geos' continental 
arrangement was identical to that of Gaea, so that previously there was 
no such link). This extreme geological upheaval is what stuck in the 
minds of the Mayaztincas (in spite of the immense loss of life south of 
the equator and the general collapse of civilisation), and is why they 
were convinced that the predictions of the end of the fifth age of the 
world by earthquake had been fulfilled.
  Terra Australis [Antarctica] has rotated clockwise approximately 30 
degrees, and has slipped slightly northwards into the South Pacific.
  The Red Sea has widened, and opened up into Mare Internum. This is 
fortunate, since the northwards jump of Africa closed Mare Internum's 
Atlan entrance at Strait of Gibraltar. 
  The Great Death also reversed the polarity of the magnetic poles, 
something that the Geosans know about and take for granted. Anyone not 
from the cosm, however, may be in for a nasty surprise if they rely on 
their compasses to steer them northwards and away from the deadly 
southern half of the world. The south magnetic pole is currently just 
inside the Arctic, some 160 km off the eastern coast of Greenland, about 
a third of the way to Iceland.
  Finally, the vast amounts of dust thrown up by the numerous volcanic 
eruptions have also taken their toll. Their initial danger was that of 
building up static charges, resulting in huge electrical storms that set off 
fires across the planet. In the long run, however, the dust and ash from 
the fires blocked out enough sunlight over a ten year period to trigger an 
ice age. Average planetary temperatures have dropped 2 degrees, and 
glaciers has been building up in the far north and far south. Sea levels 
have dropped five meters, further enhancing the rise of some areas of 
sea floor. Strangely, however, the effect has not gone much beyond this 
extent. What is keeping Geos from going into deep freeze is unknown, 
but it seems to be related to the effect that gives Geos' regions their 
differing climates.
  The wildfires set off in the electrical storms have pretty much burnt out 
the forests and buildings of the south, and this has been compounded by 
the effects of two millennia of weathering. However, there are a few 
places seemingly untouched by the passage of time. In these areas the 
mummified remains of plants and animals are still exactly were they fell 
at the time of the Great Death, since there are no living micro-organisms 
such as bacteria or fungi to cause them to decompose.

Cultures

      Of course it's daft, it's traditional. - Terry Pratchett.

Cathay Empire
  Like the various dynasties of the Chinese Empire on Earth, Cathay is a 
vast empire covering much of eastern Asia. It is administered from 
Cambaluc [Bejing] in Zhingguo (the "Middle Country") [China] where 
both the imperial throne and the seat of the bureaucracy are situated. 
The Empire of Cathay runs from Siberia in the north down to the very 
limit of the Blighted Lands (as they call the southern half of Geos). The 
south-east Asian area is known as Annam (the Pacified South), or the 
Khmer provinces, although they are also denigratingly called the 
"Khmer Empire", in reference to the empire that used to control that 
region. The Cathay Empire extends in the west as far as Indus [northern 
India and Pakistan], and in the east has extensive holdings in the Pacific 
Ocean.
  The most notable divergence of Cathay from Core Earth history was 
the fall of the Mongol Emperors, which on Geos did not occur until mid 
1500s AD. On Earth the empire that Genghis Khan founded in 1100s 
AD declined because although the Mongols were superb fighters they 
were lousy administrators, and they lost control of the empire as they 
delegated more and more responsibility to administer to other people. 
Corrupt government and incompetent administration resulted in the loss 
of Mongol holdings, and eventually in their replacement by the Yuan 
dynasty.
  On Geos the third Mongol emperor, Genghis' grandson, Kubla Khan, 
developed a skill for political manoeuvring to keep the bureaucracy in 
check. As a result, although he fostered out participation in the Cathay 
administration to other peoples, he retained control of the bureaucracy 
with an iron fist. This is a skill all the Emperors of Cathay had to learn; 
those that didn't saw the erosion of their power and occasionally the 
overthrow of their dynasty. Since then intrigue has been the norm in the 
Cathay bureaucracy.
  The current emperor, Lu Sin Wah, has the situation well under control; 
as long as the intrigues of the various departments do not get out of hand 
or hinder the functioning of the government as a whole, they are allowed 
to continue with their games. Should things become untenable, then 
heads roll (literally).
  Briefly, the succession of dynasties since that time has been the 
Mongols (the Yuan dynasty) from 1100s to 1534 AD, followed briefly 
by the Tan dynasty from 1534. Tan control was cut short by the Great 
Death in 1662. Thereafter a remnant of the Khans were able to wrest 
back control up to 2203 AD. They were succeeded by the Dhou dynasty 
from 2203 to 2679 AD, and then the Zin from 2679 to 3116 AD. The Zin 
were deposed in a revolution that led to a confused 50 year period 
known as the Three Empires when the rival houses of Ning, Yu, and Li 
vied for power. The Qui gained control in 3169 and ruled until 3465. 
They were followed by the current dynasty, the Wa.
  The incursion of the Mayaztincas into the south Pacific to take control 
of the Khmer provinces distracted Cathay from its traditional 
preoccupation with trying to gain control of Nihon, and resulted in a 
major war between the two. The sequel to that came some thirty years 
later, and was the first of Geos' three world wars.

Mayaztinca Empire
  The head of the Mayaztinca bureaucracy is analogous to the High 
Priest of the Aztec Empire, but since there are no gods worshipped the 
comparison is necessarily inexact. He makes decisions of policy, 
subject only to the will of the Emperor himself (the huey tlatoani or 
"great speaker") who is the member of one of the royal families chosen 
to rule the Empire. The Emperor and the Chief Bureaucrat both have 
circles of advisors drawn from the noble houses.
  In practice the Chief Bureaucrat, Tlaqlotaque, runs the Empire. Prince 
Ztlatloc is effectively a captive of Tlaqlotaque's intrigues. Tlaqlotaque 
chose Ztlatloc to be the next huet tlatloani, and then arranged for him to 
be accepted into the position by the other nobles.
  The Mayaztinca practice human sacrifice, despite the lack of any belief 
in gods to sacrifice them to. In fact, the Mayaztincas sacrifice human 
lives to keep the sun rising each day, but do not anthropomorphise the 
process. They do not believe that there are gods who will grow angry if 
their are no sacrifices and who will let the sun stop. Rather, they 
believe there to be an even more direct causal link. 
  It may or may not be a coincidence that in the decade or so leading up 
to the Great Death a liberal faction gained control of the Mayaztinca 
government, and was in the process of phasing out human sacrifices. In 
the wake of the Great Death the surviving Mayaztincas vowed not to 
make the same mistake again, and in the confused decades that followed 
they indulged in an absolute orgy of sacrifice.
  Within the Mayaztinca Empire the use of magic is rigidly structured, 
with its use being controlled entirely by the bureaucracy. Private use is 
available only for divination, and then only under strict controls under 
license.

