Editing Empire of the Petal Throne (section)

==The Races of Tékumel==
Tékumel is mostly populated by humans, but also has various other alien species who got trapped here along with us.

===Humans===
[[File:Tsolyáni citizenship document.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Sign your name in the blank line and you will become the vassal, from now on and to the end of time, of the "Emperor-great-excellent-powerful".]]
====Tsolyáni====
The Tsolyáni humans of Tékumel are in most ways similar to the humans of old Earth, but with some notable cultural differences. For starters, there are, like in many cultures, strict gender roles, many enforced by law, but with the caveat that any woman can declare themselves “aridani”, after which the law will consider them as men, allowing them to do normally male activities like fighting in the military and adventuring. All Tsolyáni are born into a clan, with those few clanless Tsolyáni being considered inherently untrustworthy, and there is a strong honor system based on what is considered noble or ignoble. Slavery is widespread, and the concept of abolitionism is unheard of. The Tsolyáni are polytheistic, and very serious about religion, on account of how most gods can be objectively proven to exist, being strange alien beings from the space between universes.
====N’lüss====
The other notable race of humans in the Five Empires region is the N’lüss. They are huge. So huge that they tower over other human races and in most editions of the game have special rules just for playing them. Unlike most races on Tékumel, who are mostly inspired by middle-eastern and meso-american cultures, the N’lüss are basically land Vikings, complete with tribes, bards, raiding, and generations long blood-feuds. They usually come to the Five Empires to fight as mercenaries, and most often return home after their time is done, as they do not integrate well into the culture of the Five Empires.
====Nóm====
A nomadic seafarer culture not found in the Five Empires, the Nóm can be encountered in the seas to East, and are vaguely-Polynesian the way the N’lüss are land Vikings. In contrast to the pale-ass N’lüss, the Nóm have skin as black as human skin can possibly be. The most notable things about the Nóm are their mastery of marine travel in a world where giant sea monsters usually put a stop to that shit, and that that they have somehow developed a form of sorcery unique from that found in the Five Empires. Nóm spells are catalogued in the form of “spell-pictures”, and every Nóm sorcerer only memorizes a single spell. Just the one. They become masters of this one spell, and often change their name to match their own personal spell.

===The Friendly Races=== 
[[File:Archetypes, plate 4.png|thumb|350px|right|Some of the friendly races.]]
Those species who maintain a friendly relationship with humanity.
====Pé Chói====
The Pé Chói are weird seahorse people and everyone’s friends. They were the ones who gave humanity faster-than-light travel and remain the friendliest species in regards to humanity. They are not uncommon in human cities, where they start dressing and acting like humans. They are generally peaceful, but have the natural ability to tell when one of their kin is murdered up to several miles away, and if they don’t consider the killing just they will go out of their way to absolutely murder the shit out of the son-of-a-bitch who did it. They are originally from the star Procyon. Their greatest enemy is bees. No seriously, there is a species of bee on Tékumel who, when annoyed, will vibrate at such a high pitch that it will cause the Pé Chói to have seizures.

====Pygmy Folk====
Referring to themselves as the Ninínyal, the Pygmy Folk live up to their name by not even being a meter tall. They look like an odd amalgamation of reptilian and rodent features, and have a reputation as being violent and greedy, but are also oddly friendly towards humans. They are originally from the star Mirach.
====Swamp Folk====
Happily living in their humid mud-holes, Swamp Folk (also called the Hegléthyal) are four-legged and two-armed, with a large rubbery crest coming out of their heads and heading down their backs. They are common in human navies and are quick to adopt human customs.
====Tinalíya====
These four-legged two-armed people are even shorter than the pygmy people and look like they’re made of rocks. They are amicable and curious but are also so literal minded as to be incapable of understanding metaphors or jokes. They live underground, are better then anyone at repairing ancient technology, and are essentially Tékumel’s answer to dwarfs. They originate from Algol.

===The Neutral Races===
Those species whose relationship to humans is complicated.
====Ahoggyá====
A species of barrel-shaped people with four arms, four legs, and four faces. They have eight sexes, and absolutely no one has figured out how the hell they reproduce. They can be argumentative and difficult to work with. They are originally from the star Achernar.

