The Pride of Dragons

Dragons are pride. Not the boasting, bragging, importunate pride that demands you acknowledge it, no matter what it may or may not have done, but pride in accomplishment, pride in prowess, pride in success.

Dragons command respect, and the respect of other dragons is their coin and their pride. They live to gain stature, honor, admiration. They treasure it, hunger for it, strive to achieve it. They slave and claw and grasp for each mote of stature. They are driven so by their biology, and that operates at the level of instinct, in the most ancient portion of the draconic mind.

Dragons strive for excellence, as spellcasters, warriors, leaders, artisans, healers, and more; the more skilled and impressive a dragon becomes, the more stature they are granted. They acquire knowledge and wisdom, both bring stature. They amass wealth; the more wealth, the more stature. They acquire territory, territory brings stature. They acquire influence in human governments or organizations, influence brings stature. They create serfs, creatures who imprint on the dragon and serve them with their lives, and the more serfs, and the more remarkable and capable the serfs, the more stature.

In ages past, dragons fought for the right to mate. The largest, fiercest, most attractive dragon won, and mated, and the losers did not.

In time, this became about more than an impressive crown of horns, or shining scales, or sheer muscular prowess. (At least among the more intelligent strains, including the Greats.) It became about achievement, accomplishment, excellence.

The most impressive, the most intelligent, the most accomplished, the most clever, the most skilled, the most talented — these could mate, and others did not. Mating was a dance of stature, and the constant, urgent need to compete with all other dragons for stature became the cornerstone of draconic civilization.

All dragons are pride, but for Great Dragons it is not individual pride that matters, but pride in their clutch. The entire goal of a Great Dragon's existence is to increase the stature of its clutch. Wealth, power, achievements, admiration, renown — it gains these, and its clutch increases in stature, and all the clutch-mates benefit.

Great Dragons crave wealth and stature, and conspire to acquire both. They are greedy creatures, devious and cunning.

Conspiracy and intrigue are second nature to the Greats, and nothing they do is straightforward or easily understood. Their conspiracies operate on a scale measured in decades, not years, and are renowned for their subtlety and obscurity. Sentients are little more than pawns to them.

There is a constant battle for stature and success. Cleverness in intrigue, cunning in plotting, and skill in deception also brings stature. The intrigues of dragons are the battlefield in a complex and incomprehensible game of precedence and stature. Feints within feints, double-blinds, triple agents — all of these gambits are deployed not just to advance their position, but because the sheer artistry and effectiveness of each gambit gains the clutch stature.

Great Dragons are alien beings, whose psychology is more primal and primeval than mankind's. They conspire not out of desire or malice, but because such machinations are instinctive.

The Greats are like especially intelligent, eloquent, and polite sharks. But no matter how civilized they seem, they are always but moments away from a bloody attack. (If not literally, then metaphorically. A Great Dragon attack can involve a decades-long plot that manipulates three nations, two bloodgangs, and a Chartered Company's most prized assets.)

Never show a dragon weakness, it is an irresistible inducement to attack. Even if they like you, even if they need you, weakness invites assault. And as Great Dragons are nearly-unkillable, genius-level, dinosaur-sized, armored flying death machines, such assaults nearly always prove lethal. (Even if it takes a while to notice.)

Dradhakh, Continent of Wyrms

Let's talk, a little bit, about the home of the dragons: Dradhakh, Continent of Wyrms. Like all the other continents of the Beyond, Dradakh is isolated by natural and magical barriers. It is biologically discrete, with its own distinct ecology (different from all other continents) and dominant species.

Earth, prior to 65 million years ago and the extinction event, was ruled by dinosaurs. They were the dominant form of life, and most ecological niches, from aquatic life to land animals to flyers, from herbivores to carnivores to carrion-eaters, were filled by dinosaurs. After the event, mammals filled those roles; Earth became the domain of mammals.

Dradhakh is the continent of dragons — they are the dominant form of life, and most ecological niches are filled by draconic strains. Six limbed, usually sharp toothed, usually winged, scaly beasts rule the air, sea, and land. From the tiny hovering drakelets, akin to hummingbirds and no bigger than a man's thumb, to the gigantic leviathans, sea serpents with vestigial limbs (who plague Atlantic and Pacific shipping), from massive herbivores like giant 6-limbed komodo dragons, to the intelligent draconic centaur-like Khadach, draconics are everywhere.

