10 Questions about PlaneShift

[Nada]

Some questions that have been ambling through my mind since I got acquainted with Planeshift:

1. What year is it and what has been the founding event of the PlaneShift calendar; do foreign races (Diaboli, etc...) have their own calendar? What is the lifespan of the different races?

2. What are the existing languages? Is there a commontongue (represented by English) and race-specific languages? Do we know a few of these words?

3. What are the known godly powers of Laanx and Talad? I suspect that since they are \"young\" gods, they will have more over time? Is Laanx now male or genderless or a hermaphrodite? For that matter, I feel that a god should be a genderless entity, with gender attributes only emphasizing his/her/whatever character/behavioural traits.  

4. How is the clergy of the church of Laanx organized, what are their beliefs, rituals? What is in the Book of Names? Same question for Talad\'s? Are the people -except the Diaboli- of PlaneShift still aware of other gods? If yes, what behaviour/thoughts do they have with regard to those other gods?

5. What happens to the souls of the dead? PCs go to the Death Realm, do NPCs too? If yes, how do they explain the reappearance of the bodies if they have been discarded? Do they reach a certain form of heaven after a number of iterations? Do rats, gobbles, etc have some sort of Death Realm?

6. How do the natives do to know the direction/have knowledge of their relative position? I\'m not referring to maps or compasses but rather means other than the sun or stars since they do not exist.

7. Are rogues considered to be part of the fauna like rats or tesufangs or are they some sort of Ylians? If the latter, are there peaceable rogues? And by the way, is Gorbiak the only friendly gobble? What language does he speak? (I suspect this might be a spoiler, please don\'t give specifics if it is)

8. Is the Temple of Laanx in Hydlaa reminiscent of (ancient) Xacha architecture or built from a godly blueprint? Personally, I find that it clashes with the rest of the buildings in Hydlaa, although it does look good.

9. How is it that the races can \"cross-breed\"? Lemurs for instance have been created by Laanx and the Player\'s Guide says \"The Lemurs have an appearance similar to Humans, but their origins can\'t be connected unless we look at a very distant past\". Does this mean that Laanx based herself on humans to create the new race, some sort of godly genetic-engineering? Or is it that by mimicking Vodul\'s rituals, Laanx made the Lemurs compatible with humans, which would then mean that Vodul created the humans? On a side note, Lemurs are primates that live in Madagascar, the name comes from the Latin \"lemures\" (ghosts), has the name the same origin for PlaneShift Lemurs?

10. And would I even dare to ask about \"the legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani\"? (bonus question )

I know there are way more than 10 questions. Actually, there are *begins counting... but stops* ...well there are much more, sorry. I understand also that there may be some long-forgotten lore that will remain forever hidden and events that yet remain to be discovered, that\'s fine with me.

Afterthought 1: the list is a bit long, sorry. I considered posting them separately but thought that it might look like I was trying to increase my post count. The maximum post length is 12345 characters, there are 3755 in this one, so I reckon I\'m not going beyond what\'s appropriate.

Afterthought 2: these questions are simply the offspring of an inquiring mind. Do not see this thread as an attempt to rationalize a fantasy world. I perfectly understand the concept of suspension of disbelief and even if none of my questions were answered I would still find PlaneShift great.  

[Kiva]

1. What year is it and what has been the founding event of the PlaneShift calendar; do foreign races (Diaboli, etc...) have their own calendar? What is the lifespan of the different races?

Approximately 700 AC ( after creation (of the portals to the other planes))  

As for the calendar, well. Their calendar doesn\'t really work very well in a completely diffrent world, so the chance that they gave it up are pretty big.

Lifespan... Pretty normal, I suppose. I\'d think only Kran would have an inhuman lifetime as stone doesn\'t really decay like people do, but you never know. They are all humanoids though, so a qualified guess would be somewhere around 60-200.


2. What are the existing languages? Is there a commontongue (represented by English) and race-specific languages? Do we know a few of these words?

Each of the non-native races has their own language, but since they\'ve all been living together for so long, there pretty much only exists the common language, and the languages of the older generations, which are in the books.


3. What are the known godly powers of Laanx and Talad? I suspect that since they are \"young\" gods, they will have more over time? Is Laanx now male or genderless or a hermaphrodite? For that matter, I feel that a god should be a genderless entity, with gender attributes only emphasizing his/her/whatever character/behavioural traits.

They\'re gods. They can do anything.

You can think of Laanx as just a shadow figure, because it\'s only the stories that say she lost her gender. Noone really knows because noone has ever seen Laanx\'s body, after she was \"demolished\".


