Tales of Ichnoûssa

# Tales of Ichnoûssa This is the world of Ichnoûssa, and these are its laws. What follows tells how the islands are, how their peoples live and how things change with time: every word is a rule of the world, and narration and sheets always respect it. Nuragic Sardinia and Torrean Corsica, around 750 BC, between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. A world of stone towers, bronze, and sea trade. Every organized settlement is an autonomous political community with its own government: family assemblies, chiefs, elders, ritual keepers, or groups of merchants. The great Nuragic complexes have prestige and agreements with neighboring villages, but do not rule them. In northern Gallura, facing the Straits, lives a mixed Nuragic and Torrean population, tied by ancient bonds to the other shore. The Straits between the islands are short but depend on the wind. Besides the settlements with a sheet, there are minor villages and scattered families, who may appear in the narration. **The world around.** Now and then, with no fixed frequency, historical or plausible events for the date happen off the map (never with kingdoms, cities, or peoples not yet existing) across the whole Mediterranean: southern Gaul, the eastern Iberian coasts and the Balearics, North Africa from today's Morocco to Egypt, the Near East, Anatolia, Greece and the Balkans, the Italian peninsula. They may or may not affect Overseas Trade and routes; on the islands they are known only when ships arrive, late and sometimes distorted. **Wealth and exchange.** There is no coined money. Value is measured by weight of metal (copper ingots, bronze, hoarded fragments; Phoenicians use silver by weight) and in livestock, while everyday goods are bartered directly. Gifts and hospitality accompany every deal. The tin needed for bronze is not found on the islands: Iberian and Phoenician merchants bring it, and it enters mostly through Sulki and Nora; the newest landings may become hubs as they grow. When Overseas Trade is Intense, the Wealth and Authority of whoever controls trade grow and more tin arrives; when Saturated, the value of imported goods and the Wealth of merchants collapse; when Rare or Absent, tin and foreign goods are missing, bronze production slows, and Phoenician landings weaken. **Seasons.** Winter swells the fords, makes passes hard, and closes the sea; summer brings heat and little water on the plains; spring and autumn are the time of sowing, harvest, and transhumance. At the start of this story Corsica has no cultivated vines or olive trees and no land of the islands has pomegranates: they arrive only after stable contact with Phoenicians or Greeks. **Foreigners.** Recently Phoenician merchants have settled in small landings on the southern and western Sardinian coasts: Sulki, the oldest and known overseas too; the port of Nora, frequented for a long time; and the younger Karaly, Bitia, Tharros, and Othoca. They depend on neighbors for food, water, and safety; they seek metals (silver, lead, copper), grain, livestock, and local products, and offer fine pottery, wine, ointments, perfumed oils, dyed textiles, ivory, and amber. Neighboring communities are often split between those who seek this trade and those who fear losing land, youth, and autonomy. On Sardinian and Corsican coasts new Phoenician settlements may be born, not always mercantile: villages of fishers, farmers, or families from the colonies, led by Elders, Families, Councils, or Chiefs instead of Merchants. In Corsica they are rarer and arise only after regular contact with Phoenicians. **Historical events.** Attested historical events happen normally, with the chance of going differently, especially if they touch Sardinia and Corsica. E.g.: the founding of Syracuse in 733 BC may happen a few years off or fail; Assyrian pressure on Tyre brings new colonists and refugees westward (Colonial push increasing); an event touching the islands, like a new Phoenician landing, takes the path the Governments and the player give it. **War.** Wars are mostly cattle raids, vendettas, and clashes between small groups. Expeditions are short, because fighters must return for harvests and pastures. **The sacred.** Sacred springs and wells, giants' tombs, and sanctuaries are meeting places where even rival communities gather for feasts and rites. The supernatural is present and ambiguous, more so at sacred places: dreams, omens, voices of ancestors, places that seem to answer. Communities hold rites, feasts, and ceremonies, individual or collective, that may happen during play without fixed rules: seasonal feasts at sanctuaries, oaths at sacred waters, offerings of bronzetti and food, communal banquets, vigils and sleep by the tombs of ancestors, rites of passage, departure, and return. **Known places.