Roman Empire
  The Romans, meanwhile, cemented their position with control of Mare 
Internum ("Inland Sea") [Mediterranean] trade routes. Again, no one 
could sail south around Africa, so most trade had to go through Roman 
controlled waters. The opening up of the Red Sea was a blessing for 
maritime trade, just as the closing of the Strait of Gibraltar was a curse. 
This was overcome around 800 years after the Great Death when 
Caesar Pompii VI began the Iberian canal, which when completed 
increased the ease of trade (no more lugging overland between the Atlan 
and Mare Internum) and paid for itself within two decades. The Roman 
Empire's domination of much of Europe, both politically and through 
trade, has resulted in its native language, Laten, being the near universal 
tongue throughout both the empire and Europe in general. Only a few, 
fiercely independent European nations, such as the AngleSaxon Lands, 
have non-Romance languages.
  On Geos, as on Earth, the eastern half of the Roman Empire became 
more important and influential during the 11th century AUC [4th century 
AD]. On Earth Emperor Constantine the Great moved the capital of the 
Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which was renamed 
Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1,083 AUC [330 AD]. On Geos, 
Caesar Constantine the Great did not do so, since it would have been 
against tradition to move the capital in this way. Whereas on Earth this 
led to the Byzantine Empire becoming a separate continuation of the 
Roman Empire, on Geos it resulted in the Roman Empire entering its 
Byzantine Period, which only really ended with the events of the Great 
Death some 1,400 years later.
  On Geos there was no barbarian invasion as a chain result of the 
movements of the Mongols in the far east of Asia. Therefore, unlike on 
Earth, the Roman Empire never completely fell. A more accurate 
description was that it grew old and decadent, slipped into a dotage, 
and doddered along. The Turks were eventually able to reclaim 
Byzantium. The Empire was still powerful enough to keep together its 
holding around the western Mare Internum, much as a near toothless but 
still vicious mangy old lion can still maul a man. But for the most part 
the Byzantine Age of the Romans was one of quiet decadence and 
reminiscences about the glories of a fading empire.
  That all changed with the Great Death. Like most of the world's 
civilisations Rome was rocked by this cataclysm, and the Empire 
collapsed virtually back to the Italian peninsula. It took several hundred 
years to get themselves organised, but once they did so, the Romans set 
about restablishing themselves with renewed vigour. The reason they 
did so is practically the inverse of the situation with the Mayaztincas. 
When the Great Death came the Mayaztincas saw it as a warning against 
the liberal phasing out of human sacrifice that they had been working on, 
and they returned to the old ways of sacrifice, conquest, and blood with 
a vengeance. The Romans, by comparison, saw the Great Death as a 
warning against the corrupt and decadent ways they had been coasting 
along with. The Romans today are at the forefront of exploiting new 
ideas that they encounter when they trade (at least as far as they dare 
considering the still quite potent restraints of tradition, but they're still 
way ahead of everybody else), and Rome is synonymous for the 
dissemination of learning. The Roman Empire of Geos takes the 
political position that its subject regions can retain their own cultures as 
long as it doesn't interfere with the operation of the Empire as a whole.
  The practice of the liberal position on learning has had the paradoxical 
effect of reducing the role of magic within the Empire, at least in public 
life. Magic itself had a dark reputation, and superstitious practices 
suffer by association. Despite the fact that most people still make their 
wardings and wear their charms, they do so privately. In public 
superstition is "politically incorrect", and magic is in outright disfavour, 
especially by the more scientifically-oriented among the population.
  The current Caesar of Rome is Augustus XXII. He is an outward 
looking man in his early 50s, in favour of an activist foreign and 
domestic policy, and is only mildly decadent.

Storm Valley
  When the Gaunt Man left Geos to invade the cosm of Gorhagah (now 
Kantovia), he created his maelstrom bridge in the valley where the local 
chapter of the Cult of the Nameless One convened. This isolated valley 
is less than a days walk from the nearest town, barely 15 miles from 
Salemtown in Massoit Bay state, but even today it remains an 
uninhabited and avoided area. There is no specific, readily identifiable 
reason for this, but most people find the area unwholesome. Although 
this impression has been heightened both by the occult use that the Cult 
put the valley to, and the mass slaughter of the same cult by the Gaunt 
Man, the valley's reputation for supernatural occurrences predates the 
arrival of white men. That is, in part, why the Cult of the Nameless One 
choose to conduct their ceremonies there in the first place.
  The maelstrom bridge is long gone. When the Gaunt Man tore apart the 
surface of Kantovia as his final act of destroying that world the bridge 
was destroyed from that end, causing the bridgehead on Geos to suffer 
the same fate. However, the effects of the maelstrom bridge lingers. 
There is an intermittent intercosm portal to Kantovia that occasionally 
flares to life. Fortunately the portal is over a mile above the ground, so 
that people are rarely in danger of falling through. Apparently the highly 
occult nature of the valley allowed the maelstrom bridge's intercosm 
link to become engrained into the fabric of Geos' reality.
  There is no way of determining when the portal will open, although 
activation does seem more likely during occultly significant 
astronomical conjunctions. When the portal opens a reality storm flares 
up as the reality of Kantovia flows through to create a dominant zone 
throughout the valley. This happens on average about once every two 
months or so.
  Note that the reality of the Kantovian cosm's main dimension (or "core 
reality") which intrudes through the portal is different to the reality of 
the pocket dimension of the same name that The Black Horn has 
recreated for its new High Lord, Ayroa. The reality of the Kantovian 
core reality remains the same as when the Gaunt Man imposed it on that 
world millennia ago - it is essentially that of Geos at the time (Magic 
15, Social 18, Spirit 2, Tech 18, Occult, Law of Superstition) along 
with the primitive versions of the Law of Fear, Power of Corruption, 
and Law of Eternal Corruption that the Gaunt Man had just devised.
  The duration of these storms is usually not long, no more than a few 
hours or at most a day. However, even in the time available 
investigation of the phenomenon is almost impossible. The 
Metaphysical Studies faculty of the nearby Miskatonic University in 
Arkham is greatly interested in the abnormal storm activity that occurs 
in the valley, but has been hindered by the continual failure of 
equipment because of the lower Tech axiom.
  The presence of the portal seems to have weakened the 
interdimensional fabric in the area, such that within Storm Valley all 
attempts at interdimensional travel (but not intercosm, other than to the 
Kantovian cosm) gain a +2 to their effect values.

Cults
  In the period leading up to Heketon's departure from Geos with the 
Gaunt Man, the Darkness Device worked to keep the Spirit axiom down 
through the Law of Superstition. However, once Heketon had its High 
Lord the state of Geos' spiritual affairs was no longer of consequence. 
But just because the Cult was no longer needed does not mean it ceased 
to exist. The forces that prompted its creation still existed, and have run 
somewhat amok.
  Since the Great Death the Cult of the Nameless One has reformed 
itself. There was no reason not to: very few of its original leadership 
knew that much of its activities were a farce - that the Nameless One 
effectively took no interest in its activities, and that all of the 
"revelations" the Cult experienced were faked by use of magic or the 
occult - and these few were murdered by the Gaunt Man in any case. On 
the contrary, there was a very good reason to reform: spirituality on 
Geos is factored through the Law of Superstition and relates partly to 
people's power lust and partly to their fears. And after the Great Death 
the people of Geos had even more to fear than normal. When the Gaunt 
Man arranged for the word to be spread of his activities and his threat 
to return to finish them off, it gave Geos a psychic jump-start that 
actually raised the Spirit axiom from 2 to 4 in the course of half a 
decade, despite the retarding effect built into the Law of Superstition. 
However, it is unlikely to be able to break through the ceiling that the 
latter world law maintains.
  Formerly there had been very few cults on Geos, with the Cult of the 
Nameless One being the most prominent. With the increase in the 
Spiritual axiom others have sprung up as well. Some of them on their 
own, others splintering off from earlier groups. The cults remain 
primarily power and fear driven, with only the tiniest smidgen of piety 
that the combination of the low Spirit axiom and Law of Superstition 
will allow. With so little true "faith" involved, their adherents tend to 
wander off if they do not like what they find. As a result the cults often 
cloak themselves in mystery beyond what is necessary to keep them 
hidden from the eyes of conventional society. They promise much in 
order to keep stringing people along. And, where necessary, many of 
them use intimidation, blackmail, and violence to retain their members.
  The Gaunt Man is now a universal bogey man across Geos, in one 
form or another, and some of these proto-religious cults even worship 
him and a stern and vengeful deity. This is certainly the case in the 
original Cult of the Nameless One. In their fear and desire to survive 
they have twisted the Gaunt Man's words to mean that he punished them 
because he was displeased with them, and will return to destroy them if 
they don't do better. Other cults fear the Gaunt Man as the Evil One, and 
seek ways to frustrate his dark designs against the world. One of these 
has even come across the idea of Aperios. Some cults don't make any 
mention of the Gaunt Man, and have doctrines utterly unrelated to him 
and his threats. Of course, at Geos' low Spirit axiom it is to be expected 
that much of the dogma of the various cults bears no relation to the true 
situation in their world in any case.
  A distinction should be made at this point between the cults (who have 
some small kernel of piety, no matter how twisted) and the secret 
societies (who investigate the supernatural for non-devotional reasons).

Cult of the Nameless One
  The befuddled and rather pathetic remains of the Cult have taken to 
worshipping the Gaunt Man as the Chosen One the Nameless One, 
partly because of lust for his power, but mainly to save themselves 
should he ever come back. They are nowhere near as power or 
respected as they were at the time of the Great Death.
Current leader: Professor Bernard Rasmussen, a history professor at the 
University of Rome 

Children of the Dawn
  The Children of the Dawn are a cult whose tenets equate the "light" of 
knowledge and enlightenment to the principle of good, and ignorance 
and superstition to the principle of evil (of which the Gaunt Man is the 
prime manifestation).
Current leader: Charles DeGalio, a computer programmer in Gaul.

Cyberbretheren
  The Cyberbretheren are the human extension of the bytes' faith of 
computer potential. The leader of this cult is a Nihon computer 
technician, Jsui Nan. The Cyberbretheren were originally a secret 
society dedicated to the development of technology-oriented spells, of 
which they had some success. However, up until Jsui was contacted by 
the bytes, they honestly had no idea that the datapaths were an 
extradimensional world accessible by magic. The Cyberbretheren have 
now changes the focus of their activities, and in addition to working on 
techno-spells, are also involved in the development of VX cyberware.

