Astronomy and Geography

Tohmes is a mineral rich red planet with a single, interconnected ocean known as the Calyptic that covers roughly half of its surface area. It orbits a yellow main sequence star named Song on a 354 day revolution that is divided into 10 months by its inhabitants. The planet has a 20 hour day and night cycle, split evenly between the two.

Tohmes is in turn closely orbited by its own stellar twin, the binary planet referred to as Sister, which fills a significant portion of the night sky with its reflected light, and is responsible for the terrible rockstorms that rage across the desolate surface of the wastes outside the domed cities. It has also been known to create gravitational anomalies across certain parts of the surface when its elliptical orbit brings it closer than usual.

There are several continents on Tohmes, but Rylite is the only explored land mass known to the inhabitants of the three cities.

Scarcity and Abundance

Despite the rich abundance of exotic minerals, Tohmes is poor in several important metals such as iron and copper. As a result, the rarest and most sought after of the non-decorative metals is an incredibly tough iron alloy called inox. Inox is stronger and more durable than iron while also being nearly immune to rust and decay. It is traditionally produced on Tohmes as a blackened metal, although it can be polished to a luster with some effort.

The rarity of hard metals along with the scarcity of wood on Tohmes has led to a number of novel uses of stone and crystal:

- The most common building material is a soft sort of stone called timit that is easily shaped and also a good insulator, often built around the supports of a more rigid type of stone such as granite, gneiss, and marble, all of which are quite common.

- In lieu of paper, a hard clay-like substance called softstone or flatstone is used for recording information. Writing is done with a metal "pen" and mistakes can be removed with firm rubbing, but once the stone has set for about 30 days, it hardens and the writing becomes permanent.

- As plantlife is also quite scarce and rather homogeneous, a field of curative, restorative, and applicative science has sprung up around the mixing of different crystal and mineral compounds. The practitioners of that science are known as minethicaries.

The adaptive, the chimeric, and the unique.

It is still widely believed that Tohmes is not the first cradle of mankind. Many believe that theirs is a race of travelers and explorers. It is said in many circles that when their ancestors first came to Tohmes, they brought with them a host of plant and animal life that they nurtured until it grew used to their new home. Some of those creatures were said to be heinous amalgamations of many different plants and animals, woven together by dark magic, but there is no record of what was and was not natural to the ancestors prior to the Fall of Knowledge, so most people just ignore the proscriptions against such magic as superstition and go on about their day.

Population: 3.4 million and falling rapidly.

Nyyt was once the greatest of the three cities, a bastion of commerce and scientific advancement guided by the sacred principles of its forefathers as transcribed in The Last Command and subsequently codified into law. Since the Fall, however, the once great city, the shining beacon of hope for mankind within the red wastes, has become a den of corruption, inequity, and vile depredation. Within its walls, good men and women still strive to make the once great city a home and a community, but year by year they are crushed by unrelenting forces, both above and below. Forces that wish to see chaos reign within the walls, so that the old order may be torn down and a new one set in its place.

​

Nyyt is also home to the headquarters of the A.R.R.C., which resides in the northwest quadrant at the center of an unusually prosperous and crime free section of the outer city known as The Eight.
 

2.8 million and rising.

Taravor is a city fascinated by the stories of the past. Their society is structured around the ideals of martial honor and philosophical piety, and they hold scholarship above all other pursuits. They are patriarchal at the familial level and the highest position in the city, that of Deacon, can only be held by a man, but women are given high regard and control many aspects of life in their culture. The Circle, which is comprised of a representatives of either gender from each caste, manages the day to day function of the city, proposes new laws, arbitrates any disputes that have not been successfully negotiated by the heads of the disputant's households, and every 100 klipses, chooses a new Deacon. Their political system has been stable for three millenia.

Taravor is easily the safest of the three cities, experiencing nearly zero crime and welcoming all who visit as honored guests. Lately, however, there have been glitches in the systems that provide food, water, and light to the city, and no-one is quite sure what to do about it. At its core, Taravor is a place of thought and philosophy, not commerce or agriculture. Without those providential systems in place, their way of life will soon collapse.

400,000 and falling gradually.

Eliseth is a city surrounded by the largest forest on Rylite and shrouded in mystery. The population of Eliseth is 80% female, and women fill all primary societal roles. All trade with other cities is done at trading posts along the southern edge of the forest, because no-one who has stepped beneath those shadowed boughs has ever returned to tell the tale. All that is known about the city comes from the women who have immigrated out of it, and they have rarely had anything good to say about their dangerous and volatile former home.

One piece of the mystery has been made very clear, however. The scarcity of male births among the population of Eliseth puts a great deal of stress on the social order, and systems have been put in place out of necessity to ensure that the population does not decline. As a result, Elisethan men cannot serve in the Rangers, or any other potentially dangerous role, and are not allowed to marry, as each male Elisethan is required to maintain at least five regular sexual relationships in a given klips. After a series of riots and assassinations, new rules were passed to allow those Elisethan females who desired a permanent partner of their own to leave the city temporarily on a "hunt", during which they could travel to any other settlement to secure a mate, kidnap him, and smuggle him back to Eliseth to be married. This has generated a great deal of animosity between Eliseth and the other two great cities, but there is little that can be done once a young man has been taken beyond the edge of the forest. There are, however, rules to the hunt, and one of the most critical is that no male can be taken who does not first accept a wedding gift from his betrothed. For this reason, the mothers of Taravor and Nyyt teach their boys at an early age to be wary of strange girls who come bearing gifts.