Greatest of these, of course, are the Great Dragons. Highly intelligent, cunning, driven, the continent is theirs.

The continent is shaped like a long, thin knife, with tall, frigid mountains running along the spine, and torrid swamps and beaches lining the edge. In between is every biome known — deserts, swamps, temperate forests, wide, flat plains. And everywhere, draconics.

In ages past, the Greats would mate and retreat to lay their eggs. They kept them in a vault with their hoard, where they were well guarded. They preferred to find or make long, thin caverns, walled off from aerial attack and with only one ingress to guard. The eggs would be guarded by the entire clutch, and safe in the lair the Greats could form and hatch a new clutch.

Greats would mark off massive swathes of terrain for the hunt — all Greats are meat eaters. This was their land, their domain, and woe to those who trespassed its borders.

(Vegetation grows insanely fast in Dradhakh, and herbivores are plentiful. Else the dragons would go extinct. As Europe discovered, this is not always a good thing.)

The Khadach were a semi-humanoid species, common across much of Dradhakh. Picture a slender, 6-legged komodo dragon, about six feet long, that can rear up on its hind quarters. The front two limbs have hands, which the Khadach could use to make and wield weapons. Khadach are less intelligent than humans, but more intelligent than animals.

The Greats would imprint Khadach tribes, turning them into serfs. The Khadach would serve the Greats, guarding their lairs and their hoard, flushing out game for the hunt, scouting for intruders, and fighting off unimprinted Khadach tribesmen. They would clean their masters' scales and teeth (removing parasites as well as detritus), gather fresh fronds and grasses for bedding, and hunt down vermin. As serfs, they lived in symbiosis with their masters.

Draconics come through vortexes quite often. The Green Eruption that covered Europe in violent jungle was born of Dradhakh, as were the drakes the Europeans train to burn back the verdant growth. Many of the creatures attacking Utah come from the draconic continent, and the leviathans and sea serpents who make ocean passages a dangerous venture also originated there. Then there is Xiyatu.

Xiyatu is the domain of a clutch of Greats, the center of their territory. The Greats have imprinted on many, who are their serfs. And in the mountains nearby, is dug the clutch's lair.

The dragons have shaped the city into what it is: a sovereign kingdom ruled by seven nearly-unkillable, genius-level, dinosaur-sized, armored flying death machines.

Xiyatu: Computing Capitol of North America

I'll get back to dragons and Xiyatu. Right now, let's talk rare earths.

"Rare earths" are a specific group of elements, utterly necessary for a great many industrial components. The magnets that allow wind turbines to produce electricity? Require rare earths. Semi-conductors (i.e. computer chips)? Require rare earths. So do night-vision goggles, precision-guided munitions, modern batteries (as are used in electrical vehicles), and many, many other common tools. Rare earths are required for the modern world to exist.

95% of the world's supply of rare earths comes from China. Less than 5% comes from a single mine in California. (Other mines exist in other countries, but they have been priced out of the market.)

So, 2039. Let's start with California, currently the only source for rare earths in the continental US. That California mine? Is in southern California, pretty close to Las Vegas, smack dab in the middle of Narco-kingdom territory.

Not only can't the Fed (or anyone else) manufacture computer chips, they can't even acquire the raw materials to begin manufacturing computer chips. The only source for semi-conductors, in 2039, is China. And the only continental US port with regular trade with China is Xiyatu.

China (specifically one of the two countries calling themselves the Republic of China) is the only source for semiconductors in the world. Rare earths are mined in one China (there are six), shipped to another for fabrication into chips, then shipped to Taiwan for assembly into computer components.

Some of these components are then shipped to Xiyatu (via a circuitous route), where they hit the American markets. The Fed, Texas, and various Outlaw trading companies all buy components in Xiyatu, and ship them across the continent, where locals make cases for the components. (Hence the phenomenon of dingy little Outlaw towns on the bare edge of survival who have one or two personal computers, both with carved wooden cases.) Monitors, hard disks, printers, and on and on: all are made in Asia, and shipped to America, thence transported across the continent on convoys. (Which hire Guns for security.)

Xityatu is the computing capitol of North America. It is the only source for computing equipment, and the center of Western OS design. (Computers in 2039 run Android. Technically an adulterated version of Android with components scavenged from BSD Unix and its cousin, Darwin. But you don't really care about that, right?) Commercial applications programming is centered in Xiyatu, video games (such as they are) are designed in Xiyatu, and the headquarters of mesh hardware companies are all in Xiyatu.

