Talislanta

Talislanta
RPG published by Bard Games, Wizards of the Coast, Pharos Press, Shooting Iron, Morrigan Press
Rule System	Omni System
Authors	Stephan Michael Sechi
First Publication	1987 (1st Edition) 1988 (2nd Edition) 1992 (3rd Edition) 2001 (4th Edition) 2005 (d20 Edition) 2007 (5th Edition) 2016 (Savage Lands)

"No Elves"

– The tagline for the gameline

Talislanta (not to be confused with the Talenta Plains in Eberron) is an RPG and setting created by Stephan Michael Sechi. The setting is inspired more by the works of Jack Vance and Lovecraft, rather than Tolkien, as evidenced by the tagline. Frankly you'd be hard put to find a human here, as we know it.

In 2010, Sechi put all of the English-language products under the Creative Commons license, so anyone could download them from the Talislanta webpage, except for all material released afterwards. In 2021, Eveything Epic announced it was going to run a Kickstarter soon for a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition version of Talislanta lol nope, Sechi and Everything Epic said they're throwing that out the window with current skub and using the original rules system.

Setting

Archaeus is the world on which Talislanta is a continent. It is (now) a flat disk, mostly comprised of water. The world orbits two suns and has seven moons, which are used to keep track of time, 7 months in a year, 7 weeks in a month, 7 days in a week. In the 1990 edition, Archaeus was a sphere with the twin suns and moons orbiting that.

In the distant past, The Great Disaster, brought on by the falling of the flying cities of the now-dead Archaen, transformed much of the worlds surface. Once verdant lands turned to desolate wastelands and a colossal magical hurricane settled around the continent, occasionally bringing in things like acid rain and arcane energy storms. From this came the Age of Confusion, during which Talislanta: The Savage Land takes place, when people abandoned the cities of old and much knowledge of magic and the world was lost.

The main gameline takes place in the sixth century of the New Age, as pockets of civilization have risen from the ashes, surrounded by ruins of ancient cities with riches and knowledge to be found, wild beasts, breath-taking sights, savage tribes, and rumors of a coming second Great Disaster.

The main players on Talislanta are the western Seven Kingdoms, which are mostly harmless; the Quan Empire to the east now run by KANGS, and Zandu and Aaman. Also plenty of wilderness, especially up north.

Northwest of the continent is the Midnight Sea; this blends into the Aethereal Sea. This features sea-dragons and Khazad ghost-ships. Northeast is the Sea of Madness. Azure Ocean is west.

The Unknown Lands

Other continents / planets / planes are associated with this mainland. The windship (read: airship) explorer Nauticus, a good fwend of Biggus Dickus, "circumnavigated" the Archaeus world back when the Tarteran side of The Darkness was still Thanatus and when the Neurians were still a thing in Simbar. He visited Celadon and Altarus as well.

There's even a map, in the 1990(!) Talislanta Worldbook. It's a sketch and a very early one, so not to be taken as full canon anymore; but it does imply that all these continents are island continents, approximately Talislanta's size. That cannot be true of Altarus, under its own rules (see below).

Alcedon

In the 1990 book it's a land of eternal warfare associated with mythic Alhambra. Nowadays, Hotan's History says it's the flying island uprooted from the Sinking Lands of Talislanta. Castle Sanctum is on it.

Altarus

Another continent lies past the Azure Ocean, mentioned in old Talislantian legendry. Per Hotan's History this hosts Kharistan and Randun, who fight wars against each other (or maybe just tournaments). Chronicles (2005) associates it with mythic Alhambra. The 1990 book said Altarus was uprooted from Talislanta's Sinking Lands; but the canon now insists no, that's Alcedon.

Draknar

The world used to be ruled by reptile giants; those giants only have this continent now.

