The World of Numenéra: The Ninth World
Imagine a medieval world, one with only a thousand years of recorded history, yet this world is… not new. Raised among the still-present ruins of fantastically advanced previous worlds, worlds that had Numenéra, impossible things, things not even of this world, not of this reality, and that this is the ninth such world, built upon ruins of the ruins of the ruins… of inconceivable worlds past.
“Set a billion years in Earth’s future, Numenéra allows players take the roles of explorers and adventurers, uncovering the mysteries of long-vanished prior worlds.” – Ashes of the Sea
Index
10 Differences with a Fantasy Setting
The Ninth World is like a medieval magical setting but not quite:
- Numenéra - Numenéra are the “sufficiently advanced technologies” leftover from the previous eras of the Ninth World. Numenéra are like ‘magic’ in a fantasy setting. It is a global term for items, effects and abilities that are potentially useful.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law
- Automatons and Visitors - The Ninth World has living remnants from previous worlds: sentient androids and beings from other worlds.
- Abhumans - Mutated beyond their humanity, abhumans are their own subspecies and a danger to the other inhabitants of the Ninth World. Abhumans are like the goblinoids of a fantasy medieval setting.
- Dangerous World - The Ninth World is more dangerous than a medieval world; people live in protected enclaves, rather than by their farms, and avoid travel at night.
- Gender and Sex - Gender is not rigid, maybe because of Visitor’s strange genders, or Automaton’s genderless existence or maybe because numenéra that can change your gender exist, but gender roles are not like the medieval world. Sex is not Taboo either.
- Religion - Religion is not unified, and the Amber Papacy, the only widespread thing approximating a religion, is more interested in Numenera and its secrets than in converting people.
- Nanites and Healing - Nanites, microscopic machines, are everywhere in the Ninth World. Due to their presence, people naturally slowly heal from injury and sickness. Pestilence is unknown, except where the effects of numenera are involved.
- Iron Wind - Not all nanites are benevolent. Some have gone insane and circle the world in a destructive, mad cloud.
- Money - Money is in shins. Gold, jewels are pretty but not inherently valuable (or even rare).
- Science - The Ninth World is more scientifically advanced than the medieval world, but knowledge is not distributed. Almost everybody, however, knows the solar system due to the many orreries left over from previous worlds (and the fact that parts of the Moon periodically wink out of existence).
The Wandering Walk
Location
The Steadfast
The Steadfast is a collection of Nine warring kingdoms. Its border to the north is the Tithe river that leads to the cloud-crystal sky-fields. To the south there is the frozen south and the frozen dessert beyond the Sadara river. The sea lies to the east and the Black Riage Mountains to the west and form the other boundaries of the Steadfast.
“Many places offer sanctuary in the Ninth World. That’s why so many people never travel far.” – Ninth World Bestiary 2
The Outlands
The lands to the north and west of Steadfast are collectively called the Outlands. Another people the Gaians are supposed to inhabit the north of the Outlands, but little is known about them in Steadfast.
The Nine Kingdoms of Steadfast
As befits a feudal society, power in Steadfast is tied to the land. Land controls the production of food and resources and thus money as well. However, all-out war or land grabs are rare in Steadfast. The Amber papacy actively works to avoid war; and the resources needed to wage all-out war, would leave any kingdom involved vulnerable to the rest. Skirmishes, where one group of warriors fight to reduce the forces of the other, are, however, common along the borders. Since only about 10% of the population are warriors, aristocrats or clergy, the vast majority of the population aren’t too concerned with skirmishes as they rarely touch them. Far more worrisome to a normal steadfast resident are the wilds. Outside the settlements and the fields attached to them, there are large areas of wilderness, where numenéra, treasure and the truly weird can be found. Most residents live in fear of these areas and those that don’t, are, at the very least, weary of them.
The Feel of the Nine Kingdoms
Listings of the Kingdoms include information that a person with knowledge of the land would have, or at least have and idea. Not everyone would have all the information, but the information isn’t secret to the people of that Kingdom. However, someone who isn’t from that land, or had not visited, would not know it.
Navarene
1) Navarene: (A Quasi-Medival Victorian England)
Exports: Wood, paper and food.
Imports: Numenera (they’re rare in Navarene)
Known for: Rich wood merchants and red wood. Proper Nobles. A long-living and strict but fair queen.
Navarene is a powerhouse wood producer. The Westwood is both a source of wealth, mystery and danger for the country. In addition to that, Navarene is a major agricultural exporter and probably the current bread-basket of Steadfast. The Queen is considered fair (if a bit paranoid sometimes) so this is the kingdom where there is least likely to be undue trouble with the law. Corruption in government is unheard of here. Steadfast’s main paper production also happens here. The Amber Monolith is located here as well. The reason that the rest of Steadfast makes fun of Navarene merchants is not because they’re the richest but because the government is so stable, they are the most comfortable and worry-free. Nobles in Navarene seem to be always concerned with propriety and proper behavior. How the Queen regards them is of extreme importance to nobles and lately, rich merchants as well.