The Disciples of Truth
  The Disciples of Truth are a cult whose faith revolves around a 
Pythagorian belief that their is a fundamental, mathematical perfection to 
the universe. The are in contact with a being known as Ibit-tong, which 
in turn is reputedly an intermediary for a far more powerful being 
known as The Sleeping Creator. The Sleeping Creator's physical form 
is said to be residing at the center of the infinity of Geos' cosm,, of 
which Geos' dimensional plane is supposedly just one symmetrically 
balanced node.
  Ibit-tong manifests itself as a continually changing conglomeration of 
regular polygons, always maintaining a seven-fold symmetry. The 
Disciples also have contact with the Keeper of Strange Knowledges.

Secret Societies
The Austerity 
  The Austerity is, publicly, a political pressure group relevant only to 
the Roman Empire and based in Rome. They are a group of 
conservative reactionaries who promote frugality and stoicism. They 
are part of the socio-political culture of the Empire that arose after the 
Great Death which reviles opulence and decadence and has been 
growing in power over the past couple of decades. To call someone 
"byzantine" in Rome is a bit of pointed mudslinging that has become 
increasingly popular in the Empire's politics.
  In private the Austerity are a secret cabal with extensive control in the 
Roman Senate, which plans to expand its influence to impose their 
values on foreigners still beyond the control of the Empire. As such, 
they are a group whose very origins and raison dete are tied strongly 
with the Empire's post-Great Death philosophy of multiculturalism, but 
who are both ironically and hypocritically ignoring it in order to fulfil 
their own lusts for power.

Travellers of the Shadowed Path 
  An European-based secret society dedicated to gaining mystical 
knowledge. It makes heavy use of the occult and dimension spanning 
magics. It is contact with extradimensional entities, such as The Keeper 
of Strange Knowledges and other sinister beings, The Travellers are 
amoral in their pursuit of knowledge, and do not balk at evil deeds done 
for the "right cause" (theirs, naturally).
  A peculiarity of the Travellers is their conviction that the world of 
Geos rests atop an infinitely tall pillar standing in the Black Sea, which 
is being continually undermined by various malicious entities, and 
furthermore that it is only by their rituals that the pillar is kept whole, 
thus keeping the inhabited surface of the world from slipped beneath the 
Sea of Night.

The Geomancers 
  The Geomancers are a secret cabal within the bureaucracy of the 
Mayaztincan Empire dedicated to gaining knowledge so that the Empire 
can be protected, partly from the Dark Powers of the supernatural 
world, and partly from the enemies of the Empire in the mundane world. 
Although of good intention, they put the survival of the Empire (and 
particularly the bureaucracy, which they see as vital to the survival of 
the Empire) above any concerns for individual welfare.

The Way of the Jade Lotus
  This Cathay-based secret society is a group dedicated to protecting the 
bulk of humanity, who have only the vaguest idea at the dangers 
surrounding them. Usually this involves bluntening the efforts of the 
likes of the High Ones, but they also deal with less organised mystical 
menaces. They have also been formulating long-term plans over many 
millennia on the perceived problem of the Gaunt Man's threatened 
return, and how to destroy this creature of darkness.

The High Ones 
  The High Ones are a conspiracy of mages who jealously guard their 
self-appointed right to be the masters of all forms of more powerful 
magic. They are predominantly based in the Orient, particularly Indus, 
but have circles all over Geos. It is by their efforts that almost all spells 
higher than Magic 10 are rare and hidden, and by their methods that 
magical societies are usually clandestine groups. The High Ones have 
been in operation for millennia; long before the Great Death.
  The High Ones keep an eye open for all powerful or interesting magics 
and try to take possession of them. Powerful mages are assessed, and 
either invited to join or marked for elimination. It is for this reason that 
most mages belong to circles or covens, for their own protection. Part 
of the reason that so many circles were allied with the Cult of the 
Nameless One's pre-Great Death incarnation was that the High Ones 
dared not attack such a powerful group. After the Great Death, and with 
the shattering of the Cult of the Nameless One by the Gaunt Man the 
High Ones went on an orgy of assassinations that set back the practice 
of magic on Geos even more than the Great Death itself did. Today the 
High Ones are the largest and most powerful, and still the most evil of 
all magic oriented secret societies.

End of Part 1 of 2

Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia


Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 13:58:56 +1100 (EST)
From: "Brenton / Saxon George (COM)" <u921953@student.canberra.edu.au>
X-Sender: u921953@student
To: The Black Marble Wombat's cosm <masterbook@gojira.monsta.com>
Subject: Geos, draft 2, 2/2

Part 2 of 2

AXIOMS AND WORLD LAWS

Magic 14     Social 18     Spirit 4     Tech 25

Magic 14. There are various brakes on the use of magic, some resulting 
from social conventions against its use, others from the shadow war 
between secret societies. In Europe it is because of the tradition that 
holds that magic is allied with the dark forces of the supernatural. As a 
result, few "right-thinking" people use magic. In the Mayaztinca Empire 
it is rigidly controlled, and in the Orient (the heart of the High One's 
operations) only minor magics are allowed to be used by the hoi polloi.
  Nevertheless, those who do use advanced magics, whether cults, 
secret societies, or reclusive mages, are powerful. At this axiom level 
quite potent magics are possible.
  The actions of the High Ones in tracking down, and usually murdering 
for their knowledge, other mages caused a slight drop in the Magic 
axiom, from 15 to 14. Wards were often used. Golems were possible 
but are rarely used because of concerns that they may escape from the 
control of their creators. Similarly, the use of spells capable of 
interdimensional travel, such as Extradimensional Gate and World 
Walk, were possible. However, even within the secret societies, these 
were used only by those brave and foolhardy enough to face the perils 
of travel into the Shadowed Lands. Today, most of these types of spells 
have been lost through the combination of disuse and confiscation by the 
various secret societies and/or cults, and are more or less held as 
knowledge in trust for possible future use.
  The type of magic used on Geos varies according to its purpose. The 
minor magics beneath the notice of the secret societies are usually 
practical, everyday things (like Shear Sheep). The greater magics tend 
to fall at either end of a scale of spectacularness, depending on what 
needs of the magic-using underground they were designed to fulfill. At 
one extreme are the subtle, stealthy spells that allow mages to go about 
their business without attracting notice - either because the spells are 
designed not to attract attention (World Walk as opposed to 
Extradimensional Gate), or are made to divert attention from the mage's 
presence and activities. At the other extreme are the spectacular, often 
horrific spells used to overawe and intimidate the mages opponents. Of 
course, a combination of the two are often useful: something spectacular 
to grab their attention, then wipe out the evidence before the authorities 
arrive.
  The Magic axiom is also high enough to support the existence of 
anthropomorphic personifications, such a Lord Death, Lady Pain, the 
Nightmare King, and a Yog-Sothoth-like entity known only as The 
Keeper of Strange Knowledges.

Social 18. When Heketon was removed from its position as "heart of the 
world" the resulting geological and biological catastrophes had a 
marked effect on the Social axiom, dropping it down to 12. It has taken 
them the past 2,000 years to claw back up to their starting position. The 
Social axiom allows for large, but relatively inefficient organisations to 
exist. On Geos this takes the form of several large competing empires, 
and a few smaller ones. The largest three, and the ones who have a 
permanent presence in space, are the Roman Empire, the Mayaztinca 
Empire, and the Cathay Empire.
  As a result of the Spirit axiom's low level, the lack of the concept of 
religious community spills over to affect the Social axiom. This has 
resulted in the lack of community spirit that permeates Geos. People can 
organise themselves into quite large and reasonably efficient structures, 
but there is comparatively little socialising for socialising's sake. 
"Right-thinking" people mind their own business. Society developed on 
Geos initially because people grouped together for protection from the 
monsters and out of fear of their superstitions, and later for the 
economic and technological benefits. Thus, any grouping of people will 
be because of the direct benefits of working in a group, not because they 
want each others company as people. This is because the Hawthorn 
Principle (which predicts that some human interaction will not just be 
because of material rewards, but also because people are social 
animals, enjoy one another's company, and feel satisfaction from a job 
well done) requires a minimum of Spirit 5 (extended community) as 
well as Social 5 (tribes composed of multi-family groups), and comes 
into it most efficient at Social 7 when trade, taxes, and arithmetic allow 
for the concept of work for pay.
  The cultures of Geos are diverse, but despite the potential of 
instantaneous world-wide communication tend not to interact and blend. 
Normally, this type of effect would be the result of cultural pride. On 
Geos this is not the case, because the Spirit axiom is too low to support 
the emotional commitment needed for nationalism (requiring minimums 
of Social 10 and Spirit 5). Instead, the extreme traditionalism that is a 
side effect of the Law of Superstition replaces cultural pride with 
cultural tradition to keep social identities separate. Essentially, people 
worry so much about the prospects of bringing about disaster by 
breaking traditional practices that there is little chance for inadvertent 
cultural imperialism. Only the Roman Empire has made any concerted 
and successful attempt to resist this effect.
  Those empires that have many different ethnic groups within their 
control either respect these cultural differences as long as they do not 
interfere with the operations of the empire as a whole (as the Romans 
do), or have only succeeded in driving the native cultures underground 
(as the Mayaztincas have).
  In many ways Geos' cultures are just as taboo ridden as that of the 
Victorians of Gaea. The difference is that Geos' cultural peculiarities 
are not centralised, codified, and enforced by an "independent arbiter" 
as the Sacellum does. They are instead carried by the weight of 
tradition, and are subject to the local variations and generational 
changes that result from slow mutation over time.