Hence the oddity: a city on the cutting edge of 2039 technology, the computing capitol of North America, is a city-state monarchy, run by a clutch of seven dragons, and is also the magical capitol of North America.

I hope to talk more about that tomorrow.

Xiyatu: The Coming of the Dragons

[This wasn't a hard post to write, I just got the seasonal blechhh really bad. Crackers and Sprite, and a whole lot of sleep.]

The Emergence began, according to most reports, over Seattle, at 8:09 PM, local time, on May 15, 2025. Renamed Xiyatu, it was a city of Chinese expatriates, Communists who fled the 6-way Chinese Civil War.

The vortex opened above the city, the center a whirling storm of energy that warped the air around it, the outer edges a thin corona of furiously spinning clouds of blank white mist. Bolts of white and gold lightning coruscated from the rift, lighting the evening sky.

From out the vortex flew seven massive dragons, in defiance of all physical laws, one of whom was bleeding thick, black blood. Three of the others were carrying it on their backs, helping it fly. The struggling quartet flew off towards Mt. Rainier.

The other three turned back, towards the vortex. Dark winged figures flew from out the vortex, and the three dragons attacked and fought each one. They flew at each other, fighting with tearing talons, gouts of flame and frost, snapping, tooth-filled maws, screams of terrifying, piercing strength. Windows in buildings and cars shattered.

The battle raged across the city, sometimes high in the air, other times low through the streets. The dragons crashed through buildings, threw cars and busses (abandoned since the Collapse, some 10 years ago), and pounded their opponents into the ground, digging massive furrows through the hardtop.

After half an hour, and just after sunset, the black things no longer poured through the vortex, and there was no more battle in the streets. The three dragons, bloody and battered, flew off to the south, towards the mountain. The vortex hung in the sky for another 12 hours, but nothing more emerged.

(There is no film of this event, though there are many still pictures, in both black-and-white and color. The battle through the city killed over 2000 Xiyatu citizens and wreaked hundreds of millions in damages, which may explain and, in some sense, forgive the city's reaction.)

Xiyatu: Magic of The Outlaw

Magic came to North America with the arrival of the dragons. As they insinuated themselves into the power structure of Xiyatu — the city is still officially Communist, but all members of the Central Committee are serfs of the dragons — they began forming schools of shadow warriors and magus traditions.

Dragons are not a mage race, even Great Dragons — they cannot develop all of the five mage talents. However, they are innately magical, and they can (through their serf bond) help humans develop these talents, and those humans can teach others. Though the way this happened seems out of character for dragons.

You’d expect dragons, in a new world, surrounded by new sapient races, to enserf them and train them. Indeed, the entire conquest of Xiyatu is prototypically draconic: they took the city, increasing their stature, and trained shadow warriors, sorcerers, and maguses, which increased their stature but also secured the clutch against outside threats (Emerged and otherwise). The initial confrontations with humans turned violent, perhaps inevitably, and by taking Xiyatu they neutralized that threat.

Yet, after taking the city and developing the magical talents of their serfs, they didn’t act to compartmentalize that information. You’d expect dragons to hoard information the same way they hoard eggs or wealth. Mastery is stature. And they do.

Yet they took no care to ensure that magic remained a secret only of their serfs, or their city. And so magic spread.

Even before Beyonders began to Emerge, shadow warriors trained in Xiyatu were roaming through the Outlaw, taking on acolytes and spreading their disciplines. Maguses began training others, establishing their traditions across the continent. Artificers, sorcerers, and shadow walkers all began to teach others. Beyonders added greatly to the knowledge base of all talents, but they were already known before the Beyonders came.

The power of magic was flooding the land, because of the vortexes, and magicians were spreading rapidly, because of the dragons. Magic in the Outlaw sprang from the dragons of Xiyatu.

Xiyatu: Chinese Boomtown

Xiyatu is marked not only by its cultural heritage as a Chinese city, but also by its ongoing relationship with the mainland. Beginning with computers, but expanding to other manufactured consumer goods, Xiyatu is a mercantile clearinghouse for Chinese exports. Washer-dryers, lawn mowers, lawn chairs — China is, once again, the source of nearly all manufactured consumer goods in America, and all of them pass through Xiyatu.