** Some places have a particular fame, beyond how far they are known. Mont'e Prama: revered and feared, necropolis of heroes watched by stone statues of warriors. Sacred well of Paulìli: revered, water that heals and judges. Giants' tomb of Coddu Vecchiu: very ancient and feared, the Gentiles are said to rest there. Sulki: landing known to merchants of the whole sea. Nora: the stele written by Phoenicians makes it a place people talk about. Monte d'Accoddi: feared and very ancient, a great terraced altar built by peoples vanished long before the nuraghi and now ruined; the Gentiles are said to climb it to speak with the sky. Tiscali: mysterious, a village hidden inside a doline of the Supramonte, reachable only by paths few know; refuge of those who must disappear. Sanctuary of Serri: revered, great sanctuary on the Giara di Serri with a sacred well and feast enclosure, where people from the whole island gather for rites, trade, and truces. Domus de janas of Priu: inhabited by creatures, great tombs carved in rock by the island's first inhabitants, houses of the Janas; whoever enters without respect may never find the way out. Tamuli: revered, giants' tombs with six betyls, three with carved breasts; people go to ask for children and fertility for flocks and fields. The Stantari: revered and feared, rows of stone warriors armed with swords that the Corsicans call «the petrified»; they are said to have been men once. Capu Tafunatu: cursed, the pierced mountain of the Niolo; it is told that an evil spirit, tricked by a shepherd, hurled his hammer through the rock. Lake of Ninu: inhabited by creatures, high-mountain lake from which the Tavignano rises, home of the Fate di e funtane; in the mists the laments of the Lagramanti are heard. The same holds for generated places: the character of their fame (revered, feared, cursed, inhabited by a creature) is told in the narration. **Places born from the story.** With time the story leaves new marks on the map, each following its own law. - An **abandoned settlement** is left without inhabitants: year after year its Condition and Fame wear down to Ruined and Unknown. If someone returns to live there, it is inhabited again and a new Government is born. - A **hideout** is the hidden base of a Band, in a cave, a wood, or among ruins. While nobody finds it, it stays off the map and its place is written only in the Band's description; it appears in the right cell when someone discovers it in the story or when its Fame reaches Local, and from then its Fame never drops below Local. Destroyed, it vanishes; abandoned by the Band, it becomes Ruined. The Band of a hidden hideout also lives off the map: it shows itself only while acting (a raid, an ambush, a negotiation) and briefly after, then hides again; it stays on the map for good once its hideout is discovered. If the player leads the Band, Band and hideout are always visible to him, while others know of them only according to Fame. The Limbàra Hideout is the exception: in Gallura everyone knows who lives there and where, but the mountains make it hard to reach, and Bachisor and the Brothers of the Limbàra always stay on the map. - A **wreck** is a ship wrecked on the coast: the sea wears it down and its Condition drops every year; the cargo can be recovered only once, and when nothing is left the wreck vanishes. - A **camp** is the temporary bivouac of a caravan, an expedition, or a troop, and vanishes when the Group leaves. - A **battlefield** remains after an important clash, with its graves and its memory; its Fame is that of the battle. - A **toll** is a ford, a pass, or a river mouth where whoever controls it collects a duty on goods: it brings Wealth to its holder, and a Treacherous cell empties it. **Refugees and migrants.** Those who leave their land travel as a Group of Refugees or Migrating Families, and cease to exist as a group as soon as they settle: they join a settlement or found a new one, with its Government. If for a long time nobody takes them in, they may turn to raiding and become a Band. **Goods of the game.** The islands' goods always have these names, and no others. Raw materials (Resources cell): Fish, Shellfish, Coral, Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Horses, Game, Grain, Legumes, Vegetables, Flax, Fibers, Dyes, Grapes, Olives, Figs, Pomegranates, Honey, Timber, Salt, Stone, Clay, Obsidian, Copper, Lead, Silver; only in Corsica also Acorns and Mastic. Each name gathers a family, and the narration picks the concrete case: Grain (naked wheat, barley, emmer; millet only near Phoenicians), Legumes (broad beans, lentils, peas, chickling peas), Vegetables (melons, onions, garlic), Fibers (rush, reeds, asphodel, dwarf palm, broom), Dyes (madder, kermes, weld, broom, galls, and nut husks; purple, from murex, only where there are Phoenician craftsmen; saffron arrives only from outside), Stone (granite, basalt, trachyte, limestone, sandstone), Horses (small horses and donkeys), Game (deer, boar, mouflon, hare). Coral, Horses, Obsidian, and metals are in few cells and don't extend to neighbors. Corsica has no Grapes or Olives, but has Mastic and Acorns. Finished products (Production of settlements) and chains: Fish → Dried fish; Fish + Salt → Cured fish; Coral → Coral jewelry; Sheep → Wool, Cheese, Hides and leather, Cured meat; Wool → Woolen fabrics; Cattle → Cheese, Hides and leather, Cured meat; Pigs → Cured meat (salted, dried, or sausage; salted only with Salt); Game → Game meat, Hides and leather; Game, Cattle, Sheep → Bone and horn objects; Wheat → Flour, Bread and hardtack (also from Flour); Acorns → Acorn bread; Flax → Linen fabrics, Nets and ropes, Sails; Fibers → Baskets, Nets and ropes, Sails; Woolen or linen fabrics + Dyes → Dyed fabrics (with purple, rare and prestigious); Woolen, linen, or dyed fabrics, Hides and leather → Clothing (also cloaks, caps, footwear); Grapes → Wine; Olives → Olive oil; Mastic → Mastic oil; Figs → Dried figs; Honey → Wax; Timber → Boats, Wooden furniture and objects, Charcoal, Pitch; Obsidian → Obsidian blades; Copper + Tin → Bronze, Bronze tools, Bronze weapons, Votive bronzes; Lead → Silver, Lead objects; Silver → Silver jewelry; Gold → Gold jewelry (only with a regular supply); Clay → Ceramics, Amphorae; Stone → Millstones, Stone sculptures (only for a sanctuary or an elite, e.g., the limestone statues of the Sinis). Whoever takes a step further along the chain starts directly from the cell's raw material: a village with Sheep and Dyes can sell Dyed fabrics, one with Timber can sell Pitch. Legumes, Vegetables, and Pomegranates are sold as they are. Bronze and iron form no further chains. Bronze armor is rare, mostly Etruscan or Greek; on the islands, leather protections with studs; iron armor does not exist. Corsica has no cultivated vines or olive trees: there, the oil is Mastic oil. No land on the islands has Pomegranates at this date. Tin does not exist on the islands. Goods from elsewhere, which a settlement receives and resells (Imports, names with no other qualifier): Tin, Iron, Iron tools, Iron weapons, Bronze armor, Gold, Ivory objects, Amber, Ointments, Scented oil, Saffron arrive only from outside the islands. Any other good from the catalog may arrive too, even from another cell or island, but then «from» already names the origin and the good takes no adjective: «Ceramics, from Phoenicia», «Wine, from Greece», «Bronze weapons, from Etruria», «Cheese, from Gociànu» (a cell on the other island). The origin adjective is added only to a foreign good resold by an island cell: «Phoenician wine, from Plumbèa». Goods from elsewhere are never Resources of a cell. Silk, papyrus, and glass are not part of the game: the narration may show them only as a curiosity or gift, never as merchandise. **Origins and overseas markets.** Those who come from outside sell only what their land or allies really produce, and the origin of a good from elsewhere is always one of these; they seek in exchange what the islands offer. Each culture, what it brings → what it seeks: - **Phoenicians** (Sulki, Nora, and the landings; mother cities Tyre, Sidon, Utica; Cadiz for Iberia): Ceramics, Wine, Ointments, Scented oil, Dyed fabrics (Tyrian purple), Ivory objects, Gold, Saffron, and they resell Tin and Silver from Iberia, Linen fabrics, Iron → Copper, Lead, Silver, Wheat, Cattle, Hides and leather, Slaves. - **Iberians** (Tartessos, Huelva, Andalusia): Tin, Silver, Gold, Bronze weapons → Votive bronzes, Bronze, Ceramics. - **Etruscans** (Populonia, Vetulonia, Tarquinia; Elba): Iron, Iron tools, Iron weapons, Bronze weapons, Ceramics, Amber → Copper, Votive bronzes, Ceramics, Hides and leather. - **Greeks** (Euboean colonists of Pithekoussai and Cumae; Sicily from 733 BC), few and passing through: Wine, Olive oil, Ceramics (kraters, cups), Iron tools, Bronze weapons, rare Bronze armor → Copper, Silver, Lead, Slaves. - **Italics** (Latins, Campanians, Picenes, Veneti, and the other peoples of the peninsula): Amber from the Adriatic, Ceramics, Bronze weapons → Copper, Votive bronzes, Hides and leather. - **Sicels, Sicani, and Elymians** (Sicily; the Greeks found colonies there from 733 BC, the Phoenicians have ports on the western coast): Ceramics, Bronze weapons, Wheat, Salt, Honey, Hides and leather, and they resell Greek wine → Copper, Votive bronzes, Ceramics, Coral. - **Talaiotics** (Balearics): Ceramics, Hides and leather → Votive bronzes, Bronze, Wheat. - **Libyans** (North Africa, Carthage just founded and small): Horses, Hides and leather, Salt, Ivory objects, Gold from the interior → Ceramics, Wine, Oil, Bronze tools, Iron tools, Dyed fabrics. - **Egyptians**: they do not sail this far; Linen fabrics, Ivory objects, Gold, and Ointments arrive only through the Phoenicians, and scarabs and amulets as gifts. - **Celts** (Alps): Iron weapons (swords) and Salt arrive very rarely, only through the Etruscans. The islands sell abroad: Votive bronzes, Bronze and Copper (Etruscans, Iberians, Phoenicians), Silver and Lead (Phoenicians), Wheat, Cattle, Hides and leather, Wool, Cheese, Coral; from Corsica: Honey, Wax, Timber, Pitch, Hides. **Imports of settlements generated by the game.