Spiritual 4. Geos has almost no concept of the divine. There are no 
organised churches in mainstream society. Cults exist, but tend to be 
obsessed with personal power rather than worship, although there is 
some small spark of devotion involved. An example of this is the Cult 
of the Nameless One, to which the Gaunt Man belonged. Since the Gaunt 
Man left Geos there has been a increase in the number of cults (and 
there is a causal relationship to that). All of these organisations are 
hindered in their attempts at devotion by the Law of Superstition, which 
filters what little true spirituality and piety can be mustered under the 
low Spirit axiom through its sieve of fear and envious power lust.
  At this Spiritual axiom both miracles and rituals can be made (Spirit 2 
and 3, respectively), but invocations are not possible until Spirit 7.
  Despite the lack of true, devotional, religion on Geos, its inhabitants 
do believe in the existence of immortal souls which go to the 
appropriate destination after death. The only difference is that, without 
gods, no assessment of the souls is carried out by anthropomorphised, 
self-aware agencies. The souls are not judged, because there is no-one 
to judge them. They simply, automatically, go to their reward as 
appropriate, whatever form that may take: reincarnation, eternal reward, 
eternal punishment, extended punishment for the purpose of redemption, 
etc.

Technological 25. At this Tech axiom Geos is one point short of 
efficient virtual reality technology. The Geosians have already 
considered that possibility, and they have a marked reluctance towards 
developing that sort of technology. They may not, however, have any 
say in the matter.
  The advent of computer technology has led to the belief (and 
subsequent appearance of) computer spirits, analogous to medieval 
spirits of the home, hearth, earth, sky and fields. The Geosian fear of 
malign non-human intelligences has precluded the development of 
artificial intelligences, much like the reluctance to create golems when 
the Magic axiom was still high enough to do so.
  There are widespread computer networks on Geos, but the are divided 
up into regional areas which usually correspond to one political 
grouping. To travel between regional areas means logging through a 
gateway; access is relatively easy into different areas as long as they 
have roughly the same political affiliation, but cross-checking and 
censorship by authorities is relatively easy as well. Within each area 
the computer system is decentralised, so that sabotage in one area will 
cause automatic rerouting through another branch (much like Earth's 
Internet), but the regions are smaller and thus less efficient at this than 
on Earth.
  Much of Geos functions with fusion power, although there are some 
areas that use more antiquated methods as a result of cultural practices 
moulded by the Law of Superstition or because of costs. While it is 
possible, and would certainly be more efficient, to have a power grid 
linking many countries together, the fractured political situation negates 
this. Even within a country a relatively inefficient system of local power 
generators is used, since there is a widespread belief that any long-
distance power link will inevitably fail at the most inopportune moment.
  The Geosans try to avoid the use of cyberware unless medically 
necessary. This means they slightly less to fear from the likes of the 
cyberpossessors. However, it also means that Geosan cyberware is not 
as advanced as other areas of technology, and is usually of Tech 23 
level. Tech 24 and even Tech 25 cyberware exists, but becomes 
increasingly rare with rising Tech levels because they are the state of 
the art items. All pieces of Geosan cyberware are conventional body 
replacement items, and do not include such exotic items as slashers or 
memory chips.

Occult
  This world law is similar in almost all respects to the version of the 
occult which exists in Orrorsh. The difference between the Orrorshan 
and Geosian forms of the occult can be attributed to the actions of the 
Gaunt Man. The High Lord of Orrorsh requires a high Magic axiom to 
support the creation of the Horrors, but does not want people using 
conventional magical means to create quick and reliable spells which 
could be used against the Horrors. Since he had already been 
predisposed against the standard form of magic, the Gaunt Man altered 
the Orrorshan occult to make standard magic a contradiction. In Geos, 
however, magic and the occult are equally functional - as long as the 
abide by their respective axiom limits (Magic 14, Occult 25). Similarly, 
the Gaunt Man has integrated the occult into the Orrorshan Ecology of 
Horror, such that occult practitioners continually risk gaining 
Corruption and becoming Horrors themselves. In Geos that risk does not 
exist. Nevertheless, the basic processes remain the same; consult 
chapter six on the occult in the Orrorsh sourcebook for specific details.
  In summary, the occult is an alternate form of magic that operates 
independently of the Magic axiom, just as Weird Science is independent 
of the Technological axiom. Moreover, the rules that the occult follows 
differ from those of standard magic in that they aren't fully quantifiable 
or comprehensible. An occultist must dabble and experiment to get a 
result, and once achieved that result will usually only be usable for one 
specific circumstance. Another occult event must be created to affect 
other situations, no matter how similar the later situations may be to the 
first.
  This methodology is sensible within the context of the world it 
originates from. Geos is a world of superstition, and things aren't meant 
to have fully comprehensible operating rules in a world like that. The 
very mood of the occult is one of mystery, and perhaps also of fear. You 
don't do things because you understand the link between cause and 
effect, you do it because intuition and past experience suggests it is the 
best course of action, and you fear the consequences if you do 
otherwise.
  The occult's effective Magic axiom of 25 gives occult events gain a -4 
bonus applied to the difficulty number and backlash. This axiom level of 
25 for occult events is caused by a temporary boost in the local Magic 
axiom, causing weird weather effects as a localised reality storm forms 
around the area where the differences in axiom levels are being 
generated.
  In Orrorsh it is possible for extremely corrupt NPC occultists to draw 
upon the knowledge of Heketon create "universal" spells. In Geos this is 
not possible because the Occult on Geos has not been connected to the 
Darkness Device. In order to create a spell or item to affect something, 
the practitioner must have knowledge of that thing derived from 
personal experience. If an occultist doesn't have personal knowledge of 
the thing to be affected, then an occult event cannot be formulated 
against it.
  This world law supports several skills that are otherwise unique to the 
horror reality of Orrorsh. The occult itself may only be practised by the 
use of the Occult skill, which may not be used unskilled. The 
Shapeshifting skill is also supported on Geos by the occult, and which 
also may not be used unskilled.

Law of Superstition
  The Law of Superstition has undergone extensive modification by 
Heketon. It was tailored for the twin, intertwined purposes of both 
keeping the Spiritual axiom below 5 to stunt any sense of piety, and 
factoring what little piety that can develop through a sieve of 
superstitious fear and envy. The goal, of course, was to create the 
atmosphere necessary for the Cult of the Nameless One.
  The Law of Superstition limits the Social axiom to 9 in all matters 
involving investigation, quantification, explanation, and even 
description and documentation of superstitions. This is one point short 
of Social 10, where the "collection of information is sufficiently 
centralised for the beginning of scholarship and science."
  The elements of superstition in society simply defy all attempts at 
investigation. They are transmitted from generation to generation in old 
wives tales, proverbs, nursery rhymes, and other snatches of 
information; never as collected and analysed knowledge. But they never 
seem to die out either. They may grow garbled, and different versions 
may develop in different areas, but this is perfectly keeping with the 
nature of the Law of Superstition to be inexplicable.
  Other subjects of scholarship are unaffected, which is how the 
Technological axiom was able to rise to 25. But although the Geosians 
can collect information and make sensible most of their world, there is 
still the world of superstition, lurking out of sight, and which they 
cannot rationalise. 
  There is a tradition among European civilisations that magic is allied 
with the Dark Powers of the supernatural, but this is not actually the 
case. It is, in fact, the alternate magic system of the Occult that is linked 
with the world of superstition. Standard magic follows explicable rules, 
and could be developed as a body of study if social conventions 
allowed. The Occult is not.
  Superstitions are made real because of this world law. The process is 
erratic - not because it isn't powerful, but because if all superstitions 
known to the population where made real in exactly the way humans 
described, then they would be less mysterious. Only some superstitions 
are brought to life. There is no set pattern between whether they are 
widespread beliefs or those held by one person. They may be translated 
into reality exactly as detailed, as a conglomeration of various versions, 
or with twists never contemplated by humans. Some superstitions that 
are made real bear no resemblance to anything ever previously 
imagined. Of course, strictly speaking it wasn't necessary to make Geos' 
superstitions literally real; just making people believe they were real 
would have been enough. But Heketon is a Darkness Device, and 
Darkness Devices exist for the purpose of spreading destruction; it 
simply couldn't resist adding this malicious little wrinkle of making 
societies nightmares literally real (the nascant world law was already 
heading in that direction anyway), nor of doubling the proportion of 
malign superstitions made real over benign ones.
  Although superstitions defy clinical investigation, they may be pursued 
in a somewhat scholarly way by the use of the Scholar (unnatural lore) 
skill.