4. How is the clergy of the church of Laanx organized, what are their beliefs, rituals? What is in the Book of Names? Same question for Talad\'s? Are the people -except the Diaboli- of PlaneShift still aware of other gods? If yes, what behaviour/thoughts do they have with regard to those other gods?

The book of names is pretty much to the Xacha what the bible is to the christians. It\'s a book full of the teachings of     the god in question. I can\'t really answer anything about how the Laanx temple infrastructure is, but again, a good example would be the catholic church system with a master guy (pope whateverhisnameisthistime), and then lower and lower ranks.


5. What happens to the souls of the dead? PCs go to the Death Realm, do NPCs too? If yes, how do they explain the reappearance of the bodies if they have been discarded? Do they reach a certain form of heaven after a number of iterations? Do rats, gobbles, etc have some sort of Death Realm?

Everyone goes to the death realm, but the reason why PC\'s come back from there is because we\'re so smart and clever and all, and because we\'re all supposed to be heroes. However, eventually it wont be as easy to get out as it is now. You\'ll have to go through a lot of things to get back up on the ground, and among the commoners, that\'s thought of as an impossible thing to do.


6. How do the natives do to know the direction/have knowledge of their relative position? I\'m not referring to maps or compasses but rather means other than the sun or stars since they do not exist.

You can see the azure sun from anywhere in the cave, as long as you\'re not hiding somewhere, so as long as you know kind of where you are, you\'ll be able to figure out how to get somewhere. And then, of course, there are always signs that point in the direction of the nearest towns and such. But for now, nothing has really been told about if there is anything such as compasses or such, so the sun is the only real navigational help.


7. Are rogues considered to be part of the fauna like rats or tesufangs or are they some sort of Ylians? If the latter, are there peaceable rogues? And by the way, is Gorbiak the only friendly gobble? What language does he speak? (I suspect this might be a spoiler, please don\'t give specifics if it is)

They look human, don\'t they? But I don\'t think you should count on finding rogues that wont kill you, just yet. And Gorbiak speaks gobble. If the quest still works, you\'ll be able to find some informations somewhere ingame on how to speak with him.


8. Is the Temple of Laanx in Hydlaa reminiscent of (ancient) Xacha architecture or built from a godly blueprint? Personally, I find that it clashes with the rest of the buildings in Hydlaa, although it does look good.

\"Galeran led the Xacha to Yliakum and there, they settled on the first level and began immediately to use their ancient knowledge to built an iron temple consecrated to Laanx.\"

So yeah, they made it on their own.


9. How is it that the races can \"cross-breed\"? Lemurs for instance have been created by Laanx and the Player\'s Guide says \"The Lemurs have an appearance similar to Humans, but their origins can\'t be connected unless we look at a very distant past\". Does this mean that Laanx based herself on humans to create the new race, some sort of godly genetic-engineering? Or is it that by mimicking Vodul\'s rituals, Laanx made the Lemurs compatible with humans, which would then mean that Vodul created the humans? On a side note, Lemurs are primates that live in Madagascar, the name comes from the Latin \"lemures\" (ghosts), has the name the same origin for PlaneShift Lemurs?

Where did you see anything about crossbreeding humans and lemurs? As far as I know, an Ynnwn is what you get if you put a Diaboli and an elf (Nolthrir or Dermorian) together for a night. The rest of the races are pure breeds.

As for the lemur name, I have no clue where Talad got it from. After all, the races were made up over 10 years ago.

10. And would I even dare to ask about \"the legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani\"? (bonus question )

Pradesha is the capital city of the 10 Lemur cities which are located in Kadaikos, but were left due to the black flame\'s plague. Noone really knows who Ahrijani is, though.


I know I didn\'t answer everything, but it\'s not everything that has been disclosed so far, and I\'m no settings dev yet.

[Moogie]

Wow... just wow! I wasn\'t expecting such intelligent questions. We don\'t get many around here, you see. You\'re a rare thing Nada!


I just wanted to point out that Darkmoon has been working on the Enkidukai languages for quite a while now. There are many known words and phrases so far. If you\'re feline, I\'d be happy to share my knowledge of our ancient tongue.

[Nada]

*blushing*

@Moogie: Sadly I\'m not an Enkidukai but I guess that there\'s a strong possibility that one of my remaining incarnations will be.

@Kiva: thanks Kiva for this insight into PlaneShift. However I\'d wish to come back to the following issues which, I think, remain pending:

A.1. Approximately 700 AC ( after creation (of the portals to the other planes))

But the year of birth in Character Creation is 750.

A.2. Lifespan... Pretty normal, I suppose.

Normal like in real world (~80yrs in modern times, much less in a medieval setting) or normal like in Prof. Tolkien\'s work (with respect to the races that are comparable: human, elf, dwarf)? I think it\'s rather important from an RPG point of view.

