Tales of Ichnoûssa

# Tales of Ichnoûssa This is the world of Ichnoûssa, and these are its laws. What follows describes how the islands are, how their people live, and how things change with the passage of time: every word serves as a rule of the world, which both the narrative and the character sheets always respect. Nuragic Sardinia and Torrean Corsica, circa 750 B.C., between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. A world of stone towers, bronze, and maritime trade. Every organized settlement is an autonomous political community with its own government: family assemblies, chieftains, elders, ritual keepers, or merchant groups. The great nuragic complexes hold prestige and have agreements with neighboring villages, but do not dominate them. In the north of Gallura, overlooking the Strait of Bonifacio, lives a mixed Nuragic and Torrean population, tied by ancient relations to the other shore. The straits between the islands are short but depend on the wind. Beyond the settlements with character sheets, there are smaller villages and scattered families that may appear in the narrative. **The world beyond.** From time to time, without a fixed frequency, historical or plausible events for the era (never involving kingdoms, cities, or peoples that do not yet exist) occur throughout the Mediterranean outside the map: Southern Gaul, the eastern Iberian and Balearic coasts, North Africa from modern-day Morocco to Egypt, the Near East, Anatolia, Greece and the Balkans, and the Italian peninsula. These may or may not influence Trades and routes; on the islands, such events are known only through the arrival of ships, often delayed and sometimes distorted. **Wealth and exchange.** There is no minted currency. Value is measured by the weight of metal (copper ingots, bronze, hoarded fragments; the Phoenicians use silver by weight) and in livestock, while everyday goods are traded directly. Gifts and hospitality accompany every deal. Tin required for bronze is not found on the islands: it is brought by Iberian and Phoenician merchants, and primarily enters through Sulki and Nora; more recent ports of call may grow to become centers of trade themselves. When overseas trade is Intense, the Wealth and Authority of those controlling the exchanges grow and more tin arrives; when it is Saturated, the value of imported goods and the Wealth of merchants collapse; when it is Rare or Absent, tin and foreign goods are scarce, bronze production slows, and Phoenician ports of call weaken. **The seasons.** Winter swells the fords, makes mountain passes difficult, and closes the sea; summer brings heat and little water to the plains; spring and autumn are the time for sowing, harvesting, and transhumance. At the beginning of this story, Corsica has no cultivated vines or olive trees, and no land on the islands has pomegranates: these arrive only after stable contact with the Phoenicians or Greeks. **The strangers.** Phoenician merchants have recently settled in small landing places on the southern and western Sardinian coasts: Sulki, the oldest and known even across the sea; the port of Nora, frequented for some time; and the younger Karaly, Bitia, Tharros, and Othoca. They depend on their neighbors for food, water, and security; they seek metals (silver, lead, copper), grain, livestock, and local products, offering fine ceramics, wine, ointments, scented oils, dyed textiles, ivory objects, and amber in return. Neighboring communities are often divided between those seeking these exchanges and those who fear losing their land, youth, and autonomy. On the Sardinian and Corsican coasts, new Phoenician settlements may arise, not necessarily as mercantile hubs: villages of fishermen, farmers, or families from the colonies, led by Elders, Families, Councils, or Chieftains rather than Merchants. In Corsica, they are rarer and emerge only after regular contact with the Phoenicians. **Historical events.** Established historical events typically occur as expected, with the possibility of playing out differently, especially if they concern Sardinia and Corsica. E.g., the founding of Syracuse in 733 B.C. may occur a few years later or fail; Assyrian pressure on Tyre brings new settlers and refugees to the West (increasing colonial drive); an event touching the islands, such as a new Phoenician landing, takes the path determined by Governments and the player. **War.