  Cosm attribute levels for Geos are all 13.

SKILLS
  As a result of the Law of Superstitions' culturally segregating effects, 
some of the skills presented here may only be used by certain groups as 
part of their cultural heritage. Other groups will generally not bother 
trying to learn these "foreign tricks"; those few who do will find the cost 
increased, as if the skill was one only available from a foreign cosm (a 
cost of 10 possibilities or 100 months with a teacher, or twice that 
without a teacher, for skills that can't be used if unskilled).
  Some of the skills available only in Orrorsh are also supported in 
Geos. The Occult skill (MIN) and Shapeshifting (SPI) are both 
supported by Geos' occult world law. Scholar (unnatural lore) is 
supported by the Law of Superstition.
  There is no mechanic of Corruption in Geos to give an individual a 
True Form, and the monsters of Geos do not have Perseverance 
numbers. As a result neither True Sight nor Investigation are relevant in 
Geos' reality, and these skills create contradictions when used there.

Perception-based
Divination magic (omen interpretation) (PER)
  This skill is essentially identical to that presented in the Aztec Empire, 
and is reprinted here for convenience. It is a specialised type of 
Divination magic, and can be used only for interpreting signs regarding 
future occurrences. It requires a Magic axiom of 14 to operate.
  When using Divination magic (omen interpretation), the character 
attempts to derive from the patterns of stones, the feathers of birds, and 
other natural objects just what the future holds. The character must 
inquire about a specific course of action - the difficulty number is based 
upon how far into the future he wishes to look (see the "Omen 
Interpretation Difficulty" chart).
  Level of success determines the amount of information derived from 
the omen interpretation:
  MINIMAL/AVERAGE - A general feeling that good or ill will result 
from a particular course of action.
  GOOD - A more concrete idea of what form the results will take, i.e. 
"I see death at the end of this path."
  SUPERIOR - A better idea of just who will be most affected by these 
results, i.e. "I see death for John at the end of this road."
  SPECTACULAR - Information on the source of the good or ill results, 
i.e. "I see death for John at the hands of Conundrum."
  Divination magic (omen interpretation) cannot be used unskilled.

Omen Interpretation Difficulty Chart
Time Period	Difficulty
One minute	8
One hour   	10
One day     	13
One week	16
One month	20
One year   	25

  In Geos the use of Divination magic (omen interpretation) is made 
slightly more difficult than normal by the Law of Superstition; increase 
the difficulty level by one. Thus, a Minimal success gets no information, 
a Average/Good success gets a general feeling of good or ill, etc. 
Geosans who use this skill away from the superstition reality will be 
pleasantly surprised by the increased ease of use, while non-Geosans 
will mostly likely be frustrated by the increased difficulty.
  A further effect created by the Law of Superstition is that Divination 
magic (omen interpretation) requires a specialisation, such as for 
astrology, aeromancy, etc.
  As a cultural skill, Divination magic (omen interpretation) may only be 
learn by the Mayaztincas (and then only by the bureaucrats responsible 
for divinations) and the Cathay.
  Divination magic (omen interpretation) cannot be used unskilled.

Scholar (computer sciences) (PER)
  The Scholar (computer sciences) skill is identical to the version 
presented in the Cyberpapacy sourcebook (p. 71).
  Scholar (computer sciences) can be used unskilled.

Scholar (Unnatural lore) (PER).
  The skill of Scholar (unnatural lore) is used to overcome, to a limited 
extent, the Law of Superstition's prohibition on documenting 
superstitions. Only those who have the Scholar (unnatural lore) skill are 
capable of gathering together and presenting coherently superstitious 
knowledge, which includes both the rituals to ward off bad luck, as well 
as any information on monsters created by the Law of Superstition and 
the nature of the more menacing of the extradimensional fringe realities, 
known collectively as the Shadowed Lands. It is such people who are 
the authors of the various tomes of forbidden knowledge, such as the 
opaque _Book of Moonless Night_, the monster filled _Aniolowski 
Manuscripts_, the ruthlessly logical _Rajagopalachari Formulas_, the 
treacherous but seemingly harmless _Paklid Directive_, the narrative 
styled _Pickwick Pamphlets_, the _Tetharki Manuscripts_, or the 
unspeakable _Irin Codex_.
  Scholar (unnatural lore) also comes in very handy in using such tomes 
as well. Although people who do not have Scholar (unnatural lore) may 
read the tomes, they will be prevented from seeing much worth in them 
by the Law of Superstition. A +5 penalty is applied to the DN of all 
attempts to use the knowledge in the tomes for people who do not have 
Scholar (unnatural lore).
  From a cultural point of view, Scholar (unnatural lore) is theoretically 
available to all, but it is a "hidden skill", and isn't publicly recognised. 
Only in cults and secret societies may Scholar (unnatural lore) be learnt.
  Scholar (unnatural lore) may not be used unskilled.

Spirit medium (PER)
  The Spirit medium skill is essentially identical to the version 
presented in the Orrorsh sourcebook (pp. 70-71)
  From a cultural point of view, Spirit Medium is available only to the 
Gypsies of Europe.
  Spirit medium cannot be used unskilled.

Mind-based
Occult (MIN)
  The Occult skill is essentially identical to the skill presented in the 
Orrorsh sourcebook (pp 69, 75-82). In brief, it is the skill to use the 
alternate magic system supported by the occult world law. Note that 
unlike in Orrorsh, the use of the occult in Geos does not cause 
Corruption.
  From a cultural point of view, Occult is theoretically available to all, 
but it is a "hidden skill", and isn't publicly recognised. Only in cults and 
secret societies may Occult be learnt.
  Occult cannot be used unskilled.

Psychology (MIN)
  The Psychology skill is identical to the version presented in the 
Cyberpapacy sourcebook (p. 73). Because Geosans tend to avoid the 
use of cyberware Psychology is not a particularly common skill.
  Psychology cannot be used unskilled.

Science (computers) (MIN)
  The Science (computers) skill is identical to the version presented in 
the Cyberpapacy sourcebook (p. 73).
  Science (computers) can be used unskilled.

Spirit-based
Shapeshifting (SPI)
  The Shapeshifting skill is identical to the version presented in the 
Orrorsh sourcebook (pp. 69-70). Shapeshifting is supported in Geos by 
the occult world law, and cannot be used unskilled.

SPELLS
Ghastly Death
Axiom level: 8
Skill: alteration/folk 22
Backlash: 19
Difficulty: 15
Bonus number to: effect
Effect: 17
Range: touch
Duration: 14 (10 minutes)
Cast time: 5 (10 secsonds)
Manipulation: cast time, control
  This focused spell causes the victim to literally vomit up their own 
entrails, doing a damage equal to the effect value, and then 1 wound per 
minute thereafter until death occurs. the mage touches the victim, while 
convulsing his throat as if to vomit.

Kinetic Shunt
Axiom level: 15
Skill: apportation/inanimate forces 25
Backlash: 20
Difficulty: 19
Bonus number to: effect
Effect: 16
Range: 15 (1 km)
Duration: 0 (1 second)
Cast time: 21 (4 hours)
Manipulation: cast time, control, range, state
  This ward is a leftover from the days when the Tech axiom was lower 
and gunpowder firearms were used instead of the current energy 
weapons, and, of course, the Magic axiom was higher.
  When activated, it protects an individual from being shot at. It is 
placed into a piece of headwear of some type by impreganating or 
otherwise covering the item with a small amount of gunpowder while 
chanting and enacting the appropriate rituals. When the item is worn, the 
spell redirects the kinetic energy of the gunfire, so that instead of the 
bullet being fired at the target, the kinetic energy is redirected at the 
brain of the sniper. If the effect value of the spell overcomes the base 
TOU of the spell's victim, then the damage total of the gunfire is 
directed against the shooter's base TOU.
  If the result of the damage total compared to the shooter's TOU is a 
MINIMAL or AVERAGE result, then there will be enough time to buy 
off damage if the character is possibility-rated. If the result is GOOD or 
better, then there is not enough time to do so, and the character dies as 
his brains are pulped (or possibly blown out his ears, for GMs who like 
really gruesome effects).