Most of Xiyatu's non-computing businesses are, in essence, middlemen. They buy goods from the mainland, ship them to Xiyatu, and sell them across the continent. Convoys hauling these goods leave the city daily. (And most hire Guns.) This is actually a fairly lucrative business, since these goods can command premium prices in the Fed and other polities, even if cheaply manufactured.

The city is a boomtown (the population having doubled in the last 10 years), with all the benefits and problems that implies (such as increasing crime and inflation). It attracts the poor and desperate, who come here looking for work, many of whom are turned away (that any are let in at all is due to the decrees of the dragons). Those who are allowed to stay can find work as convoy guards, loaders, or drivers (though labor alliances are changing this), manual laborers (especially on the docks and in agriculture), and household servants.

Yang guizi, non-Chinese, now comprise about 45% of the population (Chinese are 50% and Beyonders are 5%). (Yang guizi means "foreign devil", a derogatory term, though most Americans in the city believe it means "Yankee", and have Anglicized it as "yangui".) Non-Chinese are decidedly second-class citizens. They can't hold government positions, lack voting rights, and are second in line for all jobs, behind full-blooded Chinese. Nearly all high-paying jobs are reserved for full-bloods.

English is spoken in the city, though only among the yanguis. Putonghua, or Standard Chinese, is the official language of Xiyatu, and all government documents, contracts, and media must be in Standard Chinese. (There is a market for English media, nearly all of which is imported or scavenged from ruins.) English-only speakers make about 80% as much as those yangui who can speak even a little Standard.

The most common religion in the city is Daoism. Daoist principles heavily influenced the magical traditions founded by the First Students. Daoist alchemy heavily influenced the first imbuers, shadow warriors use qigong (meditation techniques taught by Daoists) extensively in their training, shadow walkers (who can sometimes see the future) use the I Ching when attempting to divine, and Daoist principles (including feng shui) are entwined with the original magus traditions.

The dragons have been incorporated into local Daoist beliefs as well, as manifestations of the Xian, the unearthly immortals. Xiyatu citizens honor or revere the dragons as unbelievably wise, and morally perfect, beings who surpass humanity. They include the dragons in their holiday ceremonies, and petition them in their prayers.

(In contrast, the serfs of the city worship their masters, body and soul, but number less than a hundred. The yangui have a very unromantic and jaundiced view of the draconics, though what privileges the yang have are thanks to them. Dragons are evil beasts in Beyonder lore, akin to Satan or devils in Christian tales, beings of great cunning who make grand promises of wealth or success in return for the client selling himself into servitude. Accordingly, most Beyonders fear and resent the Greats.)

Xiyatu: Ruling the Dragons' City

The dragons own Xiyatu, it is their domain. Not in a legal sense, there are no pieces of papers or contracts which unambiguously state their claim. Yet their serfs comprise the Central Committee, their serfs own the State Industries, their serfs command the military, and their serfs lead the most prominent shadow warrior schools and magus traditions.

Depending on your view of serfdom, the Greats don't even rule the city directly. Their serfs (and the bureaucracies they control) govern the city, in the dragons' name. The Greats provide guidance, broad policy and goals, but don't micromanage. Enserfment ensures obedience, so there is no need.

The city is no longer communist to any recognizable degree. In fact, when compared to most of the Fed, Xiyatu is among the most capitalistic polity in North America. New businesses can easily be licensed, there are no restrictions against competing with State Industries, and other than the requirement that all contracts be in Standard Chinese (a dialect of Mandarin called Putonghua), there are no official restrictions on hiring. (Discrimination against yangui and Beyonders is cultural, not statutory.)

Xiyatu is not democratic, however. There are no elections, all government positions are assigned on the basis of rigorous testing. (The Party structure exists now as a mere formality, it has no influence on governance.)

The city-state is very prosperous, the richest polity in North America. The wealth of individual citizens varies greatly. There are dirt poor yangui and Beyonders, and slightly-less-poor Chinese peasant laborers. There is a small, but growing merchant class (grocers, tailors, cobblers, and so forth), and, of course, the wealthy — CEO's, government officials, and so forth.

Xiyatu is not a police state, or authoritarian state. (There is no widespread police surveillance or informant network, for instance, and no Secret Police.) In form, it most closely resembles an absolutist monarchical oligarchy — theoretical total power vested in the Central Committee, said powers being delegated to subordinate bureaucrats, appointed by testing, not the committee.

There are a list of common rights guaranteed to citizens, rights the government (for the most part) respects. Citizens are generally free from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, have the right to counsel, and so forth.