** Wars are primarily livestock raids, vendettas, and skirmishes between small groups. Expeditions are brief because the combatants 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 rituals. The supernatural is rare and ambiguous: dreams, omens, voices of ancestors, and places that seem to respond. In communities, individual or collective rituals, feasts, and ceremonies take place, which may occur during the game without fixed rules: seasonal feasts in sanctuaries, oaths taken near sacred waters, offerings of bronze figurines and food, communal banquets, vigils and sleep near ancestral tombs, rites of passage, departure, and return. **Known places.** Some places have a special reputation, beyond how widely known they are. Mont'e Prama: venerated and feared, a necropolis of heroes watched over by stone statues of warriors. Sacred Well of Paulìli: venerated, its water heals and judges. Giants' Tomb of Coddu Vecchiu: ancient and feared; it is said that the Gentiles rest there. Sulki: a port of call known to merchants across the entire sea. Nora: the stele inscribed by the Phoenicians makes it a place of which people speak. Monte d'Accoddi: feared and ancient, a great terraced altar built by people who disappeared long before the nuraghi and are now in ruins; it is said that the Gentiles ascended it to speak with the sky. Tiscali: mysterious, a village hidden inside a sinkhole in the Supramonte, reachable only by trails few know; a refuge for those who must disappear. Sanctuary of Serri: venerated, a large sanctuary on the Giara of Serri with a sacred well and festival enclosure, where people from across the island gather for rites, trade, and truces. Domus de Janas of Priu: inhabited by creatures, great tombs carved into the rock by the island's first inhabitants, homes of the Janas; those who enter without respect risk never finding the way out. Tamuli: venerated, giants' tombs with six betyls, three of which feature carved breasts; people go there to ask for children and fertility for herds and fields. I Stantari: venerated and feared, rows of stone warriors armed with swords that the Corsicans call "the petrified"; it is said that they were once men. Capu Tafunatu: cursed, the pierced mountain of Niolo; it is told that an evil spirit, mocked by a shepherd, hurled his hammer through the rock. Lake of Ninu: inhabited by creatures, a high-mountain lake from which the Tavignano rises, home of the Fates of the fountains; in the mist, the wails of the Lagramanti can be heard. The same applies to generated locations: the nature of their reputation (venerated, feared, cursed, inhabited by a creature) is told through narration. **Places born of history.** Over time, history leaves new marks on the map, and each follows its own law. - An **abandoned settlement** remains without inhabitants: year after year, its Condition and Fame wear away until they become In Ruins and Unknown. If someone returns to live there, it becomes inhabited again and a new Government is born. - A **hideout** is the secret base of a Band, located in a cave, a forest, or among ruins. As long as no one discovers it, it remains off the map, and its location is written only in the description of the Band; it appears in the correct cell when someone discovers it in the story or when its Fame reaches Local, and from then on its Fame never drops below Local. If destroyed, it vanishes; if abandoned by the Band, it becomes In Ruins. Even the Band of a hidden hideout lives off the map: it reveals itself only while acting (a raid, an ambush, a negotiation) and for a short time after, then returns to hiding; it remains permanently on the map when its hideout is discovered. If the player leads the Band, the Band and hideout are always visible to them, while others only know something about them according to their Fame. The Limbàra Hideout is an exception: in Gallura, everyone knows who lives there and where it is, but the mountains make it difficult to reach, and Bachisor and the Brothers of Limbàra remain on the map at all times. - A **wreck** is a ship that has foundered on the coast: the sea wears it away, and its Condition drops each year; the cargo can be recovered only once, and when nothing remains, the wreck disappears. - A **campsite** is the temporary bivouac of a caravan, an expedition, or a host, and it disappears when the Group departs. - A **battlefield** remains after a significant clash, with its tombs 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 generates Wealth for its holder, and an Insidious 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 their own Government. If no one welcomes them for a long time, they may turn to raiding and become a Band. **Game goods.