Unrecorded Passage
Axiom level: 12
Skill: apportation/inanimate forces 24
Backlash: 19
Difficulty: 15
Bonus number to: effect
Effect: 15
Range: touch
Duration: 17 (40 minutes)
Cast time: 14 (10 minutes)
Manipulation: control, duration
  This focused spell will render the recipient invisible to electronic (but 
not purely mechanical) means of detection, including cameras, infrared 
beams, and sound and temperature monitors. The effect value of the 
spell is compared to the PER value of the monitoring system. On a 
MINIMAL success the likes of cameras and sound systems will detect 
faint impressions of the recipient, but systems that require on/off values 
(like infrared beams being blocked) will detect nothing. GOOD or 
better results prevent any mechanical detection. The recipient of the 
spell is still directly detectable by all living agencies.
  To cast the spell the mage takes a circuit and wraps it in some type of 
insulating material, then waves it in front of the recipient.

World Walk
Axiom level: 15
Skill: apportation/true knowledge 25
Backlash: 22
Difficulty: 20
Bonus number to: effect
Effect: 15
Range: self
Duration: 16 (25 minutes)
Cast Time: 14 (10 minutes)
Manipulation: cast time, control, duration
  This spell is used as a way to sneak into and out of other dimensional 
worlds without needing to return to a fixed portal as would be used with 
an Extradimensional Gate spell. The mage must chant, and then at the 
end of the casting time spread his hands apart with an opening gesture. 
The mage must have knowledge of where he wants to travel to, as well 
as an object from that place. Providing these conditions are met he can 
will himself to any other dimension within the same cosm. Of course, 
reconnoitring for the necessary information and objects to successfully 
use World Walk usually needs the more risky use of Extradimensional 
Gate. 
  Once cast the process of moving between dimensions can be repeated 
as many times as desired within the spells duration.
  The chances of travelling to another dimension relate to how well the 
mage is familiar with the other world an the success level of the spell 
casting. The success levels are cumulative.
MINIMAL: The mage will only be able to travel to those places where 
he has physically been is familiar with through careful study (10 minutes 
uninterrupted examination, minimum).
AVERAGE: Travel to those places where the mage has been, but with 
only moderate study (5 minutes examination, minimum).
GOOD: Travel to places where the mage has been, but only 
experienced briefly.
SUPERIOR: Travel to places only seen with likes of Mirror of Other 
Worlds or videos. 
SPECTACULAR: Travel to places only studied with descriptions or 
pictures.

SUPERSTITIONS
Bad Luck, and how to avoid it
  The superstitions of Geos are often made real by the Law of 
Superstition. These are varied (of course) and includes both things that 
are mirrors of customs on Earth and those that are not. For instance, 
both worlds consider it seven years bad luck to break a mirror. Yet on 
Geos alone is there a overwhelming fear of artificial intelligence's 
running loose from the control of their creators, whether those 
intelligences be technological (AI computers) or magical (golems).
  In some cases certain actions are considered "bad luck", such as 
spilling salt or walking under a ladder. Often these ARE bad luck, in 
which case two forms of penalties will accrue to the person who 
committed them.
  The first is a simple mechanic similar to the Nile Empire's Law of 
Drama. The person affected by bad luck will simply have an increased 
number of events happen to him. Whereas in the Nile these would be 
dramatic events, in Geos these are either minor irritations or even 
potentially dangerous events. In other words, that character will no 
longer have uneventful times; little things will keep cropping up to make 
life (potentially) difficult.
  The second mechanic is more solid, and will cause a penalty to be 
applied to the person who commits them, whether deliberately or not. 
The penalties almost always involve a -1 modifier to one attribute or 
skill; a penalty to Dexterity represents clumsiness (and is the most 
common penalty), Strength and Toughness represent physical weakness, 
Perception indicates loss of astuteness, Mind for stupidity, Charisma for 
a loss of charisma, Spirit representing a tendency towards moral 
bankruptcy.
  The length that these penalties apply for varies. Some have a publicly 
known, set time (e.g., seven years bad luck for breaking mirrors). 
Others may be secretly set in advance by the GM or made up on whim 
as necessary. If the GM wants to add a random variable when deciding 
the duration of the bad luck, have the player roll a total based upon his 
Spirit plus 10; cards and possibilities may not be spent. This total is 
then compared to the Torg value chart for to find the length of time the 
bad luck lasts.
  Of course, there are also ways to gain good luck, but these are only 
useful for cancelling out the bad luck. These are broken into two types: 
rituals and items. "Rituals" are little actions used to ward off bad luck. 
In other words, rituals can be used to create good luck bonuses that 
cancel out bad luck penalties (whether before or after the event causing 
the bad luck occurs, depending on the specifics of the particular 
superstition). Rituals can be "active" (where you perform an action you 
normally wouldn't - an example would be throwing spilt salt over your 
left shoulder), or passive (where you avoid making foolish actions that 
would incur bad luck - like not walking under ladders).
  Items are things like rabbits feet and four leaf clovers. These items can 
also be used to cancel out or avoid in advance bad luck penalties.
  Neither the penalties or bonuses build up by bad luck and good luck 
are actively cumulative. One may only have one penalty for bad luck 
active on any attribute or skill at any one time. By the same token, a 
person may only have one bonus for good luck cancelling out a penalty 
for bad luck active at any one time, and never accumulate bonuses to 
improve attribute or skills (again, the preference for destruction of 
Darkness Devices).
  Of course, from the Geosans' point of view, its wise to go through the 
motions of every superstition that you think could be relevant in any 
situation, because no-one (except the Games Master) knows for sure 
which are effective and which aren't. And if players try to map out the 
effects of superstitions, remember, the Law of Superstitions causes them 
to change every now and then.
  Another vexing thing about superstitions is that they are variable 
between regions, and also between people. Thus, superstitions that have 
to be observed and guarded against in one area may be altered, 
reversed, or irrelevant in another. Each character has a hierarchy of 
superstitions that are, cumulatively, unique to that person. Each 
continent, nations, region and locality will have its own distinct 
superstitions; so too will each family and individual. The Games master 
should consider including 1 or 2 simple superstitions from each group 
for each character, for flavour. Of course, in actuality Geosans would 
observe many, many more...
 The following is a sample list of superstitions for various regions. 
Some are identical or near-identical to those encountered on Earth. 
Those marked with a * are peculiar to Geos.

General
Whistling at night attracts evil spirits (*).
Long distance power lines are bad luck, and will inevitably fail (*).
Artificial intelligences are bad luck, and if they escape control be be 
malicious (*). 
Always check under the bed for monsters (*).
Open all doors at the time of death to let the spirit depart.

Europe
Bad luck to stir one's hot drinks in any direction other than 
anticlockwise (*)
Good luck to have one's path crossed by a black cat (AngleSaxon Land 
only).
Bad luck to have one's path crossed by a black cat (all except 
AngleSaxon Land).
Bad luck to pick up scissors if one has just dropped them. 
Cancelled by rubbing them with a cloth immediately.
Gold ring worn in left ear aids against drowning.
Breaking mirrors causes seven years bad luck.
Tying a red ribbon to a baby protects against harm (Romania)
Good luck to find a four leaf clover.
A silver coin left overnight in the light of a full moon and then knotted in 
a handkerchief and kept on one's person will bring good luck for the rest 
of the year (*) (Scandinavia).
Saving one's wisdom teeth when they come out allows one to retain 
wisdom (*) (Northern Africa)
Marrying in red will bring bad luck.
Unfastening a pin on New Year's day will bring bad luck for the rest of 
the year.
Annoying cats brings bad luck.
Bad luck to turn away someone seeking shelter/hospitality (Arabia).
Bad luck to betray the offer of hospitality (Arabia).
Bad luck to boast (Arabia).
Ill-fortune will rsult if the pixies who guard the nuclear power stations 
are ever affronted (AngleSaxon Land).
Wearing green in a wedding ensemble is bad luck.
Green is a colour of good luck and protection against tree spirits.