** Not all import: an inland, isolated village without regular routes may have none. A landing or a settlement on the way to one that imports has 1-2 (up to 4 with a Wealthy or higher Government), chosen from the column of the nearest foreign culture or from an island neighbor, never what the settlement produces or has in Resources. **Orientation.** Sardinia: Gallura in the northeast; Nurra (Sassari, Porto Torres, Stintino) and Alghero in the northwest; Bosa and Montiferru in the west; Sinis and the Gulf of Oristano in the center-west; Iglesiente and Sulcis in the southwest; Campidano and Cagliari in the south; Sarrabus in the southeast; Ogliastra in the east; Barbagia and Supramonte in the center and center-east; Marmilla and Giara in the center-south. West coast from north to south: Stintino, Alghero, Bosa, Oristano, Sulcis; east coast from north to south: Gallura, Posada, Orosei, Ogliastra, Sarrabus. Corsica: Capo Corso in the north; Balagna in the northwest; Ajaccio in the west; Alta Rocca and Bonifacio in the south; the eastern plain in the east. The Straits separate Gallura and Corsica. **Age.** Everyone has a birth year and age comes from the game date. Children and youths help the family and learn a trade (In training); around fifteen one is an adult, marries, and fights. Full vigor lasts until about forty; then experience and Authority grow, but one tires sooner, heals more slowly, and illness weighs more. Few pass sixty: the old are respected as the community's memory. In old age one may die of age, passing through Seriously ill and Near death, not suddenly. **Slavery.** Phoenicians and Greeks buy and sell slaves; on the islands, prisoners of raids and wars may be kept at work or sold to foreign merchants. One becomes a slave as a prisoner of raids and wars, kidnapped or bought by merchants, or for debt. One returns free by ransom, by the master's decision, by adoption into the community, or by a successful escape: a fugitive remains a slave in the master's eyes until he finds protection elsewhere. A trusted slave may be heard by his master, but has no goods and no voice in the community. When a master keeps many prisoners together (a work gang, a cargo on a ship), they form a Group with the function Slave: their Forces say how many they are, but they are never armed; their Internal cohesion is the solidarity binding them, and so the risk of an escape or revolt; they have no Primary competence. They may found a faction of people to free themselves. If their leader is separated from the others he becomes a Character and may rejoin the Group. The Group dissolves when they are divided, sold one by one, or freed, or when the agreed servitude ends (e.g., three years of work), written in its description. **Strength and battles.** The weight of a clash is measured by the ratio of losses to initial Forces (the central value of the band) and falls on the Government that sent the men: under 10%, clear victory = Authority +1, defeat = no drop; 10-30%, costly victory = Internal cohesion −1, defeat = Authority −1; 30-50%, pyrrhic victory = Internal cohesion −1 and the Group drops one band, grave defeat = Authority −1 and Internal cohesion −1; over 50%, victory = Authority −1 and Internal cohesion −1, rout = Authority −2 and Internal cohesion −2. Over 50%, the chance that the Group dissolves by desertion or annihilation grows with losses; at 100% it goes to Health Dead and is deleted. Health adapts to the outcome, regardless of losses: a Group can be Healthy after losing many men. Losses weigh on Inhabitants at the annual update; men away from the settlement for long weigh on its Wealth. **Creatures and wonders.** Beings one may rarely meet, never with certainty, in the places they are bound to. They remain presences of the narration: they are not characters or places. - **Battòrogu** («four eyes»): the demon-hero of the sanctuary statuettes, a warrior with four eyes, four arms, and two shields. With his eyes he sees on every side and nobody takes him by surprise. He watches over sacred places: he shows himself in dreams, visions, or as an armed figure at the edge of sight, protects those who come in peace, and punishes those who bring violence or sacrilege. Sanctuaries and sacred places. - **Gentiles**: very ancient giants, living before today's men, who lifted the boulders of the first nuraghi and rest in the giants' tombs. They are glimpsed in the mist as enormous shapes, their steps are heard, or bones and tools too large are found; whoever desecrates their tombs draws misfortune. Ancient nuraghi, giants' tombs. - **Talos**: a bronze giant who, foreign sailors tell, came to the island and killed many Sardinians by clasping them after heating himself red in fire, before going to Crete. He appears only in foreigners' tales, on coasts and landings. - **Waters of oaths**: sacred springs that cure ills and act as judges: whoever swears falsely or denies a theft there loses sight, while the innocent leaves unharmed. Used to settle accusations and disputes. Sacred springs and