The Arc

The A.R.R.C. began as a small artifact brokerage. Taking advantage of a negative market manipulation fomented by a collusion of criminal organizations that drastically decreased the sale price for found and fenced goods, the brokerage grew rapidly by simply offering fair prices for those goods. When its reputation became too big to hide from the underground, the organization went through a series of hostile, and bloody, takeovers.

​

During those chaotic years, the various interests that held the company changed it and, in some cases, expanded it into new domains, both legitimate and otherwise. When the original owner eventually reclaimed the company in yet another bloody coup, those clandestine enterprises were retained, but with the expansion of its resource base, the company was rebranded as an artifact retrieval consortium to better hide its great wealth. This rebranding also made it possible to explain away caravans that wandered off into the wastes without following any of the known trade routes.
 

From humble beginnings, the A.R.R.C., or Arc, as its employees refer to it, has grown into the richest corporation in Nyyt, with affiliates in each of the other two major cities. Their Headquarters, residing in the Northwest quarter of the city, is patrolled by company guards and... other agents. As a result, the area known as The Eight, denoting the eight blocks surrounding the HQ, has a reputation as the safest part of the city outside of the Core itself. It has become a new center of commerce and entertainment within the walls, and is well known among the poor as the only place where the dispossessed can find any sort of shelter in the night.

​

As for its day to day business, the caravans still go out and return with new plunder, and the company still grows in leaps and bounds. But as before, its successes have not gone unnoticed, and envious eyes are drawn North and West yet again, this time, from the Core itself.

Organizations and Agencies

​SHINE Corporation and the Santi and Illumisanti Churches

If you work as a healer in Nyyt, odds are you are either a member of the Patriarchal Santi or Matriarchal Illumasanti Churches, who are bitter and bloody rivals, or you are an employee of the Shine corporation. While holding a contract with one automatically alienates you from the other two, freelancers are still exceedingly rare outside of those directly contracted to powerful corporate entities, mainly due to the fact that unprotected freelance regennists have a tendency to disappear within the walls of Nyyt, never to be heard from again.  As a result, the Trinity holds a near total monopoly over all primary health care in the city. (The SHINE Corporation is so rapacious in their advertising that in Nyyt, the term 'shiny' has become a synonym for 'I'm well.'.)

Because of the dire enmity between the three powers, breeding new generations of people with the gift has become an existential crisis. The ability to concentrate healing in others and dissipate the severity of injuries risks dilution if bloodlines are mingled with non-regennists, and since the Santi and Illumisanti actively attack one another whenever they are out of the sight of the law, they are left with few options for procreation. Either they pay dearly for a mating contract with a SHINE employee, or they wait for the first night of Newal every fifth year, when the two organizations come together under the protective eye of a neutral third party to take part in a wild and violent procreative orgy, after which the resultant offspring are divided up by gender between the two and sent away, never to see one or the other parent again. Even so, the regennist population is so small that the discovery of even a single new bloodline with the gift can sway the balance of power among the three.

Organizations and Agencies

​SHINE Corporation and the Santi and Illumisanti Churches

If you work as a healer in Nyyt, odds are you are either a member of the gender restricted Santi (M) or Illumasanti (F) Churches, who are bitter and bloody rivals, or you are an employee of the Shine corporation, and holding a contract with one alienates you from the others. Freelancers are exceedingly rare outside of those directly contracted to powerful corporate entities, usually foreigners who keep their gifts quiet, as each of the three organizations is very 'insistent' in their recruitment methods, and consider any healing work they don't get a cut of to be a form of theft committed against them.  The 'Big 3' thereby hold a nearly complete monopoly over all health care in the city. (The SHINE Corporation is so rapacious in their advertising that in Nyyt, the term 'shiny' has become a synonym for 'completely healthy'.)

Because of the dire enmity between the three powers, breeding new generations has become an existential danger. The regennist gift risks dilution if bloodlines are mingled with non-regennists, and since the Santi and Illumisanti actively attack one another whenever they are out of the sight of the law, they are left with few options. Either they pay dearly for a mating contract with a SHINE employee, or they wait for the first night of Newal every fifth year, when the two organizations come together under the protective eye of a neutral third party to take part in a wild and violent procreative orgy, after which the resultant offspring are divided up by gender between the two and sent away, never to see one or the other parent again. Even so, the regennist population is not so large that there isn't a grave risk of inbreeding and as a result, new bloodlines are highly sought after. Indiscreet and unaffiliated healers within the city walls have been known to disappear from their rooms at night, never to be heard from again.

Additionally, to avoid too much genetic degradation, the two churches also come together on the first of Newal each year for a massive procreative orgy, the results of which, nine months later, are divided between them by gender.