Empire of the Petal Throne

Tékumel saw its first published form in 1975 with Empire of the Petal Throne, the second game published by TSR, Inc., the makers of the incredibly popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Since then Tékumel games have been published by several companies (among them Different Worlds, Theatre of the Mind, GameScience, and recently Guardians of Order) and a wealth of gaming and source information game systems, miniatures and miniature rules, maps, fanzines, background material, a treatise on demon summoning, a bestiary, language books, adventures, even five novels has been developed. Professor M. A. R. Barker has developed scripts, languages (in the case of Tsolyáni, a language that can be spoken, with a grammar handbook and lexicon, like Tolkien’s Elvish or Star Trek’s Klingon), histories, modes of dress, etiquettes, architectural styles, weapons and armor, religions, legal codes, demographics, sciences, etc. for all of the major and most of the minor cultures. A healthy mailing list frequented by the Professor added to the material continually, and new Tékumel products are always in the works (a fourth generation RPG system has just been released). The Internet has made possible the growth of a strong community of Tékumel fans which is increasing in size all the time.