The city has a large and aggressive police force, and harsh penalties for even the most minor infractions. (Bureaucratic corruption and nepotism are, in particular, harshly punished.) Its legal system is, no pun intended, draconian. Even so, the recent increase in population has placed a great strain on the police force, and crime has been steadily rising for the last 10 years. (As always, the key is to not get caught.)

There is a strong organized crime presence in the city, including Asian Triads and American-grown Tong. Street gangs are also a significant problem, especially in the yang and Beyonder ghettoes. (Shadow warriors are aggressively recruited by gangs, and the most prominent have their own warrior schools.)

In many cases gangs have infiltrated the police forces, or have recruited official patrons. Xiyatu has a dedicated organized crime unit, but it is notoriously inefficient and corrupt.

Xiyatu suffers from Emergences and nomadic gangs, as all North American polities do. As is common, their border is, in many cases, a formality, violated at will by nomadic packs and gangs. The further from the city and Mt. Rainier, the more tenuous their rule.

Vortexes are dealt with aggressively. The city has a standing bounty for reporting a new vortex, and an even higher bounty for scouting one. They also offer contracts for closing a vortex. In extremis, the dragons go vortex-jumping themselves.

Rumors have it that there's a massive vortex in the Rainier lair, that leads to Dradhakh (the dragon continent in the Beyond). This is likely only a rumor, but it is true that they have a large number of Khadach (humanoid draconic hexapeds) protecting the lair, Khadach who have been trained to use specially modified Type 56 rifles (an AK variant) and who wear tailored Teijin armor (a Kevlar clone, manufactured in Japan). The dragons are well protected in their tunnels.

Xiyatu: Energy and Transportation

The dragons are mad for self-sufficiency. Xiyatu wants to make everything themselves, and is willing to spend to achieve that goal.

If the city can't make something themselves, and often they can't, they are willing to purchase it from other polities and even invest in fledgling industries. If they can't purchase it or invest, they offer bounties for it, in the hopes of boosting the growth of a new industry.

Xiyatu money aided or created the Utah arms industry, Utah's copper and uranium mines, Dakota's automobile industry, Bakersfield's oil fields, and many others. This fight for self-sufficiency has a great impact on energy production and transportation, in particular.

Xiyatu has no native oil production capacity. Its electricity comes from three full-scale nuclear power plants, built by Chinese energy firms (using Utah-mined and refined uranium). These are not the micro-reactors used by wealthy Outlaw settlements, but full-scale plants (1000, 1200, and 1500 MW). These plants provide the electricity for the high-tech companies in the city, municipal electricity, and vehicle recharging stations.

There is no public transit in the city. The vast majority of people walk, or ride bicycles (bicycle tires are expensive and hence rare). The richest ride in electrical vehicles, manufactured on the mainland.

The Xiyatu military was one of the first large-scale customers for the Dakotas "Car Bazaar" factories (as the vehicles brought from China began to break down), purchasing (relatively) large quantities of Dakota Sue choppers (known by fogeys as "that MASH helicopter"), and later Dakota Hueys. They also purchased large numbers of Dakota Rovers (their Land Rover clone), especially the up-armored "tiny tank" version. (Ammo and guns, of course, they buy from Utah.)

(Since the dragons took over, Xiyatu's military expenditures have tripled. It's their largest single slice of government spending. This makes Vancouver nervous, for good reasons, which is why the Canadians themselves are upgrading and expanding their military. Right now, the Canadians are dependent on Dakota and Utah imports, but the Brit-Can government is trying hard to develop their local industrial base. (Canada consists of British Canada, formerly British Columbia, also known as Can-Fed, Quebec, called "Frog-Fed", and a whole lot of Outlaw.) If it does ever come to war with Xiyatu, the Canadians want to be prepared. Of course, a robust military proves useful in dealing with the Outlaw, as well.)

Military vehicles require petroleum, which is today imported from the Fed. In the bad old days, when war with Vancouver loomed and the Fed was a neutral-leaning-towards-hostile power, Xiyatu imported gasoline and diesel from the Siberian Junta. (At ruinous prices. The bullion they brought with them from the mainland took a big hit.)

After the treaty with the Fed, they started buying Utah gasoline and diesel, imported at great expense and in limited quantities. Lately they have been importing California crude, which is cheaper and available in greater quantities, and refining it themselves.