Secret: The reason Navarene is a powerhouse producer is “industrial” automation using old-machines.
Government: Stable Feudal Monarchy with Landed Gentry
“Rich like a Navarene merchant.” – old saying, meaning content, but often used sarcastically to mean the exact opposite: someone with no money and lots of troubles.
Ghan
2) Ghan: (Switzerland)
Exports: Aneen (bipedal camels) as pack-animals, Gallen hides (cattle hides), some Azure Steel, and Ships.
Trades: Spices (clandestinely from the out-lands of the North) and Wool.
Known for: Merchant fleet (sea trade), and free citizens.
Ghan is a peninsula composed of herders, sea-fearers and farmers, commonly called highlanders, coasters and lowlanders. It’s not very populated and government is fairly flat. It’s also mostly self-sufficient; the continental areas are agricultural and wood producers, and that’s where the majority of the population lives. Its stance on peace and trade, and its large population of freemen make Ghan the sort of neutral land of Steadfast. The center of the peninsula has a strange effect where the oxygen is low as if it were in high altitude. The Ghanans call it the “highlands.” Because of the low oxygen and the monoliths that float above and sometimes slowly ram into any unduly tall buildings, it is the perfect grazing lands for Aneen. The Ghan fleet is armored and typically escorts other merchant ships or carries commissioned runs for other kingdoms.
Secret: The Angular Knights have their fortress here. Ghan trades with the Gaians to the north of the Myst sea, which they have found a way to navigate.
Government: Stable Monarchy with almost no gentry.
“Ghan has the fleet, but Draolis owns the merchant ships.” - Common Draolis Merchant saying.
Draolis
3) Draolis: (Magical Venice)
Imports: float-stones, foodstuff
Exports: Cattle (Kordech shiul), luxury goods like Wind-riders gliders
Trades: luxury goods, numenera, scholars
Known for: Qi, the Amber Pope’s residence, luxury goods, university.
If Naveren’s rich are concerned with propriety and never out-shinning their queen, Draolis is all about showing off your wealth. Separated from its rival Navarene by the dangerous wilderness, called the Dark Hills, Draolis is a country where merchants rule. It is the biggest kingdom in terms of population, and its capital Qi: the biggest city in Steadfast. Qi has a population of half a million, is the residence of the Amber Pope, location of the most famous University, and is known for its air balloons that move the populace like gondolas in the air from one area to the next. These air balloons and dirigibles have a very short range, but are adequate for transporting people and goods within the city. The Amber Pope lives in the Durkhal complex, which is like a city of its own inside of Qi. The countryside is very much agricultural except the area of Kordech, south of the Dark Hills, which has a large cattle processing complex.
Secret: The Amber Papacy works to prevent Draolis from openly warring with Navarene.
Government: Plutocracy (ruled by rich merchants)
“Half of Qi is the sky.” – A common Draolis saying, Numenera Discovery (p. 144)
Thaemor
4) Thaemor: (formerly Thaemoor, an unhistorical Moorish Kingdom)
Exports: Next to nothing. Some metals and few Numenera.
Imports: Very little.
Known for: A mad tyrant king who talks to himself. The melancholy kingdom. The city of needles, and the best swamp chicken stew in Steadfast.
Once a coveted piece of land between three neighboring kingdoms, now it is a sad yet independent kingdom. Thaemor was an undesirable swampy land with few isolated inhabitants that suddenly drained into fertile land a couple of hundred years ago. The kingdom that rose from this good fortune had to constantly defend itself from the bigger kingdoms around it. It did so, but at great cost. In the process, Thaemor became more isolated, the government unreliable, and while the land is fertile, the water clear, the organization is poor, the taxes high and the ruler unhinged. Power is distributed to the gentry who do the best they can in the strange situation they find themselves in. Numenera are more common here for some reason, as are the “glimmers” people get. Thaemorians are a dour sort, who hate talks about things getting better. An independent people that suddenly went from good to bad to worse, they are somewhat skeptical about good things. Thaemor has a unique middle-eastern flavor that originates from its pre-drainage days.
Secret: The Glimmering Valley is located here but, aside from its inhabitants, it’s unknown. Thaemor, formerly Thae moor, was a marsh land that suddenly drained out by raising itself about 300 years ago. Nobody knows what caused the land to rise.
Government: Unstable Tyranny with Gentry. Taxes are high.
“If it is not true; it is very well invented.” - Malevichian Saying
Malevich
5) Malevich: (Transylvania)
Exports: Numenera (which are found in the chasm) and strange oddities from Yerth.