====Chíma====
A race of bipedal seafarers with elephantine noses. The Chíma have only recently come into contact with the Five Empires, and are a decidedly aesthetic culture, fascinated by the fashions of other species.
====Hláka====
Furry brown creatures with large bat-like wings. The Hláka are, in the opinions of most other species, massive pussies. This is exemplified by their tendency to flee combat whenever possible, and the absolute terror that open bodies of water inflict on them. They don’t make good slaves or soldiers, so humans generally leave them alone, which suits the Hláka just fine. For some reason, likely related to how completely harmless they are, the Hláka are the only non-native race that the Ssú and Hlüss haven't pledged to exterminate.
====Hokún====
From a distance the Hokún look like strange but beautiful sculptures of glass. Up close, these sculptures will probably stab you. The insectoid Hokún have a transparent carapace, allowing you to see their organs, and have an ant-like society, with every Hokún being part of a “group-mind”, and there’s even a separate caste of larger, dumber Hokún that the others use as mounts. This species has a very complicated relationship with humanity, eating them in some regions, enslaving them in others, and being enslaved by them in yet more.
====Mihálli====
The titty-lions. The Mihálli are a species of shapeshifters whose default form is a lion headed biped with four breasts. They came to Tékumel disguised as humans, but after the planet got stuck in the pocket dimension they discovered that they were like, really, really good at magic, the best in all of Tékumel. And so they decided to use this newfound power as an excuse to openly rule over humanity. This resulted in a long war between Mihálli and humans that ended in the humans dropping an atomic weapon on the Mihálli capital city. After losing their homeland the Mihálli nearly went extinct, and survived by using their shapeshifting abilities to hide amongst human society. They have gotten so good at this that most modern humans believe the Mihálli to be a mythical species made up to scare children. From the perspective of the other sentient species, the Mihálli are all completely insane with incomprehensible goals, because they've made like Billy Pilgrim and come unstuck in time.

====Nyaggá====
Found exclusively in a single lake in northeast Tsolyánu, the Nyaggá are an aquatic race who cannot survive on land for more than an hour. Despite their fishy appearance, the Nyaggá are warm-blooded and more like Earth’s mammals than its fish. They react violently to anyone trying to penetrate their watery empire. Despite this, they do have a strange trading relationship with the local humans. The Nyaggá will leave sculptures and valuable corals on the beach, and humans will take these and leave things they think the Nyaggá will like. Some say that the Nyaggá can interbreed with humans to create a race of [[Deep One|Fish-People]] with gills and pallid flesh, but these are probably just rumors.

====Páchi Léi====
Four-armed, four-legged reptile men, the Páchi Léi have a strange six-sense that lets them better detect traps, hidden doors, and the like. They are psychologically closer to humans than most species, and as such are better at integrating into human society compared to other species, save perhaps the Pé Chói.
====Shén====
The Shén are beaked bipedal lizardmen with a tail they can use as a mace. They are commonly found in human armies due to their skill as warriors and excellent discipline. Despite this, the Shén have shown no desire to expand their nations, and when at home focus mainly on defense. For some reason they really hate the Ahoggyá, and will often attack them unprovoked when in the wilderness, though they are polite enough not to do so in human cities. They are originally from the star Antares.

====Urunén====
Vaguely Orcish bipeds who primarily live in polar regions. Due to their isolation, they have only just recently established contact with the Five Empires. Statistically identical to humans, as if to underscore how similar they and the people of Tekumel are even as they figure out what to do with each other.

===The Enemy Races===
Those species who believe the only good human is a dead one.

====Hlüss====
One of the original inhabitants of Tékumel, the Hlüss look like strange segmented scorpions, complete with stinger. This stinger can paralyze an opponent, at which point a female Hlüss will inevitably lay her eggs in her frozen captive. The Hlüss are predominantly found at sea in boats made from their ‘Secretions’. They are allied to the Ssú, and enemies of just about almost everyone else.
====Hlutrgú====
Strange little goblin-y frog men, the Hlutrgú are humanity’s greatest foe. Every year, a swarm of these tiny maniacs emerges from the swamps and goes on raids into human territory, where they proceed to slaughter anyone they can get a hold of for seemingly no reason beyond the sheer fun of it. After this, several thousand of them will get into tiny boats and try to sail across the sea, a journey that invaribly results in most of them drowning. No one has determined why they do this, and most people don´t care as long as it results in less Hlutrgú. 
====Shunned Ones====
Strange skeletal-looking humanoids, the Shunned Ones are an enigmatic race who cover themselves in voluminous robes, further adding to their mystique, and smell like an open sewer in summertime. They rarely leave their underground cities, which are hermetically sealed and filled with a gas that is toxic to humans, but when they do go outside it is usually to collect magical items, which they hoard obsessively for unknown, likely nefarious purposes.
====Ssú====
One of the original inhabitants of Tékumel, the Ssú never really got over the whole ‘being genocided into near oblivion and being made into captives on their own planet' thing. They are friendly to the Hlüss, but are sworn enemies of just about everyone else, and have made it their sole goal to exterminate the outsiders (except the Hláka, who they are okay with for some reason), especially the humans. They are often found in ancient ruins searching for weapons to give them an edge over their opponents. The Ssú have two-arms and four-legs, as you have probably guessed if you’ve made it this far, and come in two distinct subspecies, the Grey Ssú and the Black Ssú. They look about the same, but the Black Ssú are bigger, smarter, and deadlier.