Celadon, Temesia, Simbar

Morrigan promised a Celadon gazetteer in Hotan's History but that didn't happen. The fandom has found Douglas Bramlett's manuscript for it since then, and made it available - printed May 2021! This MS includes / explains Temesia as well so we'll discuss it all here.

Celadon is a green paradise. The dendrads are plants by day, humanoids by night.

In earlier editions Temesia was another island continent beyond the Sea of Madness - or in it. This was known for a brass mountain with liquid mercury rivers. (Probably why that sea drives people nuts.) In present canon "Temesia" is a civilisation on Celadon proper. Panic demons live here.

Simbar is another island likely past Celadtemesion, so isn't often visited. This has, or had, a rich civilisation.

The Darkness

Across the Midnight Sea, is the Darkness alias the Midnight Realm. This is by far the best-documented external realm. Morrigan Press, who had the Talislanta licence in 2005, published a whole thing on that. Which also has much to report on the Lower Planes en passant.

The Darkness is a hellish demiplane, and yes Morrigan was not above floating the word "grim" in this context. Its land is in two masses, a larger northeastern one and a smaller southwestern one, connected by a narrow isthmus.

The big sub-island used to be the civilisation of Thanatus. Now it is the Fallen Lands - so called because there's a massive rift to the AbyssDemonrealms there, which wasn't plugged in time. This place has gone full Iuz, even Worldwound. Rivers of molten iron, that sort of thing.

To the extent the Darkness has civilisation, that would be in the southwestern sub-island. Here are the Nine Princedoms. This is run by Tarterans, Talislantese for "tieflings". Tarterans have a caste society, as Lawful Evils do, so it's not exactly rainbows and puppies here either.

The Silver Republic

The opposite to the The Darkness above, being a harmonious place, where elementals and archons live alongside enlightened folks. That's all that ever got written up, since it never made it past having only the base outlines written.

The Planes

Talislanta has its own planar Cosmology which it names the Omniverse. This shares some similarities with the Great Wheel cosmology of D&D especially down undah. Its planes are in three different groups: the Middle Planes, the Spheres, and the Lower Planes.

Middle Planes

• The Elemental Plane: The heart of the Omniverse, also called the Green World. Everything here is alive, from the mountain ranges and oceans, to the gentle gusts and individual blades of grass, as these are inhabited by the elementals, who take the raw aetherium from the Aethereal Sea and shape it into the substance of reality.
• The Material Plane: Also called Primus, here's where the substance from the Green World collects and becomes the various worlds supporting life.
• The Dreamrealms: An infinite number of realms created from the dreams of others, spread amid the Aethereal Sea, where reality is entirely subjective. Some say it's split between the Dream Dimension ruled by Dreamweaver and the Nightmare Dimension ruled by Noman; others say they're one and the same, distinguished only by the observer's point of view.
• The Aethereal Sea: Also called the Astral Plane, the sea is made of formless grey and blue mists that fills the distance between the Material Plane and the Spheres and the Lower Planes. It has currents, tides, storms, occasional islands, and fragments of destroyed realities. Anyone can sail through it with an oceangoing or aerial vessel, but navigating it requires the proper charts and equipment.

The Spheres

• The Silver Sphere: A peaceful realm inhabited by Paramanes, 10-feet tall, sliver-skinned spirits of of the dead that appear as idealized versions of themselves, who act as guardian angels and perform worthy deeds to ascend to the Radiant Sphere. The realm itself gives a polished, flawless, and unreal semblance sic.
• The Golden Sphere: Permeated by a golden, warm light, hence the name, within here lies a great amber castle inhabited by the Illuminus, the keepers of the Eternal Records, a book that supposedly contains all the secrets of the Omniverse. Living here are also the Guardians, 20-foot, winged, gold-skinned giants clad in enchanted armor and wielding enchanted blades. Mortals aren't allowed entry here unless accompanied by a Paramane or other higher spirits.
• The Radiant Sphere: Home to the Archons, nearly omniscient and omnipotent beings of pure, white light who guide and direct the Material Plane according to the will of The Light, a shimmering intelligence to which all higher form are drawn to and is worshipped as the Creator of the omniverse and life itself.
• The Crystalline Sphere: A collection of countless realms, reflecting the mind of its primary resident, namely a powerful spirit or a deity. Every realm is a paradise the specifics of which depend on the expectations of the main denizens loyal followers.