The Xiyatu government (under orders of the dragons) has invested in the Dakota companies who founded and run Bakersfield. There is even a small contingent of Xiyatu armed forces in the fortress town, protecting those convoys owned by Xiyatu's state petroleum company. And yes, their convoys also hire Guns.

Notes on Xiyatu

I’d like to do another nice little essay on some part of Xiyatu, but currently there’s only a few topics left, all of fairly short length. So, we’ll do those.

• Punching Your Ticket, Dragon Style: California is the most popular retirement destination for wealthy Guns, but Xiyatu is a close second. You can’t buy citizenship, but you can apply for it. It’s a difficult and lengthy process.

Getting permanent residency, however, is fairly easy, especially if you speak Standard Chinese. If you’ve made enough money, the city can be quite comfortable, and former Guns can find permanent employment in their government, their police, or their military (especially their vortex-jumpers). (Employment grants citizenship.)

• Xiyatu Cuisine: Xiyatu is a primarily agricultural economy, and the mix of native food-stuffs and Chinese cuisine is a strange one. The chefs of Xiyatu  make extensive use of mock rice (“Puget Rice”), made from wheat. Other substitutions are equally bizarre. (Puget rice remained popular, even after California began producing rice crops again. Even real rice, imported from the mainland, is prized only by the older population, who actually lived in China.)

• Sole Supplier: Before the rotting plague, there were four main ports for the West Coast transoceanic trade: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. After the Collapse, only two were viable.

Los Angeles was a desert, filled with millions of corpses. Seattle was abandoned, a ghost city.

San Francisco had held on to a functioning government (based out of the suburbs south of the city), and even had a military presence. Vancouver was the main refugee center for Canadians, and the locus of their political recovery in the west.

None of this mattered at the time, as there was no foreign country to trade with. Later, of course, there was Xiyatu, the Chi-Com diaspora, and a trickle of trade that grew and grew.

Nowadays, contracts with the governments of coastal China (the first Republic of China) and Taiwan (the other Republic of China) specify that Xiyatu is the only North American port city authorized for export — all Chinese commercial traffic unloads at Xiyatu. Some smugglers may unload in Alaska or Vancouver, as they can make far more money there, but they risk revocation of their import license. China makes a lot of money from America, one of their most reliable foreign markets.

• Dragon’s Lair: To create their lair, the dragons have burrowed deep into Mt. Rainier. The first magicians and shadow warriors went to the mountain to train. Most trained with the Blind Master, a blind dragon who sleeps in the deepest part of the caverns. The Blind Master is the one who developed the syncretist philosophies and techniques that Sinocized the magic principles of the Beyond.

Unbeknownst to the Chinese (and everybody else except you and me), the Blind Master is scarred and crippled, and can no longer fly. (This was the wounded dragon who emerged from the vortex.) It never leaves the lair, but is still a vital component of the clutch. It is a powerful magician, and among its other duties, it is the last line of defense for the hoard.

• Dragon Politics: The dragons are responsible for the overthrow of Communism in the city. Their serfs, eventually encompassing the entire Central Committee, liberalized the economy, dismantled the police state, and began allowing immigration of non-Chinese.

(They also encouraged, or at least allowed, the spread of the dragon cult among the people. Dragons have a prominent place in Chinese mythology and mysticism, and the real-life dragons have used that to cement their leadership role in the city-state.)

There are two schools of thought on the situation. The first holds that the dragons allow a free market, because it is inherently more efficient, and so enriches the city and the dragons. The other holds that dragons are cruel and rapacious, so of course they’re capitalists. Saner theories hold that dragons are big and unkillable and can eat you, so it’s probably better not to speculate on their motives and character, especially in their own city.

• ...And They Have a Plan: A lot of the information given in the various Xiyatu posts hint at deeper issues underlying the whole phenomenon of vortexes and Emergence. Without giving away the hints, there is a reason for what the dragons do. They have a plan, and their administration of Xiyatu is aimed at more than just garnering stature for their clutch. (That is a reason, but there’s more to it than that.)

I will get to those issues at some point. (I hope.)

Just not right now.

That's it on Xiyatu. Tomorrow, some other part of the Outlaw. Thanks for reading!

What's The Point?

It’s called world-builder’s disease: the tendency of people writing a novel or creating an RPG setting, to layer detail upon detail to an inordinate degree.

“Well the K’vasish tribe of the east Erailia Plains, marked by the line of the dry riverbed of the K’tarn River, can only marry from tribes in their matrilineal line. More, they can only marry in Spring, defined as once the snows have melted from the shortest peak in the Talinin mountain range. This, except for the Mulairn sept, which (per their religious doctrines as recorded in section 17, mark 5 of ‘The Kommisan’) deny...”

...and so forth. It’s a lot of detail, not terribly pertinent to story or gameplay.

I will freely admit, that some of the posts for Guns in The Outlaw may seem to be just that — needless detail, layered on simply because the author thinks it’s neat. Economics, for example, including oil resources, mineral resources, industrial capacity, and all of that. Details on government and culture. Historical write-ups, of what happened during the Collapse and after. A lot of detail, not terribly pertinent to story or gameplay.

Here’s the thing: my goal, in writing this, is to make a playable, interesting world. And, to be interesting, there has to be some weirdness, some gonzo factors present. And those gonzo factors have to be explained. Not to players, or GM’s, but to myself.

Take Xiyatu. A dark, cyberpunk metropolis, straight out of Blade Runner, founded by expatriates from China, in the shadows of which rage Big Trouble In Little China martial arts gang wars. 20 minutes away is the Lonely Mountain, 20 minutes away in a different direction is Mad Max, and 20 minutes away in a third direction is John Carpenter’s Vampires.

That’s fairly gonzo (if not nearly as gonzo as some other games). Yet each element has a reason to exist, and is explained in depth.

There’s more. Can there really be a Chinese colony on the shores of Seattle? 24 years after an apocalypse, does it make sense that people could make and use cars? What about computers or nuclear power plants? I mean, really, this is the post-apocalypse. Can such things really be done?

Well, in all those cases, the answer is “Yes. Such things can happen.” I only know that, because I did some quick-and-dirty research on the pertinent topics, and justified to myself that they could.

See, a lot of the material I posted wouldn’t ever go into a sourcebook, wouldn’t ever have to be read by GM’s or players. But it influences the material players and GM’s should read.

An example: one of the prime sources for contracts are convoys. If you’re in City A and want to get to City B, it’s cheapest and quickest to find a convoy going your direction, and sign on. They drive you, feed you, pay for shells, and let you shoot bad guys. What could be better?

Suppose it becomes important what’s in the semi trucks. Well then, there’s a chart GM’s can read off, or randomly roll on, to tell them.

Utah Convoys. 1d3 trucks. One cargo per truck, roll 1d6.

1. A ’38 Packard Hawk. (10% of the time with technomagical augmentations.)
2. 1000 KB-35 assault rifles, packed in oiled paper in crates, with 1000 clips of ammo.
3. 8 massive spools of copper wire, each spool as high as a person.
4. 1d2 lead-lined crates, with uranium rods packed inside. Each marked with the “Nuclear Hazard” symbol.
5. Spare parts.
6. Foodstuffs, various grades.

And so forth. A quick, easy chart for GM’s to use. But that one chart is built off the economics of the setting, which comes from historical writeups, the details of which they don’t need to see.

Did you know Utah has one of the largest open-air copper mines in the world? No? Good, it’s probably irrelevant for you. For me, writing the setting, I know that Utah is one of the chief sources of copper wiring in NA, a very important commodity, and hence convoys coming from Utah often carry massive spools of wire. I make a single entry on the above chart, and there you go.

My only goal is to make something GM’s and players can use as the fodder for great and fun adventures. To get to that point, I have to troll through odd subjects and write up some obscure material. But it’s not worldbuilder’s disease, because it’s not detail for detail’s sake, but necessary detail that players and GM’s don’t ever need to see.

Totally different, right?

Right?

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;709160What's The Point?

Here's the thing: my goal, in writing this, is to make a playable, interesting world. And, to be interesting, there has to be some weirdness, some gonzo factors present. And those gonzo factors have to be explained. Not to players, or GM's, but to myself.

More designers should have that philosophy.  

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;709342More designers should have that philosophy.  

To be honest, it's less a philosophy, more a personality flaw.

A Problem of Borders

Take a small bowl of India ink. Dip your fingers in it, then flick them at a piece of white paper. What you'll get is a random pattern of dots, some bigger, some smaller, some so fine they can hardly be seen.

Now take a pencil and draw a shape around some of the dots. Circle, square, irregular pentagon, the exact shape doesn't matter.

What you end up with is a good approximation of a political unit in the Outlaw.