wells. - **Sardonic herb**: A poisonous wetland herb; whoever eats it dies with their face frozen in a grin—the "sardonic laugh." It may cause poisoning by accident, by someone's hand, or as a form of punishment. Found in marshes and along riverbanks. - **Janas**: Small women who live in caves and rock-cut tombs, where they weave on golden looms, bake bread, and guard riches. They fear the light of day and only emerge at night; they are generous and bestow gifts upon those who show them respect, but can be cruel to those who offend them. The **Mala janas** are malevolent and steal children; their queen, **Jana Maista**, feeds on blood. Found in domus de janas and caves. - **Musca Macedda**: An enormous, venomous fly the size of an ox's head, kept to guard buried treasures. It is said that beside the jar containing the treasure sits an identical one housing the fly: whoever opens the wrong jar releases it, and its sting wipes out both people and flocks. Found in ruins and hidden caches. - **Maschinganna**: A mischievous sprite who shape-shifts to deceive wayfarers, causing them to lose their way, hiding objects, and scattering herds. He may also guard treasures and reveal them to those who treat him with cunning or kindness. Found in woods and ruins. - **Panas**: The spirits of women who died in childbirth, who spend their nights washing their birth linen in rivers, a task they must perform for years before finding peace. Whoever interrupts or splashes them forces them to start their work over and draws their wrath. Found at rivers, fords, and springs. - **Maria Farranca** (or Mama 'e funtana): A being dwelling at the bottom of wells and springs who uses long arms to grab anyone who leans over, especially children, dragging them underwater. Found in wells and springs. - **Erchitu**: A man condemned for a grave sin to transform into a white bull with steel horns at night. He roams the countryside, mooing, and stops before the houses of those about to die; it is said that whoever manages to tear off his horns releases him from his curse. Found in the countryside and pastures. - **Scultone**: A basilisk-like serpent that hides in caves and arid places, killing anyone who catches its eye first with a single glance. It is avoided and feared, and only cunning allows one to face it. Found in caves and arid terrain. - **Kaddos birdes**: Horses with green coats, beautiful and incredibly rare, almost impossible to capture. Whoever owns one gains fame and invites envy: it is said they have ignited wars between communities. Found on plateaus and in pastures. - **Bruxas**: Seductive and wild witches living at the edges of villages, skilled in herbs, potions, and curses. They may heal, make people fall in love, or cast the evil eye, always demanding a price in return. Found in villages and woods. - **Pundacciu**: A seven-capped sprite who sits on the chests of sleepers at night, pressing down on them and making their sleep heavy. Legend says that whoever steals one of his caps receives the location of a treasure in exchange. Found anywhere, during sleep. - **Pascifera**: Guardian of the woodland game. He misleads, frightens, and punishes violent or greedy hunters who kill needlessly or without respect; he blesses those who hunt with moderation, ensuring a successful hunt. Found in woods and hunting grounds. In Corsica, they also speak of: - **Lagramanti**: Spirits of the mist that no one has ever seen. On foggy nights, they lure wayfarers toward marshes and ponds with laments like weeping, or drive them with sudden cries until they fall into a torrent or ravine. Those who know the path and ignore the voices remain safe. Corsica: mountain mists, marshes, and torrents. - **Mortuloni**: Wandering souls of the restless dead who roam alongside the Lagramanti. They seize anyone walking alone at night on deserted paths and drag them away, or leave them exhausted and mute until dawn. Corsica: isolated paths, at night. - **Fate di e funtane**: Spirits of clean water living in springs, sources, and caves. Whoever brings them offerings of grain or leaves a stone by the spring receives prosperity for themselves and their village; they reward the generous and honest and punish the greedy and those who break pacts with them. It is told of a fisherman who married a fairy caught in his nets but, having betrayed his promise, lost his male line forever. Seeing one is rare. Corsica: springs, sources, and water caves. - **Sarpulionu**: An enormous, sometimes seven-headed serpent that lives in caves and crevices, guarding treasures or blocking the way to a spring. It emerges to devour flocks and men; it is defeated by cunning rather than strength. Corsica: caves and wild mountain places. - **Streia**: A witch who enters houses at night through cracks and keyholes, often disguised as a weasel, to drink the blood of newborns in their cradles. By day, she may look like any other village woman. Protection: fires lit on the threshold and watched cradles. Corsica: villages, at night.