Imports: Foodstuff and anything else it can.
Known for: Towns that are closed to all outsiders, armored carriages, abhumans, bandits, tarrota, and the Voil chasm.
Bordered to the south by the Voil Chasm (or the Earthwound as some call it) and to the north by the Thaermor, Malevich was a backwaters land mired in internal civil wars and dreams of conquest. Once a rich land, it is now in ruins. The wealth of the place is concentrated around the few aristocrats and everyone else lives in dire poverty. The aristocrats here can be quite depraved and the populace poor and superstitious.
Secret: Yerth has opened a portal to another dimension.
Government: Ostensibly a Monarchy, but in reality it’s more of a collection of independent vassal states.
“Appetite comes with food.” - Old Pytharon saying
Pytharon Empire
6) Pytharon Empire: (Russia, Parthian Empire)
Exports: Grains (wheat and corn), Marble, Alcohol
Imports: Azure Steel, Spices, Wood, Paper
Known for: Long winters and hardy people, the best stone-workers in Steadfast, and using abhuman (jarlers) as slaves.
The South of Steadfast was the Pytharon Empire, until its collapse a hundred years or so ago. The Empire covered all lands south of Draolis and Malevich, including the now kingdoms and former provinces of Milave, Iscobal, and Ancuan. Back then the Empire’s rolling fields of wheat and corn were the breadbasket of Steadfast, but with success came complacency, and attracted continual raids from the south. Even the abhuman slaves escaped and became roving bands plundering what and where they could. Now the Empire is slowly regaining its footing while it spends a lot of effort securing its southern border from raiders and abhumans attacks from the frozen desert.
Secret: The Empire controls the single trade route to the lands beyond the Black Riage that isn’t a mountain pass.
Government: Monarchy (formerly empire with provinces and governors)
“Those not rich, are poor.” – Old Aian saying (city in Milave)
Milave
7) Milave: (Medieval Italian Principalities)
Exports: Ganch (weed), float-stones, assorted foodstuff and art.
Known for: Diverse City States, the arts, Aian “city of merchants”, and Family mansions.
Landlocked, squeezed between the southern desert, Ancuan and the Pytharon Empire, Milave is an unstable land. Milave is a rich, beautiful and productive land with natural resources like float-stones that generate huge profits. Most of the people of Milave are farmers. Ostensibly ruled by a council, it is really a collection of highly independent city states, each with their own government. This is a land of extremes, there is no kingdom-wide security, no kingdom-wide unity and the cities run the gamut from the merchant-ruled Aian, where money is king, to the cosmopolitan Orrila. It is common for these city-states to sponsor artists as a way to give themselves pride and legitimacy, though beneath the surface of normalcy, the kingdom is on the verge of tearing itself apart as various factions eye each other and make the council ineffective.
Secret: The Amber Pope is possibly supporting noble warlord Tarvesh as a leader to take over the kingdom.
Government: Varies, from city states run by princes or nobles to even a republic or two.
How is Aian different from Qi?
In Qi, a city of learning, a city of government, wealth is flaunted, put on display, sometimes in gaudy fashion. Even servants of rich people in Qi dress fashionably, the location of your house in the city is very important, the closer to the Amber Pope and his machine security the more safe and more expensive. In Aian, the city of merchants, having money to make big deals is considered most important. People dress well, but fashion is not as important. Unlike most of the South of Steadfast, people in Aian don’t patronize high art, preferring more popular fare. Education is not important, negotiating and making money is. Your skills are considered important. The biggest display of wealth in Aian is needing and having your own security force, rather than just a few bodyguards. Because Aian doesn’t have a center like Qi does, where you live in Aian is secondary to how big your place is. Aian is also positively small (30k residents) compared to Qi (500k residents).
Ancuan
8) Ancuan: (Pirates and Ruins)
Exports: Yellow wool, Arron “sugar”, salt and Numenera (from Red Fleet’s explorations and ruins)
Imports: Red Wood (for masts), Paper, Dynafel Cotton, Processed Metals
Known for: Raster Riders, pirates, ruins, sea trade, amber gleaners and the red fleet.
Ancuan people have been independent and self-reliant since they were the farthest province of the Pytharon Empire. Ancuan is now a kingdom, but like Ghan, it is made up of mostly free-people and has a fairly flat government structure. Unlike Ghan, where the king is well known, and respected, in Ancuan the king is mostly ignored and left to his own devises. Ancuan is a land built on ruins and the countryside abounds with it. Exploration is quite common here and that curiosity also is present in the red fleet, a group of sea explorers. But for all its salt mines, ruin-laden fields, it is the sea that dominates Ancuan: all major cities have ports. The land of Ancuan has significant riches but also harbors significant dangers which keep it a rather simple kingdom that feels very far away from any authority. The Amber Gleaners’ lodge-house, the Amber lodge, is located here, in the city of Glavis.