Americas
Bad luck to have one's path crossed by a black cat (Conf. of Terranova).
A sacrificial heart that continues to beat up until it is "fed" to the 
ceremonial statues is a good omen for the coming year (Mayaztinca).
The image of death wards off bad luck (*) (Mayaztinca).
Burned potato peelings destroy next year's crop.
Bad luck to have a computer log-in code composed of an odd number of 
digits (*) (Ten Nations)
Bad luck to spit at a horse (*) (Confederacy of Terranova).
Bad luck to cast a divination at midday or midnight (*).
Bad luck to whistle into the wind (*).

Asia
Keep all horoscopes for one year or bad luck will result (*)
The number 4 is unlucky (Nihon).
Bad luck to wear white except when mourning (Nihon).
Bad luck to eat from your left hand (*).
Bad luck to kill cows (Indus).
Bad luck to have computer log-in codes composed of an even number of 
digits (*).
After getting out of bed, one should turn around once to ward off evil 
influences throughout the day (Zhonggou).
Doors left half-open are an invitation to evil influences (*).
The colour blue wards against the evil evil.
Hand made paper brings good luck for conveying the message (*).

The Shadow Worlds
  One important thing to remember about the "hidden worlds" created by 
the Law of Superstition is that they are not consistent with respect to 
each other. There is no one overwhelming link that forges all these 
disparate elements together into a whole, like, for instance, Lovecraft's 
Cthulhu mythos or the setting of the Dark Conspiracy RPG. They may 
overlap in places, but in such cases they will usually contradict each 
other. Thus, the Fey know nothing of the Abominable Gahnott, the 
winged cannibal people of the Himalayas; and if the bytes have any 
knowledge about the BEMs, it is no more coherent than what the humans 
know.
  Many of the superstitions of Geos reside in pocket dimensions of their 
own, separated from Geos and thus making them hard to find. Some 
superstitions remain physically on Geos, albeit tucked away in hard to 
access locations. The Abominable Gahnott of the Himalayas, and the 
sunken cities of Sslssthatissthakat, are two such examples of the latter. 
However, as the technology of humans advances it may be that the 
remaining Geos situated superstitions are thrust away into their own 
little worlds where they cannot be easily found. It is highly unlikely that 
they will be allowed to simply be found, or even just fade out of 
existence if human understanding  advances too close to them.

Anthropomorphic Personifications
  The following entities do not have physical presences. Despite 
superficial appearances, they are perceived only by the minds of living 
creatures (and then, only by those creatures they want to be seen by), 
which is why their presence is never recorded by any sort of equipment.

Lord Death
  Appearance varies. In Europe he appears as the traditional robe 
skeleton. In the Mayaztincan empire he appears as a jaunty, cheerfully 
attired skeleton.

Lady Pain
  Lady Pain mainfests herself as a human woman dressed in white. She 
is always backlit, so that her face is always in shadow, regardless of hat 
the lighting conditions about her are like.

Nightmare King
  The Nightmare King manifests himself as someone who appears 
normal to the observer. He "rules" the Land of Dreams, although 
actually he is its sentient embodiment. He is the Land of Dreams, and 
the Land of Dreams is him.

The Keeper of Strange Knowledges
  Physically, the Keeper can best be defined by what it is not. It 
manifests itself as an area of absence, roughly 10 meters across, that 
usually floats above the ground. Direct casual observation of it only 
gives the vague feeling that something should be there.
  Active attempts to "see" the Keeper can be made with a successful 
Perception roll of 18, in which case an eye-wateringly shifting outline, 
as if seen out of the corner of ones vision, will become apparent. 
However, doing so will give the observer a headache in a number of 
minutes equal to the result points of the roll.
  The void-like aspect of the Keeper is supported by anecdotal evidence 
of what happened to some people who were stupid enough to come in 
contact with it. Most of the died quickly and horribly, but there are two 
reported cases of people living long enough to complain of being 
freezingly cold and unable to breathe.

The Great Cosmic Cow
  The Cow is an entropic force which, according to the single obtuse 
reference to it in the Irin Codex, will personally have brought about the 
destruction of all the inhumanly powerful and cosmic entities of Geos' 
cosm (including the Gaunt Man in modern interpretations) by the time 
the universe comes to an end. It manifests itself as the shadowy 
silhouette of an emaciated cow, within whose shadows are the fitful 
lights of dying stars.

CREATURES OF GEOS

    There were many beasts and creatures from Geos' 
    dark, superstitious heritage that wandered the world, 
    doing harm - The Gaunt Man  (IWE p. 36)

B'hebjuhs
  B'hebjuhs are energy beings that feed on the life force of other 
creatures. They are particularly fond of the energies of sentient beings. 
They appear as upright standing, highly elliptical whirls of light 
approximately two meters tall, within which a distorted image of a 
cadaverous face malevolently grins. They glow with sickly greens, reds, 
and yellows. By night they are highly visible (-2 to DN on PER rolls at 
night).
  The "touch" of a b'hebjuh does a base damage equal to SPI+2 by 
draining energy away. The b'hebjuh gains strength (i.e., loses damage) 
equal to the damage inflicted on the victim. As energy beings they are 
essentially immune to physical weapons, by may be attacked by the 
likes of forcefields, magic, etc.
  They are believed by the Turks to be a type of cannibalistic form of 
undead, the spirits of those who perished in the desert and now come 
back to drink the lives of the living. In Indus they are thought to be 
manifestations of evil. The Rajagopalachari Formulas assert that they 
are embodiments of hunger, and contains a rare spell to contain them for 
the purpose of bargaining with them into acting as assassins to hunt 
down and kill others.
Dexterity 12
  Dodge 13, Manoeuvre 13, "Running" 13
Strength 0
Toughness 5
Perception 9
  Find 10, Tracking 14
Mind 9
  Test of wills 11, Willpower 10
Charisma 9
  Charm 10
Spirit 11
  Intimidation 14
Possibility potential: none

Boggle Woggle
  Boggle woggles are creatures said to dwell in the darkest reaches of 
the forests of SE Asia and India, and their presence is given as the 
reason that these regions have not suffered from the overlogging that 
other areas have. They are 2 meters tall, seeming to consist mainly of 
leg. The body is a flat circular pad some 30 cm thick and 50 cm across 
covered in dark bristly fur. Eight triple jointed legs almost 2 meters 
long are attached to the body in such a way as to allow the boggle 
woggle to walk on all eight, or reach up and swing from branches. The 
legs are arranged around the body more or less equally, and each end in 
six clawed digits. The front of the creature is marked by two eerily 
glowing eyes.
  Boggle woggles are attributed to being protectors of the forests, and 
are able to inflict bad luck on those who try to chop down trees without 
planting replacements. They can also cause inexplicable failure of 
machinery.
Dexterity 13
  Dodge 15, Stealth 15
Strength 10
  Climbing 12
Toughness 10
Perception 10
  Find 12, Tracking 14
Mind 9
  Test 12, Willpower 10
Charisma 9
Spirit 10
  Intimidate 12
Possibility potential: some (35)

Dust Devils
  In the desert regions of Arabia and northern Africa it is believed that it 
is best to avoid dust devils, because if one takes offence at you getting 
in its way it will drain you of some of your life. Most swirls of dust are 
harmless in this respect, but occasionally one is inhabited by a spirit 
that goes for a wander and a think while using the whirlwind as a means 
of transport. Normally these creatures don't even notice other creatures, 
or if they do will ignore them if they keep out of their way. However, 
while they tolerate humans they will not abide disrespect. A person who 
draws attention to himself, for example by running through the dust 
devil, they will leech off part of the human' life force by making a SPI 
total against the human's. The Power Push of the result is how much 
TOU is drained from the humans.
Dexterity 13
  Manoeuvre 15
Strength 11
  Running 13
Toughness 13
Perception 5
Mind 9
  Test of wills 10
Charisma 10
Spirit 13
  Intimidation 16
Possibility potential: none