The ink dots are cities and settlements, some bigger, some smaller. People live and work there, and there are police or militia (of varying sizes and competency) to defend the town. (The tiniest dots have 100 people or less, and a single halfway-decent sheriff, if they're lucky.)

The line is the border, of Dakota, Xiyatu, the Siberian Junta, any polity anywhere in the world in 2039. It marks all the territory that polity claims for its own.

And the white space outside and inside the line? Well, folks, that's the Outlaw.

Borders, in 2039, are incredibly porous. There just aren't enough people or technology to police them or enforce them. So even the most vigorous, prosperous, thriving polity only controls a fraction of its claimed territory. The rest is wide open.

Bezerkergangs can cross the border at will, avoiding outlying settlements, striking deep in the interior. Bloodgangs can strike at the smaller cities on the edges of the map, taking food (that is, people) and fading away into the wilderness. And vortexes can appear anywhere, apparently at random, usually in the white spaces, with no one the wiser.

This is why Guns are important. Why they are needed. They aren't just nomadic mercenary killers. (Not just that.) And the cities that need them, that hire them, aren't just tiny independent hamlets lost in the vast wilderness of what used to be South Carolina.

The Outlaw is everywhere. The hazards and terrors of the Outlaw are everywhere. And Guns are needed...

Everywhere.

One Last Thing...

Maybe one last thing about Xiyatu...

The dragons are not nice beings. They are not kind, they are not generous, they are not paternal.

They are greedy, calculating, and pitiless. Humans are tools, and they no more grieve for their loss than a you would for losing a screw.

(At the same time, they are not sadists. They don't glory in human pain or suffering. They don't torture for the sake of torture, torment for the sake of torment, or play with their food. They are indifferent, not malevolent.)

The dragons increased freedom in the city, because it fit with their goals. They ensured the security of the city-state, because their plans required it. They foster economic development (which brings jobs and a measure of prosperity) because they need a prosperous domain.

None of this is done out of the kindness of their hearts. Dragon hearts have no kindness.

When dragons bargain with you, it is solely because it suits them. If it suited, they would kill you just as easily.

Do not romanticize them, do not mistake them, do not forget what you are dealing with: an entirely inhuman mind, utterly bereft of human emotions. Utterly bereft of humanity.

Guns of the Guns

“Don’t fuck with the Mormons; they make good guns and aren’t afraid to use them.” — Outlaw saying

Utah is known for three things: Mormons, monsters, and machineguns. (The last two are related.) The best firearms in the Outlaw and the Fed are made in Utah, made in great numbers and at high quality.

The .50 caliber Browning machine gun, standard on most convoys. The .45 Colt 1911A1 pistol. The 7.62mm KBR, a modified Type 56 clone (itself a modified clone of the AK-47). The “twin 35’s”, the KB-35 (a KBR rechambered for 10mm ammo) and the CB-35 (a Colt 1911A1, also rechambered for Browning 10mm rounds). And an assortment of hunting shotguns, rifles, and bows.

And ammo. Lots and lots of ammo.

The most common firearms in North America are pre-Collapse weapons. At the time of the plague, there were approximately 310 million non-military firearms (civilian-owned, plus local, state, and Federal agency weapons) in the United States. 47% of households owned at least one weapon, and there were 5,400 licensed firearms manufacturers.

Second most common are locally produced weapons, of many varieties. Ground out on machine shop benches by individual craftsmen across the continent, these pistols, rifles, and shotguns are of varying quality. They have the benefit of being cheap and locally-made — no need to wait for a convoy, just make it yourself. (Ammo can be a little trickier.)

The third most common weapons in the Outlaw are Browning arms, and the most popular Browning weapon is their clone of the venerable AK-47, the KBR. If there were an official weapon of the Outlaw, the KBR (Kalashnikov-Browning) would be it.

The AK is legendarily rugged and reliable, under a wide range of conditions. It can take insane amounts of abuse, up to and including sand in the mechanism, and still operate. AK’s have been fitted with a number of underbarrel accessories, like grenade launchers and shotguns. The rifle is very cheap to make, and can be turned out in large numbers quickly and easily.

Designed by a Soviet gunsmith at the tail end of WWII, the AK became ubiquitous in the Cold War because of its reliability, low cost, and high stopping power and penetration. As Outlaw settlements are about as rich and peaceful as your typical pre-plague Liberian village, the same conditions and qualities that made the AK attractive to Third World nations, also made it attractive to the Outlaw.

But what made it ubiquitous was the Chinese.