Secret: There is a town with a hidden side, a hidden Rarrow.
Government: Weak Monarchy.
“Iscobal is a land tearing itself apart from within.” – Numenera Discovery (p. 153).
Iscobal
9) Iscobal: (Fantasy France)
Exports: Dynafel Cotton, Orange Billiam fruit, pressed-flowers (for cooking), Wild Game
Imports: Numenera (especially those that have to do with dreams)
Known for: Palace intrigue, arts, theater, wild game and beautiful nature.
Laying south of Draolis, Iscobal is a land of great natural beauty, with large beautiful wilderness full of game. It is known for its love of the arts. Mulen, its biggest city, even has a grand theater. Unfortunately, Iscobal’s monarchy is in turmoil with competing nobles and palace intrigue and even assassinations attempts on the King, which leaves Iscobal mired in its own affairs.
Secret: The old queen funded research in the Dreaming Reliquary in the city of Dynafel on how to make dreams a reality.
Government: Monarchy with Gentry.
Borders:
- Matheunis, the Cold Desert
What people know: An inhospitable frozen desert that ends in an impassible barrier of ice. - Cloudcrystal Skyfields
What people know: A crystal strewn desert, where nothing grows, and crystals float above. Gaians are said to live beyond that in the out-lands.
Languages
True-lang, or true language, or the language of truth, is the common tongue in the Steadfast. The Amber Papacy teaches it for free throughout Steadfast with its missionaries and monasteries. It has a simple syllabary and it’s written phonetically (unlike its ancient form). The written-form has been simplified for easy teaching, and it takes about a year to learn if you already speak it. The Amber Bible is written in an ancient version of this language which is significantly harder to read and write. Contracts and books are still written in this ancient version of the language. The ability to read simple true-lang is over 90% of the population in cities, writing slightly less so, and only a select few can read or write the ancient form.
Shin-talk, is older than true-lang. It’s a merchant talk, it has few words and involves some hand signals. Almost everybody knows how to count in shin-talk, and children play a game similar to rock-paper-scissor all over, in shin-talk. Shin-talk has no written-form. Shin-talk is widespread, even outside of Steadfast, in the Outlands and maybe even Beyond.
Economy and Coins
Coins (Shins)
Coinage is called ‘shins’ everywhere in Steadfast. Most of the economy works on barter. Typically people in a town (or aldeia) will use a split stick to keep track of loans or debts and of taxes. These can be paid with produce instead of coinage. Merchants, guards, mercenaries and aristocrats deal in shins.
Shins are made of a strange material called iotium: 100 shins can usually be transformed into 1 gram of iotium. Shins come in different shapes, some have stamped visages from one of the nine kingdoms, but most don’t. It’s not clear what iotium is, but it’s necessary for crafting or repairing numenéra. Iotium is inert in its normal form. Iotium can also be found in its non-inert form and then it is called IoTum (IoTi plural) and it’s very valuable for crafting Numenéra, but also very dangerous.
Strangely, there is no fractional currency: it’s either a shin or credit.
Shins are not particularly heavy (weighting only a gram or two) so people can easily carry large amounts as well. Therefore, there are no large denominations of shins.
“Shine” – means good in Steadfast. (p. 410)
Table of common jobs and their pay.
| Job | Shins |
|---|---|
| guard (medium city) | 5 shins/day |
| guard (small city) | 3 shins/day |
| guard (large city) | 8 shins/day |
| guard (capital city) | 10 shins/day |
| captain gate guard | 2x base pay |
| mercenary | 10 shins/day |
| soldier | 3 shins/day (~1K shins/year) |
| historical roman soldier | ~900 sesterces/year |
| caravan guard (road day trip) | 5 shins/day + food |
| caravan guard (dangerous trip multiple days) | 10 shins/day + food |
| captain caravan guard | 3x base pay + food |
| estate bodyguard | 2 shins/day + food + lodging |
| escort bodyguard | 12 shins/shift (half-day) |
| day labor agricultural | 1 shin/day + food (credit) |
| day labor building (city) | 1 shin/day (cash) |
| carpenter/mason/journeyman | 3 shin/day |
| master carpenter/mason/craft-person | 6 shin/day |
| Food | Shins |
|---|---|
| 1 small swamp-chicken (egg-laying) | 1 shin |
| 1 medium fungi-boar on a pike | 20 shin |
| 1 large blue-rat cooked with bread | 1/2 shin |
| Full meal with small bottle of Wine | 1 shin |
“Mineral rarity is not an issue in the Ninth World, so gems and jewels are not intrinsically valuable.” – Numenara Discovery (p. 93)
Guilds
Guilds control the trades in pretty much all cities in Steadfast. There is an “adventuring” guild in some cities as well that will keep track of requests and runs a small barracks for 10% of the take from their posted missions.