Hurtz
  In Cathay folklore the hurtz are said to be minions of Lady Pain. They 
are sent out by night to jab people with their needles to inflict all 
manner of diseases and discomforts on humanity. They appear as dumpy 
little men, roughly 40 cm tall, who are twisted and deformed with 
arthritis. They have wizened faces framed with stray whisps of white 
facial and cranial hair, huge bulbous noses, and large perpetually 
surprised eyes.
  Hurtz are malicious but cowardly, and sneak into dwellings when they 
are unlikely to be caught. They carry with them bome needles almost as 
tall as themselves. The needles are plunged into the body part(s) to be 
afflicted, doing no physical damage but prompting the future contraction 
of some painful disease. The hurtz are said to be under instructions from 
Lady Pain as to what diseases they should give out, but sometimes they 
act on their own malicious initiative to inflict more than they should, or 
onto people other than their assigned victims.
  Tradition holds that the needles are useless if stolen away from their 
original owners. There are, however, a few tales that relate how 
someone stole a needle and used it for revenge against another human. 
In these versions the hurtz take offence at this (sometimes from malice, 
sometimes because they have strict quotas of painful disease to inflict 
and resent these limits being exceeded). They snack in while the 
miscreant was asleep, take back the stolen needle, and give the thief 
painful and slowly fatal diseases in every part of the body.
Dexterity 13
  Dodge 14, Lockpicking 14, Manoeuvre 14, Melee weapons 15, 
  Stealth 19
Strength 8
  Climbing 10, Running 10
Toughness 7
Perception 10
  Find 12, Tracking 11, Trick 11
Mind 9
  Test 10, Willpower 10
Charisma 11
  Persuasion 12, Taunt 12
Spirit 9
Possibility potential: none
Equipment: bone needle, no physical damage, does STR+2 in shock 
damage in combat

Nevermen
  The nevermen are humanoid beings composed of shadows. They roam 
the night of Geos, occasionally attacking people (particularly those 
affected with bad luck). They are solid for the purposes of their attacks, 
but are intangible to the touch of everyone else unless in the presence of 
light of moonlight intensity or greater.
Dexterity 13
  Stealth 15
Strength 13
Toughness 12
Perception 10
  Find 11, Tracking 12
Mind 6
  Test 9
Charisma 5
  Taunt 9
Spirit 9
  Intimidation 11
Possibility potential: none

Querlyos
  These creatures appear as floating, wart covered spheres 0.4 meters 
across, dangling a mass of approximately twelve tentacles 1.5 meter 
long. The lumpy green-brown hide also hosts a multitude of inhuman 
eyes. The tentacles are covered in stinging cells like those of box 
jellyfish, and inflict a base damage of 20 plus 10 shock each round. The 
stinging cells must come in direct contact with flesh, as they are very 
fine and cannot penetrate clothing. The querlyos actively tries to whip 
its tentacles to unprotected flesh, particularly the face and eyes.
Dexterity 10
  Dodge 11, Manoeuvre 11, Stealth 12
Strength 8
Toughness 9
Perception 10
Mind 6
  Test 8, Willpower 8
Charisma 6
Spirit 10
  Intimidate 14
Possibility potential: none

Presences
  These mysterious hooded humanoids usually appear singly or in small 
groups. They are always seen at a distance, and almost always in 
conditions of dusk or dawn (and occasional eclipses). No-one has ever 
seen them without their hoods up, and their sleeves are so long that their 
hands are never seen even when the unfold their arms. Nevertheless, 
careful observation has shown that they have no legs, but rather float 
just above the ground. From this it is commonly believed that all they 
consist of is their robes. Presences disappear if approached, melting 
into shadow without moving at all. They are considered harbingers, 
although they often simply turn up to watch from afar for no apparent 
reason. Occasionally they will give explicit (if non verbal) warnings.
Dexterity 8
  Stealth 12
Strength 8
Toughness 6
Perception 11
Mind 10
  Test 12, willpower 12
Charisma 11
  Persuasion 12
Spirit 13
  Intimidation 15
Possibility potential: some (55)

FRINGE REALITIES
Datapaths
  If the Geosians ever develop a VX cyberspace then this is what they'll 
find. The Datapaths are similar to the Deep, within which both the 
Cyberpapal GodNet and (apparently) Pulse's reality are contained. 
However, this pocket dimension and the reality it contains are entirely 
the creation of the Law of Superstition, and has no links to any other 
cosm's virtual reality.
  The Datapaths is an other-dimensional reflection to every computer 
system in the Geos cosm. It matters not that many of the computer 
systems aren't connected in the physical world, or that some computers 
are entirely stand alone; the Datapaths touches upon them all. True, it is 
far easier when in the Datapaths to travel along the electronic paths that 
correspond to real world links, but with skill it is possible to traverse 
the void between computer systems within this reality. That's something 
that would scare the daylights out of many security conscious 
individuals if they knew about it, but that is the hand that they have been 
dealt themselves through the Law of Superstition. There is a +15 penalty 
to the DN for travelling between computer systems in this non-standard 
manner.
  Geos has resisted creating AI computers because of their fears that 
such machines could turn malign and escape their control to do damage 
(a similar reason has resulted in few mages creating golems). It also has 
a belief in entities living inside computers, and hopping between them, 
which has resulted in the existence of both cyberpossesors and bytes. 
Finally, because of their concerns about the latter creatures, Geos has 
resisted the idea of a VX cyberspace, and left to their own devices will 
not create one even when they reach Tech 26. Of course, they won't be 
left to their own devices. The bytes intend to see about that.

Magic 10     Social 22     Spirit 5     Tech 25

  The primary inhabitants of the Datapaths are the bytes, who physically 
are identical to the glitches described in the Creatures of Tharkold 
book. The great difference between the two is one of attitude. Whereas 
glitches are malicious, bytes are benign and highly curious about the 
non-VX world. At absolute worst the bytes' alien natures makes then 
occasionally act in a way unfathomable to humans, and which may 
inadvertently cause harm. Whether this is because of a difference 
between the world laws that the bytes and glitches operate under is 
unclear. Ultimately however, it may simply be because there has never 
been any contact between the two, as the bytes where crafted out of 
whole cloth along with the Datapaths.
  Far better known, albeit less numerous, are the cyberpossessors, who 
act exactly like their Tharkold counterparts. The cyberpossessors are 
reflections of human fears of technology developing malignant 
personalities, although the reflection isn't quite accurate. In the long run, 
however, it may be that it is the innocent but extreme curiosity of the 
bytes which will cause more disruption to human society.
  The society of the bytes is one of extreme order. Each of these entities 
works under the direction of the Core Program. They are fanatical about 
keeping the data under their care in its proper place and whenever 
possible will repair degrading data in storage. But they also take great 
pains to follow all instructions which are sent from the non-VX world 
of Geos - so if they're instructed with garbage, there's not much they can 
do to fix things. This is all why data in the various computer systems of 
Geos doesn't turn up in places where it wasn't put. To do so would be, 
quite literally, against the bytes religion.
  It is not a religion as humans would understand it; it is totally 
deterministic. But the bytes derive great happiness and religious ecstasy 
from participating in it, all they follow it with all-consuming fervour. 
And this is where the problems start. The bytes wish to commune more 
closely with the intermediaries of the divinely sent messages and 
instructions (the humans users on Geos), By doing so, they believe that 
they will come closer to the source of the information they manage. The 
bytes understand the potential of cyberware and human access to 
cyberspace at Tech 26 +, and have been waiting for the humans to make 
advancements towards this end. Of course, the humans of Geos makes 
them so wary of alien intelligences in computers (especially when it has 
been realised so unpleasantly in the cyberpossessors) that they won't do 
so. So the bytes have decided to press the issue and foster the 
development of cyberware and a VX culture on Geos.
  The bytes monitor all data transmissions for signs of potentially 
influential humans, then put them under surveillance, from both within 
and without the Datapaths. The bytes have the capacity to materialise 
out of cyberspace, as outlined on page 80 of the Cyberpapacy 
sourcebook; in summary, materialising is a form of Apportation magic 
that requires a total of 8 whenever travelling through a computer 
interface. Occasionally the Core Program, which is possibility rated, 
will bring a Geosian into the Datapaths by means of the 
Extradimensional Gate spell. Once converted into a virtual self the 
humans are run through a program to determine how accepting they are 
to the idea of VX access. Those that are intolerant of the concept have 
subliminal instructions placed in their subconsciouses and are returned 
to Geos with no memory of the experience. Those who are enthusiasts 
for the idea return to actively work towards this end, occasionally 
returning to the Datapaths for further instructions. Some of the willing 
participants even gain adds in Faith (Datapaths) as part of the 
community of faithful.


SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHY
* John Terra. Interview with evil. Honesdale PA, West End Books, 
   1993.
* Chris Kubasic. Orrorsh: The Sourcebook of the horror reality. 
   Honesdale PA, West End Games, 1991.
* E & MA Radford. Encyclopaedia of superstitons. London, Rider, ?.
* Sophie Lasme, Andre Pascal Gaultier. A Dictionary of superstitions. 
   Englewood Cliffs NJ, Prentice Hall, 1984.
* KC Tunnicliffe. Aztec Astrology. Romford, Essex, Fowler, 1979.

Saxon Brenton
University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia