"Today, it is my sad task to tell you of the Dark Millenium and the factors that led to the Great War between the Planets. It is not a subject I speak of willingly, but one which must be spoken of if you are to understand the people of Isis. In my last leacture, I got rather far afield from our objective of teaching you to live and work with the people you will meet every day. Indeed, the people you commonly meet would be shocked and antagonistic if you were to try to tell them what I told you. But the wise men of the church have determined that it is wise to give you this information. Well, maybe I told you even more about the history of the planets than they intended, but I suspect that the information will eventually be of use to you. May it be that in this I was guided by St. Edwar." (He makes the ritual gesture).

"In my last leacture, I left off with the Revolution on Do which ended so badly for the rebels. They were eliminated mercilessly by the Battle Beasts; the women the childeren the men and all their pets and livestock murdered by beasts and men not from their planet. The moon of Do was then turned into the most hideous prison ever devised. From this prison world none ever escaped. Most consider this act of tyranny the first act of a government that had lost touch with their humanity."

"It always seems that power attracts power and it creates in men the desire for more power. This was so in the days before the Great War with the people of Greld. In the early days of the Greater Planetary Empire (this is what they called their government at that time), they ruled with Laiza Faire allowing the planets to make their own rules and find their own path through time. Gradually, they came to think that all the planets owed Greld dearly for their existance. While it is true that the cost of planet forming was staggering, it was necessary to releve the preasure of the crowded conditions on Greld due to its enormous population. Each time a new planet was made sutiable for people, the potential for great wealth and a raising of the standard of living for those on the Home World (which of course was Greld) was seen by those whose lives were ruled by the want of wealth. And indeed great fortunes were made providing the new planets with the things necessary for their grouth."

"It was trade between the planets that provided these money hungry merchants with their lively hood. Just as heat and air and fuel are nessessary for making a fire, money and power and people are necessary for cruelity. Those who had the money to spend used it to obtain rights from the government that excluded other merchants from providing goods and services to specific areas and planets. Once a monopoly had been obtained, it was possible for a merchant to charge what ever they pleased for goods. The cost of goods rose on the seperate planets until great sums were necessary for even the most basic of provisions. As the nessities became more difficult to obtain, the conditions of life began to get worse on the new planets. Even though they made great strides in taming and civilizing places that before had been the home of nothing., it seem that all their advances could be brought to naught by increases in the cost of goods from Greld. Increasingly and of neccessity, the people on the colony planets relied on their own resources and less on the expensive materials from off world."

"In most cases, it was magic that enabled the colonies to reduce their reliance on off world goods. It is again the old story. Magic puts power in the hands of the indivedual and removes it from the higher athorities. Seeing this, the merchants of Greld began to grumble, complaning that their goods were being perchased less and less even though they themselves were responsible for this with the userous amounts of money they demanded for them. Magic fell into ill repute on Greld. The laws restricting its use there got stricter and stricter until its use was outlawed without special licenses provided by the government. Specific spells were outlawed, and the informtion about their use expunged from public documents. This sort of action increased the power and influence of the Guild of Technologists. Seeing an oppornitunity to forever eliminate the competition from magic, the Guild pushed for the complete outlawing of magic on Greld. Eventually, they succeeded and casting a spell on Greld became punishable by oulaw to Do."

"Not in the least satisfied by this, the guild sought the same goal on all the planets. Laws restricting the use of magic were passed on Greld and imposed on the colonies. Thus the people of the outer planets found themselves caught between the cliff and the wolf's jaws. They could not afford the artifically inflated price of goods from other planets, nor could they use the magic they had come to rely on to meet their needs. All the outer planets began to suffer. Of course they complained and sought relief from this by legal means, but they could not fight the money and influence weilded by the wealthy merchants of Greld."

"During this time, much of the planet forming work stopped. Only one additional planet was made available for human population after Do. And this was not accomplished by planet forming but rather as the results of experiments by the Geneticists. They developed a race of men who would live their lives in water. They gave these new men gills instead of lungs and caused their hands to be webbed. Some of them members of this new race were placed in the oceans and lakes of the worlds already conqured, but most were taken to Tefnut the Water World. In 924,562 the process of populating Tefnut with Mermen (as the new race was called) began. Although this effort was wildly successful, it was far more difficult to drain the wealth of Tefnut as they had on other planets due to the difficulty of policing the laws laid down on Greld. Cases where taxes and levys were not paid by the Mermen of Tefnut received much publicity on Greld and was used to make the taxes and levys even stricter on those worlds where they could be enforced. The common people of Greld were made to think of those on the outer planets as ungrateful and decitful."

"As conditions worsened on the outer planets, incidents of lawlessness increased. There were food riots, metal riots; indeed, there were riots over almost anything necessary for growth. The riots became more and more violent and required larger numbers of troops from Greld to put them down. Greldans began to be looked at as villans and opressors and ultimatly as targets of assassination. A small incident of terrorism had a tremendous effect at this time."

"In 925,654 a group of men from Seker overcame the guards of a large merchant vessel. They loaded a large number of patriots from that planet and took the ship to Greld. Using deciet, the managed to land the ship on Greld and make their way to the main building of government where the laws were passed. The soldiers of Seker then took over the law council and baracaded the building. They sought to keep the lawmakers captive until the restrictive laws were repealed. They used much illegal magic to prevent the police and soldiers of Greld from freeing the captives. A stand off resulted that lasted many weeks and during this time, many of the lawmakers were ruthlessly murdered. By the time the lawmakers were freed, the incident had terrified the people of Greld and most specifically, the fat merchants. The retaliation of the lawmakers of Greld was terrible."

"Greld demanded that each noble family of the rulers of the outer worlds be brought to Greld to be "educated". The Greldans maintained that this was designed to instruct the ruling families about the government and ways of the mother planet so that the colonies could better understand the laws that were imposed on them and to be more effective in influencing the governmental process. This education was to take place at the Greldan University of InterPlanetary Understanding. Many of the ruling families willingly complied with this edict and sent their sons and daughters to Greld full of hopes. Others saw this edict as nothing more than a means of obtaining hostages from each world."

"Eventually, even the most hopefull of the outer planet nobility came to resent this policy due to two factors which revealed the true intention of the Greldan government. First, the representitives of the outer planets were not given access to the lawgiving process, but rather were indroctrinated with the most conservitive of Greldan views. Some of the representitives returned home, espousing views that were outragiously detrimental to the people that they were to rule one day. Others recognized the indroctrinization for what it was and either cooperated until they could be returned to their home or in some cases becoming violent and performing crimes against their instructors or those who held them almost captive in the "University" founded to instruct them. These crimes were used by the conservitive merchants to further polarize the opinion of Greldans. They made the common people of Greld think that they were the only "civilized" people, and that the colonists were barbarians who needed to be treated like childeren and punished harshly for their misdeeds. On the outer planets, infractions of the Greldan law began to be considered an excuse to remove 'troublemakers' to Do."

"Conditions on Seker were particularly bad. Life had always been hard there. The planet forming process there had been the least successful of all the planets and required that the atmosphere machines be kept running continually to replace the gasses that the sun boiled away. The closeness to the sun caused much defilement to the genetic structure of the populace and so the infant mortality rate was tragically high. After the terrorist attack on the Greldan law givers, conditions grew much worse. Magic was outlawed altogether and became punishable by being sent to Do or in cases where its use was part of a violent crime, in death. At first, clerical magic was excepted. But at the last the clerics too were prevented from casting their spells. After this, the death rate from disease caused by defilement and the number of childeren still born or deformed increased to epidemic proportions."

"The atmosphere machines were growing old and needed constant care and repair to keep them functioning. The cost of parts and charges for the technicians trained on Greld to maintain them were raised exponentially. Soon the people of Seker saw the atmosphere machines as gaping wounds through which their planet's lifes blood was flowing. Just before the Great War, fully two thirds of everything they produced for export was spent so that they could continue to breathe. To make matters worse, the degree of use of the atmosphere machines was determined by members of the Technologists guild and not by the people of Seker. The people were forced to pay for something they did not even own or control."

"It is known that the Great War started on Seker with the destruction of the great atmosphere machines. The people of Seker, dying from diseases that were curable and prevented from curing them; whose wealth and lively hood were consumed by a technology which they did not control; whos best and brightest were spirited away to the 'University' on Greld or sent to exile on Do at the last went mad. The whole population exploded in violence and sought to eliminate anything that was from Greld. Merchants and soldiers from Greld were murdered as they slept. Some were hideously tortured in public exhibitions the like of which had not been seen for 20,000 years. Governtment buildings were burned or torn down. Even those who had at some time cooperated with the government of Greld were executed. The ships that were ported on Seker were impressed and their crews killed. These ships then became privateers who preyed on all ships bound for Greld. Any ship captured by one of these privateers was sent back to Seker for refitting into a war ship. The goods from the plundered ships were distributed among the people of Seker."

"You might ask why the people of Seker distroyed the atmosphere machines, they very thing that made life as they knew it then possible. In truth, it was a madness that made them do so. But still it must be said that these machines were symbolic to them of the stranglehold that Greld had maintained on them for over a thousand years. To them, the destruction of the atmosphere machines represented the destruction of the tyrany of Greld. Eventhough this act freed them from reliance on Greld, the result was that their planet began to die. It is still dying. Today, where once there were lakes and rivers, there is now only sand and rocky canals to mark their passing. In days of old, the people had spread all over the globe but now, the survivors are clustered in ruins at the poles. The bulk of the planet has reverted to the uninhabited desert which it once was. The non human races brought to Seker under the ageis of the InterSteller League were seen as undesirable aliens even though they had lived there in peace for hundreds of years. The other races were driven into the desert to live or die as fate decided. Today, the survivors of most these alien races wage prepetual war against the remainders of the human population."

"Of course, Greld attempted to regain control on Seker. As magic had been outlawed long ago, terrible weapons of technology were used in this attempt. Eventhough the people of Seker had purchased or captured similar weapons, they found that all of these weapons had been built with a means by which the could be turned off or subverted by those possessing the secret of their manufacture. In some cases, the weapons turned themselves on their owners and exploded as they tried to defend themselves. As the conflict became more dire and because of the bravery and cleverness of the Sekerians, they found that even benign machines on which they relied for transportation and agriculture could be destroyed or turned off by means of secret codes built into them. This combined with the shabby quality of the technological goods on Seker rendered almost all but the simplest of machines on the planet to become inoperable within 5 years."

"On the other planets, conditions got dramatically worse as well. As the Greldans sought to bring the people of Seker under their control, they passed law after law to reduce the power of the other planets to be independant. Long lists of restrictions were placed on the peoples of these worlds. It was forbidden to make weapons or bear them which on newly settled worlds like Isis spelled death because of wild animals and other dangers. It was forbidden to travel off their planets. All trade became the exclusive privledge of Greldan merchants. Any form of magic, even the most helpful or benign was outlawed every where. Products of a technological nature that could replace the functions of magic were expensive, shabbily made and heavily taxed. Governmmental representitives of the outer planets were sent back to their homes, humiliated and in some cases injured by the solders of Greld. All of the childeren and adults residing in the Greldan University of InterPlanetary Understanding were made captive and the buildings turned into a maximum security prison. None of the people attending the University at the time of Sekar's revolt ever saw their homes again. The list of injustices, abuses and crimes perpetrated by Greldans against the people of the outer planets became without number."

"Of course, as the laws to prevent revolution became more unjust, the more the people of the outer planets came to see Greld as the enemy. The more Greld tried to control them the less they cooperated. As Greld increased the number of solders and police on their worlds, the more militant they became. Before any of them knew it, they were caaught up in the vicious circle of repression and revolution. Greld and the outer planets were irrevocably set on the path of war."

"With the exception of Seker, the outer planets retained the freedom of religion. The priests of these religions continued to use the spells granted them by their gods to aid their neighbors and community. However, those worshiping some gods were encouraged towards justice by their gods. These are the gods we now regard as the gods of war, though they were not regarded so at the time. On Tekumel, the gods of war at last encouraged their followers to rise up against their oppressors in armed combat. A fortress of Greldan law was overrun and barracaded against the soldiers that were sent by Greld to quell the uprising. The troops of Greld were provided with the most deadly weapons. They were to be stationed there at the expense of the nobility of Tekumel in perpituity. In response, all of the priests of Tekumel's war god were gathered together in the captured fortress. People of other religions seeing the reightousness of their fight joined the war gods followers in their battle. Snipers and gurilla bands sprang up all over Tekumel to attack the Greldan troops, encouraged in this by their religious leaders. In response to this, the worship of the Gods was prohibited on Tekumel, and severly restricted on all the other worlds. Throughout the outer planets, priests were forbidden to cast spells. Those who continued to do so were either imprisioned, maimed so that they could not perform the necessary ritual motions or killed outright."

A spasm of pain crosses the peaceful face of Ziahdoo. He sits heavily in his chair for a time, seeming to struggle for emotional strength. Soon he sighes and begins again.

"It is at this point that no one, god or man knows much about what happened. Only in broad terms can what follows be described. The year 925,775 is know as the Year of the Cataclysm. On some planets it is known as Year 0 and all their years that follow are numbered from that date. There exists no history of battle, or tales of bravery and sacrafice. In that year, civilization itself falls into a deep hole from which mankind was not to emerge for over a thousand years."

"The gods who to this time had been content to let man rule himself saw their power directly threatened by the outlaw of worship by those on Greld. It is suspected that at this time there was a great conference of the all the Gods. In their homes in the Outer Planes, they discussed the fate of man. Some say they realized their error in allowing mankind to seek their destiny on their own. No god or man has information about what was discussed or decided, except in what happened after the gods returned to their planets. It was at this time that the destruction began."

"The gods gave new power to their worshipers at that time, the power of destruction. The gods of war gave their priests the power to raise selected of their flock to almost godlike strength and endurance. The evil gods caused ravaging plagues and diseases to pass among men and beasts. The gods of nature caused their priests to visit all manor of natural disasters against their enemies. The gods did not put restrictions on the use of these powers that they should be directly at Greld, although most were. But the gods saw this war as a chance to shake up the power structure among themselfes."

"Greld found itself alone in the conflict. Despite it power, it was impossible to fight a conventional war with fronts on all the planets at once. The people of Greld became frightened that the battles waged on the outer planets would come to their planet and visit destruction on a populace that had not known violent death in tens of thousands of years. As one by one the soldiers of Greld lost battles on the outer planets, their leaders began to consider the unthinkable. Throughtout the thousands of years, the MuBombs which had been almost forgotten by all but a few on Greld, had been maintained for use at a future date. Now, this hideous power was remembered by the leaders of Greld. In them, they saw a quick way to end the wars without risk of death to their soldiers or population. In discussing and researching the effects of the MuBombs, they rediscovered the way to make the HiBombs."

"We can attempt to reconstruct the thoughts of the Greldan leaders at this time, not with accuracy perhaps, but with compassion and humanity. Perhaps they thought that the peoples of the outer planets had the same fear of these weapons as they did. But they had forgotten that the peoples of the outer planets had changed much over the thousands of years and no longer shared the Greldan fear of these weapons. Maybe, they attempted to use the existance of the weapons as a tool to bring the outer planets to the table of negotiation without ever having to use them. If so, this attempt failed. There is no clue as to why the weapons were used at last. I think there was a madness disease that had gained hold of some people on Greld that included the members of their government."

"What ever the cause, the weapon was used at last. It was first used on the uninhabited planet of Bast. In their attempt to create an impressive display, they used far too many of their HiBombs. Bast was almost ripped apart from the explosion and its ancient path around the sun was changed. This change rippled through the delicate ballance of the planets dance and changed the orbit of all the planets. Even now, the disturbance continues and occasionally requires that the gods attend to setting them right again. The gods have said that at this time they appeared to the leaders of Greld and threatened them with severe retribution if they did not cease the wars and agree never to use their powerfull weapons again. The gods tell us that they gave Greld a year to consider this and to stop the wars. In the supreme act of foolishness and overconfidance, the Greldans instead planned a attack that was to be commenced simultaniously on all worlds and to win the war for them in a single great stroke."

"For years, the scientists of Greld had been working on the ultimate defense. In their labratories, they had developed a means of creating a Shell of Nothingness. This would effectivly create a barrier that would extended around their planet and cut the rest of the multiverse off. Some say it created a small universe that had only the planet Greld within it. It would allow nothing to pass through it. Not energy, matter or any other thing. The shell was effective even on other planes, making Greld non-existant on any of the Inner or Outer planes. Even the gods were unable to cross this barrier or extend their will into it. On the appointed day, at the appointed time, the barrier was brought into being and Greld retreated behind it to wait.

Ziahdoo's voice which has been strained for some time as he told of the Great War failes him and you can see him struggle to regain his composure. Although tears are streaming down his face, he manages eventually to continue.

"Using a lost technology, there were ships revolving around each of the planets. They were shielded even from the perception of the gods themselves. The ship around Isis used a golum of sand called a Robot to issue their demand. If the people of Isis did not immediatly terminate their rebellion, the MuBombs would fall and the thousands of troops waiting in the steel ships would decend and be masters over whatever remained of its people. Caught by surprise but not intimidated, the Gods instructed the leaders of Isis to refuse. It was the same on all the planets. The sand gollums appeared demanding surrender, and the leaders of those planets replied most often by destroying the Robots. And throught out SOS, the bombs began to fall"

"My own world was not spared. MuBombs struck in the southern regon near the High Mounts of Filie and in what was once called the continent of Corlatis where today what remains is called the Monster Isles. So great were the explosions that the rock of Corlatis leapt into the sky and the seas around it boiled and turned into steam. Those people so unlucky as to be looking south at the time were blinded in an instant by the flash of light from the explosion. All of the people living in Corlatis were killed in an instant. The winds from the explosion spread across Isis and felled forests, brought down the high buildings of steel and even the lowly huts of the frountier farmers. Millions died that day. But millions more were spared to suffer what follows."

"The winds of destruction blew for months, spreading the defilement they carried to every part of the globe. Black clouds covered the sky and rained almost without ceasing. Floods, blizzards and hail the size of babies heads leveled most of the structures that were still standing. Peoples skin fell off, their teeth fell out and they began to bleed where they were not wounded. The sick and weak died quickly, bringing up gobbets of flesh as they retched out their inner organs. Madness spread, and turned friendly neighbors into deadly enemies. But worst of all the defilement began to confuse the messages of the flesh, and women started giving berth to monsters."

"When the winds finally died down, it is said that a city that had housed a thousand would now hold 2 or 3 people, huddled against the cold and killing any who came near them from fear that they would be killed for the meager supplies that still remained to them It was at this time that the soldiers from the Steel Ships decended to rule over the survivors. At each city, the soldiers rounded up survivors and set them to work; using them as beasts of burden. Without effective weapons, without the magic that had been outlawed so long and without their leaders, the people had no choice but to do as they were told. Of all the times of mans existance this was their lowest ebb."

"The soldiers who had been waiting in the steel ships far above Isis were still human, and in many the heart of humanity still beat. When these saw the destruction visited on the world below, they were deeply affected. Some went mad and attacked their fellows. A great many silently took their own lives. Others asked that they be allowed to decend to the land and aid the people there. But the Greldans had chosen the leaders oif their steel ships using a specific criterion for their commanders. The captains of the steel ships beleaved that they and their decendants would rule the worlds they had destroyed forever and that the defilement would soon pass. It does not matter if the captains were lied to about the effects of the MuBombs or if the great scientists of Greld underestimated their effects. What is important is that at the time the captains beleaved that if they could hold their commands together until the winds died down, that they would rule the planet forever. Thus, they killed any member of their crews who was found to be 'unreliable' in the face of the destruction. Only the most heartless and inhuman of their crews survived the many purges that followed acts of disobediance."

"The destruction of the planets and the killing of so many of their worshipers struck the gods in the place where they were most vulnerable. Without the manna of prayer, the gods powers were reduced to a fraction of what they were previously. Undodubtly (althought of course they have declined to answer questions on this point) they felt not only their power, but their very existance threatened. Again the gods confered on what could be done. For perhaps the only time, the gods of all allignments agreed to cooperate and attempt to salvage the people that still lived who could worship them. But this agreement was not reached in a day. Long did the gods converse before they arrived at their solution. By this time, it was almost too late. Humanity outside of cowardly Greld was almost extinct."

"Although the power of the gods was a fraction of what it was before, their combined strenght was still able to warp the reality of SOS itself. In some places, the Gods changed the physical laws that all matter and energy must abide by. In order to prevent the use of MuBombs and HiBombs, they changed the way things burn or how matter is changed into energy (which is all a fire does). On most worlds, it is impossible for something to burn quickly enough for them to explode without the use of magic. In old times, the most common weapons were those that would fire a small pellet of lead or other metal using expanding gasses to propell them. The Steel Ships used rapidly burning chemicals to push their ships through Wild Space and to allow smaller steel ships to travel through the air. Liquids were used to power carrages that moved across the land without horses. All of these relied on the fact that something that burns quickly enough will produce rapid expansion. None of them work any more, as none of them produce a fire that burns quickly enough."

"Another change was made to the energy that you see in a lightning bolt. The people of Pre-Cataclysm used this energy for practically everything. It was used to power the devices that enabled them to send sounds and pictures through the air. It was used to steer their Steel Ships. It was used to heat homes and cool them too. It made it possible to cause light to appear from gasses or metal. Some say they used it to make machines that helped the people think more clearly and work more quickly. They turned the power of lightning into energy that would make wheels turn and objects move without pushing them. After the Change, none of these devices worked as the gods made the energy more difficult to push. I do not understand how it would work, but somehow, the lightning would be pushed through certain kinds of metal from one place to another. The change made it thousands of time more difficult to push the lightning and all of their devices stopped working."

"Suddenly the soldiers in the steel ships could no longer cause them to move. The ships became dark and without power, and the air inside them went bad. In a few days, all the people in the Steel Ships were dead. With no one to steer them and no way to change the course, all of the Steel Ships soon fell out of the sky and burned up like shooting stars. As soon as the people of Isis found that the weapons their guards held were useless, they rose up against their guards and killed them every one. But even though the people were free, they were still few and they could no longer use the machines from Greld to do their work for them. They had to discover new ways to face the tasks of rebuilding civilization."

"Because of the way the machines failed and the way that the Greldans turned the machines against the people, during the Dark Millenum their use became regarded as unholy. Over time, it was considered bad luck to use even the machines that could still be used after the change. On Isis, this attitude has become a fanatical fear of machines of any kind. Only the most fearless of people will own and operate a grinding mill as it uses water to force the wheel around, not men or beasts. In many communities, water mills have been burned down if the owner displeased the townsspeople or if they suspect him of cheating. They justified this by saying that the mill owner was evil for using the water to do his work. As newcommers, you must be very wary of this attitude and avoid even the most simple of machines. Their possession would cause you to be instantly mistrusted."

"The history of Isis in the Dark Millenium is a mistery with very few clues. Little knowledge from before the Cataclysm survived the destruction and the years The Freeze that followed. We know that for a hundred years or more after the Cataclysm, that the temprature fell many degrees. In some places, it did not stop snowing for decades. As the surface of Isis became less inhabitable, people retreated underground. They used natural caverns where they found them, and dug their homes out of the rock and mud where there were no caves. It is natural for man to flee underground. I beleve it is one of mans most basic instincts. Thus, for hundreds of years, few humans even visited the surface of their world, and cities underground began to grow."

"During this time, men forgot what they had accomplished in the past. They could see no change or hope for change in the future. Without hope and without knowledge, they sank lower and lower becoming as beasts in many places. Also, the very fabric of their bodies became tainted by the defilement of the MuBombs. More than half of the childeren concieved were still born. Most of those who survived their birth were deformed; some of them hideously so. Those who still remembered how to pray were instructed that these childeren should be killed. "Suffer not the defiled to survive from dawn to dawn" is one of the olderst laws and one that is still obeyed in all civilized countries. But many people did not know how to pray and did not recieve this instruction from their gods. And the love of a mother for her child is blind. She can ignore faults of her childerns bodies that they may stay with her and grow to adulthood."

"And so even today when the defilement has dissappeared, the results of the MuBombs twisting of the flesh's instruction are still visited upon the people. The defects caused by the defilement have been handed down from mother to child throught the centuries. You will not see its results in the cities much, where little can be kept secret from ones neighbors. In the cities, the killing of a deformed child is called 'purification' and is performed by a priest mercyfully and quickly. No stigmata is attached to a mother who offers her damaged child to a priest; indeed her bravery and rightousness is praised by all who value holyness. The mother is comforted by all her friends and relations, and they help the mother in her daily duties so that she and her husband may spend more time attempting to concieve another child which is not deformed. Even so, occasionally a mother will spirit the Defiled newborn into the wilderness and give it to someone who will care for it despite its defilement. She tells her friends and neighbors that the child was still born, and offeres a animal body in the place of the child's for burial. As this is most often done by a woman of noble birth, it is regarded as an effete and evil action. Mothers have been killed for doing so when she is found out."

"Sometimes the defilement is subtle or is not know about even by the child until that child is grown. These cases are almost invariably tragic. By law, those who are know to be defiled, in in the smallest of ways, is prevented from marrying. They are prevented from holding public office or employment and are regarded in may cases as pariahs. Any one who knows they carry the defilement who marry or otherwise present themselfes as being pure is burned at the stake in a ceremony called 'Rectification' wherein their sins are made right."

"In the frountier lands, a mother may raise a child she knows to defiled. Indeed, some tribes have no laws against this, and the defiled are allowed to polute the race with their damage. In either case, the discovery of people or tribes who suffer the defiled to live is regarded with fear and lothing. Most often when news of a mutant (as one of the defiled is called in the vernacular) the nobles of the area organize a 'Munt'."

"This practice dates back to the days after the passing of the Long Winter when people were venturing out of the holes and caves to rediscover and reclaim the surface of this world. Expeditions would be sent away from the home caves to forage and stake out territory. If such a band met a group who suffered the defiled to live among them, they were concidered honor bound to kill the entire tribe. This was responsible for much pain and suffering. It was a common cause of wars between nations and people. In these more enlightened times however, only the defiled and their parents and childeren (if they can be found) are put to death.

"In the early days of recovery when cities again were being built on the surface of the world, no one could safely be without their weapon to hand. But having weapons handy at all times meant that often they were drawn in anger and used to settle arguments in death where clear heads and empty hands might have kept the peace. No one knows which city first used the "Peace" as it is called, but the custom has spread to all the civilized continents of Isis. A "peace" is a small piece of wire passed through the pummel of a weapon and affixed with wax or lead to the weapons sheith or holder. Wax is used in areas where unexpected danger is common allowing a weapon to be drawn quickly. In peaceful places, lead is used. Using lead makes it difficult to draw a weapon as a knife must be used to cut the lead. In either case, the seal (the lead or wax peace) must be affixed only by the civil athourity of the place. If it is discovered that the peace has been broken, the owner of the weapon must truthfully describe the circumstances that led to the drawing of the weapon. If the officials of the place are satisfied with the explaination, the weapons owner is charged only for re-sealing his weapon. Otherwise the owner of the broken peace may be held criminally accountable. Any one with a broken seal is instantly suspect if a violent crime has been committed in the area. Possession of an unsealed weapon is a crime. The punishment for this varies from place to place and is dependant on the circumstances, but may be cause for the owner may be put to death."

"I encourage you to inquire into local laws where ever you might pass through as they vary wildly from one place to another. This is an accepted practice and will not cause you to be suspect if you do not have anything else suspicious about you. In this way you will not be caught out on accidentally breaking a law you have never heard of before. Other than this suggestion I can offer little in the way of instruction for the ways of laws on Isis. Of course, those things which are illegal on other planets are also illegal on Isis."

"One tried and true method of explaining why you might be different than the people you meet is to say that you are from a place far enough away to be different, but close enough to be familliar to them. In the next few days, I will go into the geography of Isis in detail. But today, to finish up this lecture, I will provide you with an overview of the continents of Isis which every school boy knows."

"Tobalalan African - Human/Elvin Tribal/Egiptian - Hot Southern Desert

Alien Names #16

/*Farile Australian - All Races Penal Colony/Oligarchy - Hot Central

Alien Names #6 Desert

/*Nelan American - All Races New Colony/Eglaterian - Central Planes

Alien Names #5

/*Olome Russian - Human/Elvin/Dwarf LandLocked Feudalism - Arctic

Alien Names #13 Desert

/*Woflan Roman - Wolfin/Gnome Republic - City States

Alien Names #10

/*Weldon European - Human/Elf/Dwarf/Hobbit Renisaunce Feudalism No

Alien Names #15 Desert

/*Whitfeld Escimo - Human/Gnome/Dwarf Tribal Nomads - Arctic

Alien Names #21 Desert

/*GlokLaock Giant/Monster Expansionist, Warlike

Islands

Lano Isles Greek - Humans Proto Democracy

Alien Names #4

Pango-Pango Polonesian - Human/Hobbit/Elf Tribal Isolationists