In some cities, Guilds are quite powerful politically and rival rich merchants in power, in other they’re much weaker. Guilds are local and while there is some communication between them (particularly in the North of Steadfast) their strength and organization varies from city to city. Guilds do not regulate healers, scribes or wrights.
To start in a guild you become an apprentice to a master who teaches you (and uses you as essentially slave labor) then you get the rank of journeyman (or journey-woman) which lets you work for anyone anywhere the guild is recognized and then after some years and producing a recognized masterpiece (and a donation to the guild) you move to the rank of master and can have apprentices of your own.
“Travel is the true test of temerity…“ - Mercer Guild Saying
Known guilds:
Shipbuilders, Wainwrights (wheel and carriage makers), Cobblers (shoe makers), Coopers (barrel makers), Carpenters, Masons, Tailors, Smiths, Bricklayers, Borderer (embroider), Soap-makers, Tanners, Bakers, Saddle-makers, Butchers, Mercers (General Traders, a rather risky trade), Adventures/Delvers, Upholsters, Thatchers (roof makers), and Cheese makers.
“… and true travel translates to tremoundous profits.” - Mercer Guild Saying
Guilds that don’t exist:
Chandlers (candle makers, because there are numenera that produce light rather commonly), Jewelers (jewels aren’t particularly valuable in Steadfast, people work them but there is no guild), Farriers (horse shoe makers, there are no horses), Money-changers (shins don’t usually need to be changed), Cutlers (Knife maker and sharpener, exist but aren’t part of a guild.)
Healers (a.k.a. Chiurgeons):
Healers are bio-mechanical experts. They’re a cross of a Herbal medicine (focused on the proper plants and herbs to eat), a mechanic and a cybernetic doctor. They know how to activate the nanites for healing and how to set and fix bones. Healers have ranks and specialties, but they don’t seem to be regulated by a normal guild.
Wrights (Numenéra crafters):
In big cities you can find a wright or two, who specializes in fixing or creating Numénera. Crafting Numenera is exceedingly expensive so professional full-time wrights only exist in places where there is a lot of trade and thus a lot of shins. Because of the ubiquity of Numenéra even small aldeia have someone who has a “knack” with Numenéra even if they aren’t a proper professional wright.
Artists:
Some artists have informal guilds, particularly in the south of Steadfast.
Scriveners (Scribes):
Scriveners are controlled exclusively by the Aeon priests.
Adventuring Guilds:
Adventuring Guilds, typically called Delving Guilds, are located in many cities throughout Steadfast. The guilds are typically founded by former adventures (some of the few that survive to old age) when they could not adventure anymore. The guilds provide temporary housing in the form of barracks (usually three days), storage and other services in exchange for a part (usually 10-15%) of the takings or findings. Adventuring Guilds also function as proto-banks allowing the deposit of shins in one guild-house and the withdrawal in another for a fee. They also keep a board or ledger of numenéra-rich and dangerous sites where delving might be done, in addition to the occasional request from people of the area. In order to use their services, you must be a member in good standing (basically one not suspected of cheating the guild). Adventuring guilds in large cities may run their own Ale-houses adjacent. The Amber Gleaners (p. 245 Numenera Destiny) is the most famous Adventuring Guild and is located on Ancuan.
Inns and places to sleep
There are typically two types of places to stay in a town: Ale-houses and Inns. Inns are nice places to stay with separate rooms and even occasionally servants, they are reserved for rich merchants, government officials, and aristocrats. Inns don’t have a kitchen for guests and don’t serve food. Ale-houses are sort of the opposite, they serve food, but mostly alcohol, and have a place for drunks or poor travelers to “crash” upstairs. They don’t usually have beds, and you sort of have to watch your belongings while you sleep. In cities, adventuring guilds (also called Delver’s guilds) have similar places to “crash” (and sometimes even barracks for members) but they do hold possessions for members so you don’t have to worry about them walking away while you sleep. People in towns commonly rent rooms (and provide board) to journeymen and women who travel, typically for a season, but those usually require a letter of presentation. Merchants do the same for other merchants of the guild, allowing them to stay in their house, usually for free. The very poor or the very desperate sleep on the street.
Unlike in the medieval world there are no common monasteries that offer hospitality.
Society and Culture
Gender
Gender is not rigid in the Ninth World. Visitors have strange genders, Automatons may be genderless, and numenera that alter gender exist. Couples of all kinds are not uncommon in the Ninth World and genders are generally considered equal throughout.
Games
The game of “ball” is played throughout Steadfast. It is similar to soccer, except it’s played by small and large groups alike (up to 300 people at once) and fighting, tripping, and pushing opponents seems to be permitted in most versions. Trades commonly play against each other in teams.
In Malevich, they play a card “game” called Tarrota; and it’s said those with the glimmer can predict the future with them. A simplified version of the game is played throughout Steadfast as well.
Four Dimensions is a game that is a strange mix of mahjong, chess and go. It is played with magnetic tiles and metal figurines. Each tile is held like in mahjong, secret to other player, then played as a tile on the board with or without a figurine on top. The tiles being magnetic they can be placed vertical to the game board and can end up forming a cube with two sides open. On your turn you either place a tile or move one of your figurines among the already placed tiles. The game is viscerally hard and a board with pieces is so expensive it’s essentially an artifact. Most people play the simplified version with non-magnetic tiles and in only one dimension.
Betting happens in all games throughout Steadfast, though most commonly in animal races or competitions. In towns and aldeia betting is a low key affair usually not involving shins, but other things like dares and chores. If you want real action, you need to go to the large cities.
Working the fields
While some kingdoms (notably Navarene) have the occasional independent single houses in the country side, most aldeia and towns live together in an enclosed or fenced area, and travel and work their fields during the day. Because of this, cities and towns have high population density. Shepherds, who travel with their flocks and therefore live outside, are in danger most of their lives. Steadfast is considerably more dangerous than medieval Europe was, and especially so at night.
Clothing
Expensive colors: Indigo, Gold-thread (not cause gold is rare, but because threading it is time consuming) and brilliant green. Colors that are common: dull yellow (from wool), brown, white, and dull green. All other colors including black, pink (quite in fashion in some places) and purple are somewhere in the middle. Colors that would have been expensive or impossible in the middle ages: like cyan, and magenta, can be found in strange plants or rubbed off old machines. For example, purple can be distilled from some mushrooms that grow underground.
Food
Food in Steadfast is a decidedly local affair, though there are some staples consumed widely. Cheese and bread are common throughout steadfast and blue-rat on a pike is a favorite festival food all around, especially the ones with a crispy tail.
Religion
Religion, like food, is a local affair, though there is a widespread Church-like organization in Steadfast in the form of the Amber Papacy, they operate mostly secularly. The Amber Papacy, also called The Order of Truth, and their Aeon Priests are the most trusted experts on numenéra. Additionally, the Amber Papacy promotes literacy and controls all scribes (used for almost all written contracts) which give it a lot of knowledge and therefore power.
“May the spirits of the ancients bless this endeavor.” – Aeon Priest blessing.
Music
Music in Steadfast sounds unlike medieval music. The abundance of metals and numenera that record sound and play it back or beat a rhythm has lead to a music that is both familiar and strange, with strong emphasis on voice and melody and strange with instruments known only to the Ninth World.
Science
Science is way more advanced in Steadfast than it ever was in the medieval world. Due to the existence of numenera and tools that make it easier to explore the world, many things are known in Steadfast. However, this doesn’t mean the knowledge is widespread. So while at Qi University germ theory is understood and even the difference between bacteria and viruses common-place, this might not be the case in a remote Malevich town, where evil-spirits are to blame for disease. The one exception is the heliocentric theory of the universe, as orrery are found in so many places in Steadfast, pretty much everyone knows the world is round, circles around the Sun and the moon around the Earth.
“Night sight, Moon sight, Stripe tonight, Night sight?” ~children’s rhyme, from Explorer’s Keys, p. 12.
Trade Routes
The fastest and safest trade is via rivers, so the biggest towns and cities lie close to rivers, especially deep navigable rivers. Mercers (traders) maintain trade routes between all the kingdom and major cities in Steadfast and some even beyond. Because travel is expensive and dangerous, this trade takes place in organized caravans, that hire protection for the trip. Unless it’s a day trip, traders do not set out on their own.
The ‘Weird’ and Normalcy
“If everything is weird, nothing is weird: It’s normal.”
How to approach the weird. I don’t like how the 9th World setting is presented where the weird is presented as normal yet it somehow need to be weird too. So let’s introduce the strange but familiar concept and the Lovecraftian weird.
The world of the Ninth world is a mostly medieval world, but one where “magic” (a.k.a. Numenéra) is common place. However, magic is very dangerous. To abuse it is to court disaster. So everybody is somewhat skeptical about it.