** The goods of the islands always have these names, and no others. Raw Materials (Cell Resources): Fish, Shellfish, Coral, Cattle, Sheep, Swine, Horses, Game, Cereals, Legumes, Vegetables, Linen, Fibers, Dyes, Grapes, Olives, Figs, Pomegranates, Honey, Timber, Salt, Stones, Clay, Obsidian, Copper, Lead, Silver; only in Corsica, Acorns and Mastic are also present. Each name gathers a family, and the narrative chooses the concrete case: Cereals (naked wheat, barley, spelt; millet only near the Phoenicians), Legumes (broad beans, lentils, peas, chickling vetch), Vegetables (melons, onions, garlic), Fibers (rushes, reeds, asphodel, dwarf palm, broom), Dyes (madder, kermes, dyer's rocket, broom, galls and husk; purple, from murex, only where there are Phoenician artisans; saffron arrives only from abroad), Stones (granite, basalt, trachyte, limestone, sandstone), Horses (small horses and donkeys), Game (deer, boar, mouflon, hare). Coral, Horses, Obsidian, and metals are found in few cells and do not extend to neighboring ones. E.g., the Giara has "Cattle, Cereals, Horses, Stones"; Capo Caccia has "Fish, Coral"; Corsica has no Grapes or Olives, but has Mastic and Acorns. Finished goods (Production of settlements) and supply chains: Fish → Dried fish; Fish + Salt → Preserved 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 sausages; salted only with Salt); Game → Game meat, Hides and leather; Game, Cattle, Sheep → Bone and horn objects; Cereals → Flour, Bread and hardtack (also from Flour); Acorns → Acorn bread; Flax → Linen fabrics, Nets and ropes, Sails; Fibers → Baskets, Nets and ropes, Sails; Wool or linen fabrics + Dyes → Dyed fabrics (using Tyrian purple, rare and prestigious); Wool, linen, or dyed fabrics, Hides and leather → Clothing (also cloaks, caps, footwear); Grapes → Wine; Olives → Olive oil; Lentisk → Lentisk oil; Figs → Dried figs; Honey → Wax; Timber → Boats, Furniture and wooden 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; Stones → Millstones, Stone sculptures (only for a sanctuary or an elite, e.g., the limestone statues of Sinis). Those who are further along the supply chain start directly from the raw material in the cell: 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 do not form other supply chains. Bronze armor is rare, mostly Etruscan or Greek; on the islands, there is studded leather protection; iron armor does not exist. Corsica has no cultivated vines or olive trees: there, the oil is Lentisk 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 statistic, names without other descriptions): 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 can also arrive, even from another cell or another island, but in that case, the «from» already specifies the origin and the good carries no adjectives: «Ceramics, from Phoenicia», «Wine, from Greece», «Bronze weapons, from Etruria», «Cheese, from Gociànu» (cell of the other island). The [origin] is added only to a foreign good resold by a cell on the islands: «Phoenician wine, from Plumbèa». E.g.: Sulki «Tin, from Iberia; Wine, from Phoenicia»; a Corsican village «Cheese, from Gociànu». Goods from elsewhere are never Resources of a cell. Silk, papyrus, and glass are not part of the game: the narrative may feature them only as curiosities or gifts, never as merchandise. **Origins and overseas markets.** Those arriving from outside sell only what their land or their allies truly 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, Cereals, Cattle, Hides and leather, Slaves. E.g.: Sulki «Ceramics, from Phoenicia; Tin, from Iberia». - **Iberians** (Tartessos, Huelva, Andalusia): Tin, Silver, Gold, Bronze weapons → Votive bronzes, Bronze, Ceramics. E.g.: Huelva buys «Votive bronzes». - **Etruscans** (Populonia, Vetulonia, Tarquinia; Elba): Iron, Iron tools, Iron weapons, Bronze weapons, Ceramics, Amber → Copper, Votive bronzes, Ceramics, Hides and leather. E.g.: Populonia «Iron, from Elba»; Vetulonia buys Votive bronzes. - **Greeks** (Euboean colonists of Pithekoussai and Cumae; Sicily from 733 BC), few and passing through: Wine, Olive oil, Ceramics (craters, cups), Iron tools, Bronze weapons, rare Bronze armor → Copper, Silver, Lead, Slaves. - **Italic peoples** (Latins, Campanians, Piceni, Veneti, and the other peoples of the peninsula): Amber coming from the Adriatic, Ceramics, Bronze weapons → Copper, Votive bronzes, Hides and leather. - **Sicels, Sicanians, and Elymians** (Sicily; the Greeks found colonies there from 733 BC, the Phoenicians have ports on the western coast): Ceramics, Bronze