The Lower Planes

• The Underworld: Classical Sheol in as much as it is not an evil place, but also not a nice place. Dotted with graveyards, burial mounds, tombs, mausoleums, catacombs, and cenotaphs, all souls of the dead come here, crossing the Sea of Eternity, and walking the Forever Road to the Halls of Death, where Death judges them. In the northern region is the citadel Omnus, a library presided over by the spectral being called Destiny, or the Author of Fate, where all days, past, present, and future are written. If one can pass the Nine Gates of Omnus, they can petition Destiny for a glimpse of the future. This features the city Ebon; whose residents are tall, dark, and undead. The Malum now in the Iron Citadel in Talislanta are Ebonites back to the world of the living.
• Oblivion: A volcanic realm inhabited by devils. Once they were Archons, but they were cast out and make their home here now. Oblivion is surrounded by the Barrier Wall, a 1000 ft tall structure guarded by sentries, with two great iron portals allowing access and egress to the realm, one coming and going to the Underworld, and the other to the Riven Lands. Most devils live in the bleak stone castles that extend into the noxious atmosphere, while the lesser ones toil in the mines, pits, and dungeons, or hide in whatever crevices and holes they find.
• The Demonrealms: Home to the anti-elementals that are the demons. The ground is constantly breaking away into floating masses of sludge, seas burn, and black lightning rends the poisonous skies. Everything that is destroyed or dies in the Material Plane eventually ends up here to be broken down by the demons.
• The Void: A swirling darkness with a central nucleus of negative energy, The Dark, to which everything in the Void is drawn towards. All matter and energy that comes from the Demonrealms is turned back into aetherium here and distributed back into the Omniverse through the stars. Think, Room Of Lost Souls in Beetlejuice - damnation for the damned.

In those Riven Lands the devils and demons fight until the end of time. The parallels to Planescape's Blood War are obvious - although, since Talislanta had already been puttering along over the 1990s, this might well be an independent borrowing from Michael Moorcock's classic Law/Chaos dynamic.

South of the Demonrealms is the Raging Sea; south of that is the chaotic Nether Dimension. The Sepharans are from the latter. They've got a lust for the Nether Ones from the Void. Think of the Nether Realm as Talislanta's Leng.

The Dark Dimension, not to be confused with the Dark or the Darkness (we didn't come up with these names, leave us alone), is its own horrible thing, riddled with canyons and pits under a manta-infested black sky. It mainly interacts with other planes by way of the Brood.

Versions

Talislanta started in 1987 with a Chronicles lorebook. This was in the bad old days of D&D, when TSR weren't keen on supplements they couldn't control. As a result the earlier editions used their own systems - or stuck to lore. Its fourth-edition (2005ish) books go with Morrigan Press' "Omni" RPG rules. The Darkness and Menagerie use Omni.

Under the blessed light of the Open Game License / d20 system, in 2005 Morrigan Press produced a d20 rulebook, also. Unfortunately the Morrigan lads didn't much TEST said rulebook - nor even proofread it. Over the next three years one Paul Cunningham Got Shit Done and produced twenty pages worth of errata for that.

For the d20 aficionado, some Morrigan books do offer appendices to convert the systems, like Menagerie. Also, there are plenty of lorebooks for this setting that don't bother with stats: like the Morrigan edition of Chronicles of Talislanta and its followup Hotan's History (Dec 2006).

Gallery

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  World of Talislanta
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  Lands of The Darkness
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  Celadon SW, Temesia NE

External Links

• The main website for Talislanta