Strange but familiar
Strange but familiar things are things that are analogues to today’s world but slightly different. So fungi-boars instead of pigs for example, but they are exactly like pigs with a slight twist but otherwise the same.
| Animals in Steadfast | Notes | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Gallen | Herbivores raised for meat and milk | Cattle |
| Shiul (p. 147) | Massive Four-Horned creatures | Yaks |
| Aneen (p. 225) | Pack animals (~100-1000 shins ea.) | Bipedal Camels |
| Xi-drakes (p. 259) | Ridable Flying dragons | Flying dragons or pterodactyl |
| Seskii (p. 252) | Hell hounds that can be trained | Wild Hounds |
| Raster (p. 248) | Ridable bio-mechanical cross between a bat and a flying squirrel. | Giant Bat crossed with Flying Squirrel (!) |
| Brehm (p. 158) | Ridable fast lizards not suitable for pack transport. | Fast Horse-like Velociraptors |
| Yol (p. 160) | short, longhaired creatures known for yellow wool | Yellow Sheep |
| Fungi-boar (invented) | It’s a lizard with tentacles near it’s mouth. Omnivore. (~30 shins ea.) | Boar/Pig |
| Swamp-chicken (invented) | Like a cross between a flamingo and a chicken. Lays eggs. | Chicken |
| Blue-rat (invented) | Exactly what you think it is, but delicious. | Kabob |
| Shaggy Goats (p. 150ish) | Goats | |
| Black Vesa Birds (p. 140) | Crows?? | |
| Espron (p. 179) | Ridable Antelopes with 4 horns and 2 sets of ears. | Rideable Reindeer |
| Terror Bird (p. 156, Bestiary p. 124) | Prehistoric Murder Chocobo | |
| Slicer Beetle (p. 156, Bestiary p. 117) |
| Plants in Steadfast | Notes |
|---|---|
| Ganch (weed) | Weed |
| Cotton, Beans, Corn | - |
| Orange Billam fuit | Oranges |
| Arror (p. 160) | Sweet grain (like Jaggery Sugar) |
Materials:
Plastic, Metal and synthetic fibers are very common in the 9th world, but unlike our world these materials aren’t exactly industrially made. There are multiple plants that produce synthetic and colorful fibers and colors. Synth-steel can be found in the ruins of old tech.
Strange to us but familiar to them
Old-Machines:
Old-Machines are considered suspicious, dangerous and potentially demonic. ‘Numenera’ is the term Aeon Priest use for these too, but in common parlance Numenera is a useful thing, that’s potentially dangerous, while an old-machine is something dangerous, that’s potentially useful. Old-Machines are treated as if they were sentient or partially sentient and possibly mad.
Numenera:
Numenera are fascinating, and while some people may be suspicious of them, most of Steadfast society has adapted and accepted their existence. When you “mesh your skin with a machine”, these is always called numenera, never called a machine.
Automatons:
Synthetic beings are fairly common in the 9th world. Like people, some are good, some are evil, some benign, some dangerous. They are part of the landscape for residents of the 9th world.
Self-healing:
People heal on their own. Unlike our world, most people have this “energy” within them (it actually glows under certain conditions when you heal). These are the nanites rebuilding the body. When the “fire” leaves the body, the body doesn’t heal well and death is usually imminent. However, self-healing is slow, sometimes too slow to save the person, therefore healers abound in towns.
Disease:
While disease is as common as in our world, the presence of the nanites makes it seem completely different. People tend to recover quickly from sickness, unless it’s a “magical” disease. So the normal worries of medieval society around miasma and other explanations for germs don’t really exist in the 9th world. If you catch something and don’t heal, people know numenera/magic is involved. While famine can decimate the population, widespread plagues aren’t known.
Aldeia and Towns:
Unlike the medieval world, most people live inside towns or aldeia and go out to work on the fields during the day (except for market day). (The opposite of real medieval towns.) Typical family home in a town has two floors: a ground floor and a top floor. The top floor is where the family lives in one room and the first floor is for the animals. In an aldiea a typical family home is a single room wooden shack where the livestock and humans all live together. Towns and aldeia are typically ruled by elected councils who collect taxes and are responsible to pay a portion to the regent or noble. In addition to towns, cities and lonely single family homes, there is another common residence in Steadfast, particularly in Milave: the family mansions. These are walled-off complexes of buildings with an internal garden that house the whole family of a rich merchant or a noble and their retinues. They are surrounded by the family’s fields, which are typically worked on by slaves. Family mansions are more common in the south than in the north of Steadfast.
Taxes in Steadfast are typically called tribute and fees are typically called skott. Skott-free, meaning without fee, is also commonly used.
Slums:
Big cities tend to have slums or informal housing built against the wall of the city on the outside or even inside the city walls if there is not enough population. Towns sometimes have stink-alleys where the poorest people live; they smell how they sound and are cleared periodically with people left outside of the town in the morning and not let back in.