B. Where did you see anything about crossbreeding humans and lemurs? As far as I know, an Ynnwn is what you get if you put a Diaboli and an elf (Nolthrir or Dermorian) together for a night. The rest of the races are pure breeds.

From the Player\'s Guide:
Racial suspicion and hostility are completely unknown, given that the greater part of people belonging to one race is normally married to someone of another race. Nevertheless, the half-breeds are considered as separate races. For common genetic rules, an individual will have a prevailing race that will determine its physical traits. For this reason, the main races are relatively pure. In other words, it can\'t happen that the races merge together forming a single mixed race: if someone has a Lemur father and an elf mother, he will belong to one race or to the other.

As I understand any race\'s blood can intermingle with another\'s, albeit not the Kran\'s (they don\'t have blood anyway ), the Ynnwn being the only \"true\" half-race in terms of mixed-appearance.

C. Pradesha is where the Lemurs used to live, back when they travelled with Laanx. It is the name of the giant cave, in which the Yliakum stalagmite is hanging.

From the Player\'s Guide:
Beyond Yliakum, concealed by the Bronze Doors, the Stone Labyrinths, the unknown Kadaikos, homeland of Lemurs, and the legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani - wait to be discovered.
...
The Lemurs multiplied rapidly, built the ten towns of Kadaikos, and they became a prosperous and numerous populations.

It seemed to me that the Lemurs dwelt in Kadaidos not Pradesha. Although if Pradesha is the giant cave, Kadaikos is a subset of it, true.

[Kiva]

A.1. Approximately 700 AC ( after creation (of the portals to the other planes))

But the year of birth in Character Creation is 750.

Which is why I said Approximately 700 AC. Couldn\'t remember the exact number.

A.2. Lifespan... Pretty normal, I suppose.

Normal like in real world (~80yrs in modern times, much less in a medieval setting) or normal like in Prof. Tolkien\'s work (with respect to the races that are comparable: human, elf, dwarf)? I think it\'s rather important from an RPG point of view.

Well like I said, somewhere around 60-200 years is the best guess anyone could make. 60 years would be for the humans, whereas the elves might live up to 200 years or more, depending on what they do for a living.

C. Pradesha is where the Lemurs used to live, back when they travelled with Laanx. It is the name of the giant cave, in which the Yliakum stalagmite is hanging.

From the Player\'s Guide:
Beyond Yliakum, concealed by the Bronze Doors, the Stone Labyrinths, the unknown Kadaikos, homeland of Lemurs, and the legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani - wait to be discovered.
...
The Lemurs multiplied rapidly, built the ten towns of Kadaikos, and they became a prosperous and numerous populations.

It seemed to me that the Lemurs dwelt in Kadaidos not Pradesha. Although if Pradesha is the giant cave, Kadaikos is a subset of it, true.

The ten towns of Kadaikos is a city created by the Lemurs, with the help of Laanx. Pradesha is simply the big cave that it was built in. The town is still there, but it\'s deserted now, due to the evil plague that hit it. That\'s why all the Lemurs left and went back to Yliakum.

[Zan]

I wanted to add in a little bit here regarding to other languages and Gorbiak, the friendly gobble ... man that sounds like a children\'s book.

Anyways I won\'t give away any spoilers but I have found some information about other languages, which included a few words in the gobble\'s native tongue. But when I tried to converse with Gorbiak I got the same reply as when I used english or any other combination of letters for that matter. So either my resources are inaccurate or Gorbiak is suffering from temporary deafness.

I don\'t think the sources are currently available anymore though and given the flawed quests all around Yliakum you \'ll have even less luck than me trying to make sense to gobbles.

[Nada]

I guess that I wanted elves to be immortal or have a long lifespan. But I think I see why this might not be a good idea, and might also be a slight failing of other games: an elf a few hundred years old and being only lvl1, that\'s conspicuous.
I\'ll assume that we\'re in 770AC. Those bearded Ylians must at least be 18+ as well as the dwarves (though I\'m not familiar with dwarven hair development ).
While pondering what\'s been said previously, it dawned on me that the concept of lifespan and returning from the Death Realm do not work very well together, unless, that is, if there\'s a finite number of reincartions in the same body.

Thank you again Kiva for bearing with me.


PS:
Zan: ... man that sounds like a children\'s book.
Do you mean that negatively or positively?
One should never forget what it\'s been like to be a child although it seems to be one of the failings of adulthood. For my part, I remember fondly the books which were read to me or those I read.

[Zan]

I didn\'t really mean anything by that, Nada. Especially nothing offensive .. simply a mental remark I made while typing that and an attempt at some humor. Obviously failed
That being said you are absolutely right that we shouldn\'t forget our childhoods as easily as most seem to do.