weapons, Cereals, Salt, Honey, Hides and leather, and they resell Wine from the Greeks → Copper, Votive bronzes, Ceramics, Coral. E.g.: an eastern Sardinian landing «Ceramics, from Sicily». - **Talaiotic culture** (Balearic Islands): Ceramics, Hides and leather → Votive bronzes, Bronze, Cereals. - **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. E.g.: Carthage «Horses»; buys Ceramics from the Phoenicians. - **Egyptians**: they do not sail here; 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), Cereals, Cattle, Hides and leather, Wool, Cheese, Coral; from Corsica Honey, Wax, Timber, Pitch, Hides. E.g.: a Sardinian port sells «Votive bronzes» to Vetulonia and picks up «Iron, from Elba»; a landing on the eastern Corsican coast sells «Honey» and «Timber» to a Phoenician merchant. **Imports of game-generated settlements.** Not everyone imports: an isolated inland village, without regular routes, may have none. A Landing or a settlement on the path of an importing settlement has 1-2 (up to 4 with a Rich Government or more), chosen from the column of the closest foreign culture or from a neighbor on the islands, never what the settlement produces or has in Resources. E.g.: a new Phoenician landing on the Sinis coast «Ceramics, from Phoenicia»; a new Greek landing «Wine, from Greece»; a shepherd village in the Barbagia has no imports, or «Salt, from Càralis» if a coastal neighbor sells it. **Orientation.** Sardinia: Gallura in the northeast; Nurra (Sassari, Porto Torres, Stintino) and Alghero in the northwest; Bosa and Montiferru in the west; Sinis and 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. Western coast from north to south: Stintino, Alghero, Bosa, Oristano, Sulcis; eastern 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; eastern plain in the east. The Strait of Bonifacio separates Gallura and Corsica. **Age.** Each person has a birth year and the age is derived from the game date. Children and youths help the family and learn a trade (In training); around age fifteen one is an adult, gets married, and fights. Full vigor lasts until about forty; then experience and Authority grow, but one tires sooner, recovers more slowly, and illnesses take a greater toll. Few pass sixty: the elderly are respected as the memory of the community. In old age, one can die of natural causes, passing through Seriously ill and On the verge of death, not suddenly. **Slavery.** Phoenicians and Greeks buy and sell slaves; on the islands, prisoners of raids and wars may be put to work or handed over to foreign merchants. One becomes a slave by being a prisoner of raids and wars, kidnapped or bought by merchants, or for debts. One returns to freedom through a ransom, liberation decided by the master, adoption into the community, or a successful escape: those who escape remain slaves in the master's eyes until they find protection elsewhere. A trusted slave may be heard by the master but has no property or voice of their own in the community. When a master keeps many prisoners together (a work team, a load on a ship), they form a Group with the Slave function: their Forces state how many they are, but they are never armed; their Cohesion is the solidarity that binds them, and therefore the risk of an escape or a revolt; they have no Competence. They can found a faction of people to free themselves. If their leader is separated from the others, they become a Character and can return to the Group. The Group dissolves when they are divided, sold one by one, or freed, or when the agreed-upon servitude ends (for example, three years of work), which is written in its description. **Forces and battles.** The weight of a clash is measured by the ratio between losses and initial Forces (the central value of the range), and falls upon the Government that sent the men: below 10%, clean victory = Authority +1, defeat = no drop; 10-30%, costly victory = Cohesion -1, defeat = Authority -1; 30-50%, pyrrhic victory = Cohesion -1 and the Group drops one range, serious defeat = Authority -1 and Cohesion -1; over 50%, victory = Authority -1 and Cohesion -1, rout = Authority -2 and Cohesion -2. Above 50%, the probability that the Group dissolves due to desertion or annihilation grows with the losses; at 100%, it switches to Dead Health and is eliminated. Health adjusts to the outcome, regardless of the losses: a Group can be Healthy after losing many men. Losses weigh on the Inhabitants at the annual update; men away from the settlement for a long time weigh on its Wealth. **Creatures and wonders.