Siesta:
Because the day is longer, it is customary in all of Steadfast to take a nap midday, after lunch. Aeon Priests encourage this as they surmise the data-sphere is most active midday as it is solar-powered. Additionally, peasants and agricultural workers don’t tend to sleep through the whole night. People in small towns normally go to bed when the sun sets, then wake up in the middle of the night and “talk” or set a small fire before going back to bed and waking up before the sun comes up to go work the fields.
The Weird
“The concept of a demon—a spiritually evil entity—is a label for threats that can’t be understood.” – Ninth World Bestiary 2
| Fantasy monster | Abhuman | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lizard-folk | Chirog, p. 229 | Red Lizard-folk (Common in Ancuan) |
| Orcs? | Margr, p. 240 | Goat-faced Humanoids |
| Vulture birds (dark crystal) | Murden, p. 243 | “Mud-birds” Bird-faced Humanoids |
| — | Sathosh, p. 251 | Single-Tentacle-Faced Humanoids |
| Koatoah? Bullywugs? | Yovok, p. 261 | Toad-face Humanoids |
| Beastmen | Grush (Bestiary p. 62) | Naked White Muscular Abhumans |
| Goblins | Killist (Bestiary p. 72) | Poison-using small Humanoids |
| — | Raheunum (Bestiary, p. 104) | Underground Humanoids |
| — | Rorathik (Bestiary, p. 109) | Blue Predator-type Assassins |
| Dustmen/Ghoul | Syzygy Ghoul (Bestiary, p. 122) | Collect and Eat the dead |
Abhumans:
The boogey man is nothing compared to the frightening prospect of abhumans. While mutants are regarded with suspicion throughout Steadfast, no one would confuse a mutant for an abhuman. Abhumans are no longer human; humanoid yes, human no. Abhumans are, however, intelligent. What happened that turn them that way is the source of much speculation. It is rumored that abhumans gain their hatred of humanity, their evilness and their mutated shape, from eating each other, so cannibalism is taboo in all the nine kingdoms. When you close your eyes and think of a demonic entity, that’s probably an abhuman looking back at you through the darkness. Abhumans are probably the only monster that a general resident of Steadfast would know by name. Any tracker worth his salt would be able to tell abhumans apart from their tracks alone.
If abhumans are the more familiar kind of monster in the Ninth World, the rest defy reason for most inhabitants.
The Wandering Walk:
There is a pilgrimage that some people are suddenly compelled to do. The people of Steadfast call this pilgrimage: the wandering walk, and the wanderers: pilgrims. Nobody knows why they do this, the whole wandering walk path has never been fully mapped, and most wander for just a few days or weeks. The pilgrims develop a red mark on their hands, walk as if sleep-walking, are semi-conscious and don’t eat or sleep or stop. They just shamble on until suddenly they stop and seemingly wake-up and the mark in their hand starts to slowly fade away. While the pilgrims remember walking, they don’t remember why they felt compelled to do so. None of them do. Some even wander for years. Occasionally concerned friends or family members accompany them to keep them safe. Most abhumans will avoid pilgrims—clearly afraid of something, maybe of catching whatever makes them wander.
More info in House Setting: Wandering Walk
Ways into Numenéra
In Numenera Discovery, they present four ways of using the Ninth World:
- Post-Apocalyptic Setting (like Mad Max)
- Quasi-Medieval Fantasy Setting (like Forgotten Realms)
- Weird Horror Setting (Lovecraftian)
- Hopeful New World Setting.
This work stresses the Quasi-Medieval Fantasy Setting and the “discovery” portion of a Hopeful New World setting, it downplays the post-apocalyptic flavor leaving that for areas beyond Steadfast and preserves the horror for the weird in-betweens the normalcy of Steadfast, were it can truly frighten.
References
Numenera: Discovery & Numenera: Destiny (here is the DriveThruRPG link)
https://listverse.com/2019/05/10/10-misconceptions-about-medieval-town-life/
https://www.thoughtco.com/medieval-guilds-4147821
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za_(guilds)
https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-used-to-sleep-in-two-shifts-maybe-we-should-again
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16964783
Rise of Rome, Great Courses by Gregory Aldrete
Today I Found out: Scott free
Shadiversity YouTube Channel
Metatron YouTube Channel
Ascendance of a Bookworm Anime on Crunchyroll
Romanian Proverbs
Inspirations
- Wandering Walk – Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers (I suggest the excellent audio book)
- Abhumans, Murden – The Dark Crystal
- Cybernetics, Post-apocaliptic world – Battle Angel Alita
- Data-sphere, Cyberspace – Tron
Images
Map: Image by David Acevedo
Pyramid: Image by David Acevedo
Monolith over Water: Image by David Acevedo
Tentacles: Photo by Yaselyn Perez on Unsplash
Wandering Walk: Photo by Konstantinos Kaskanis on Unsplash
Medea: Photo by Sailko via CC Attribution-Share Alike v.3 via Wikipedia
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