Now as for your realisation on the combination of a lifespan and the death realm. I \'ve come to believe that while most deaths seem to make the body vaporize into thin air while it is moved to a dark and hostile realm, they aren\'t all like that. It seems to me that there are at least two different ways of dying in Yliakum. One being a simple transition where you move into another world or realm .. but the other .. well I \'m not sure but I believe it to be a more permanent death. Also one of which there is no coming back. I \'m fairly sure of the existance of that second form of death but I don\'t know much about the specifics yet.

That it does exist is proven to me by several things though, I have seen many people going about their daily lives one day and then suddenly disappear for the next and all following days, never to be heard from again. Seeing that I \'m not unfamiliar with travelling through the Death Realm and I haven\'t even found those individuals there I have to conclude that something else happened to them to make them disappear. Some of the rumours I \'ve heard included some other realm called \"The Real World\" .. people think that is where some of them went.
Another piece of evidence has fallen into my lap, as a figure of speech, most of us have seen it though. The gobble corpse on the Hydlaa Plaza. Unlike normal corpses this one wouldn\'t disappear until one of the city officials disposed of the corpse. It obviously never went to the Death Realm.

So those things have led me to conclude there are several forms of death, the most common being having your body and soul transported to the realm of the dead. This might also explain that when ones lifespan is at an end and you die of old age instead of mortal wounds or poisoning you might end up somewhere else, somewhere where there is no returning from.

[Nada]

I pretty much guessed you didn\'t mean wrong, Zan. Just wanted to make things square.

Originally posted by Zan
So those things have led me to conclude there are several forms of death, the most common being having your body and soul transported to the realm of the dead. This might also explain that when ones lifespan is at an end and you die of old age instead of mortal wounds or poisoning you might end up somewhere else, somewhere where there is no returning from.

I concur.
[edit]
I would even add that the soul gets tired of endless rebirth and therefore yearns for either a new shell to inhabit or the peace of the Halls of its Fathers (or should I say Parents for that matter, let there be no discrimination). There are also vague rumours that any given life-force in PlaneShift has the ability to control up to 4 shells.
[/edit]

[Under the moon]

Scrawled by Kiva

C. Pradesha is where the Lemurs used to live, back when they travelled with Laanx. It is the name of the giant cave, in which the Yliakum stalagmite is hanging.

From the Player\'s Guide:
Beyond Yliakum, concealed by the Bronze Doors, the Stone Labyrinths, the unknown Kadaikos, homeland of Lemurs, and the legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani - wait to be discovered.
...
The Lemurs multiplied rapidly, built the ten towns of Kadaikos, and they became a prosperous and numerous populations.

It seemed to me that the Lemurs dwelt in Kadaidos not Pradesha. Although if Pradesha is the giant cave, Kadaikos is a subset of it, true.

The ten towns of Kadaikos is a city created by the Lemurs, with the help of Laanx. Pradesha is simply the big cave that it was built in. The town is still there, but it\'s deserted now, due to the evil plague that hit it. That\'s why all the Lemurs left and went back to Yliakum.

Hold up there, Kiva, not so fast. That simply makes no sense to me. The Lemur\'s cave is never called Pradesha, and the very structure of that sentence indicates that they are two separate entities. Also, \"Laanx wandered into a cave that was hundreds of times bigger than the one he created, where beings without a name dwelt.\" Pradesha is ruled by the Ahrijani, who have a name. The cave is ruled by no one, being abandoned, save for the Black Flame. It is not possible for anyone -enlightened or not- to rule an empty land.

So unless those sentences are wrong, I am going to continue writing on the assumption that Pradesha and Kadaikos are not the same place.

[Kiva]

Originally blabbered by Under the moon
Hold up there, Kiva, not so fast. That simply makes no sense to me. The Lemur\'s cave is never called Pradesha, and the very structure of that sentence indicates that they are two separate entities. Also, \"Laanx wandered into a cave that was hundreds of times bigger than the one he created, where beings without a name dwelt.\" Pradesha is ruled by the Ahrijani, who have a name. The cave is ruled by no one, being abandoned, save for the Black Flame. It is not possible for anyone -enlightened or not- to rule an empty land.

So unless those sentences are wrong, I am going to continue writing on the assumption that Pradesha and Kadaikos are not the same place.

So you\'re saying that it is impossible for an enlightened spirit of some kind, to rule a \"land of the dead\"?

Edit: Please keep in mind that I never said he ruled it before the lemur arrived at first.

Anyway, I\'m simply passing on what I\'ve learned over the years, and this is one of them. Pradesha is the big cave in which the lemur built their home city.