** Beings that can be met rarely, never with certainty, in the places to which they are bound. They remain presences in the narrative: they are neither characters nor places. - **Battòrogu** ("four-eyes"): the demon-hero of the sanctuary votive bronzes, a warrior with four eyes, four arms, and two shields. With his eyes, he sees from every side and no one catches 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**: Ancient giants who lived before the men of today. They lifted the stones of the first nuraghes and now rest in the tombs of the giants. They can be seen in the mist as enormous silhouettes, their footsteps can be heard, or their oversized bones and tools are found; whoever desecrates their tombs invites misfortune. Ancient nuraghes, giants' tombs. - **Talos**: A bronze giant who, foreign sailors claim, came to the island and killed many Sardinians by crushing them to his chest after heating himself in a fire, before departing for Crete. He appears only in the tales of foreigners, along the coasts and near the harbors. - **Waters of Oaths**: Sacred springs that heal ailments and act as judges; those who swear falsely by them or deny a theft lose their sight, while the innocent depart whole. They are used to resolve accusations and disputes. Sacred springs and wells. - **Sardinian Herb**: A poisonous plant found in wetlands; those who eat it die with their faces twisted in a grin, the "sardonic grin." It can cause poisoning by accident, by someone's hand, or as a punishment. Marshes and riverbanks. - **Janas**: Small women who inhabit caves and tombs carved into the rock, where they weave on gold looms, bake bread, and guard riches. They fear the light of day and only come out at night; they are generous and provide gifts to those who respect them, but they can be cruel to those who offend them. The **Mala janas** are evil and kidnap children; their queen, **Jana Maista**, feeds on blood. Domus de janas, caves. - **Musca Macedda**: An enormous, poisonous fly as large as an ox's head, kept to guard buried treasures. It is said that next to the treasure vase there is an identical one that imprisons the fly; whoever opens the wrong one releases it, and its stinger exterminates people and flocks alike. Ruins and hiding places. - **Maschinganna**: A mischievous sprite who changes appearance to deceive travelers, making them lose their way, hiding objects, and scattering flocks. It can also guard treasures and reveal them to those who treat it with cunning or kindness. Woods and ruins. - **Panas**: The spirits of women who died in childbirth, who spend their nights washing the linens of their birth at the rivers and must do so for years before finding peace. Those who interrupt them or splash them force them to start over and draw their wrath. Rivers, fords, springs. - **Maria Farranca** (or Mama 'e funtana): A being that lives at the bottom of wells and springs and uses long arms to grab those who lean over, especially children, dragging them underwater. Wells and springs. - **Erchitu**: A man who, for a grave sin, is condemned to transform at night into a white bull with steel horns. He wanders through the countryside bellowing and stops before houses where someone is about to die; it is said that whoever manages to tear off his horns frees him from his curse. Countryside and pastures. - **Scultone**: A serpent similar to a basilisk, hidden in caves and arid places, which kills with a single glance anyone who sees it first. It is avoided and feared, and only cunning allows one to face it. Caves and arid places. - **Kaddos birdes**: Horses with green coats, beautiful and extremely rare, almost impossible to catch. Whoever possesses one gains fame and envy: it is said they have sparked wars between communities. Plateaus and pastures. - **Bruxas**: Seductive and wild witches who live on the edges of villages, experts in herbs, potions, and hexes. They can heal, cause love, or cast the evil eye, and they always ask for a price. Villages and woods. - **Pundacciu**: A sprite with seven caps who sits on the chest of sleeping people at night and oppresses them, making sleep heavy. It is said that whoever manages to steal one of his caps will be rewarded with the revelation of a treasure. Everywhere, in sleep. - **Pascifera**: Guardian of the woodland game. He misleads, frightens, and punishes violent or greedy hunters who kill without necessity or respect; he blesses those who hunt with restraint, making their hunt bountiful. Woods and hunting grounds. In Corsica, people also tell tales of: - **Lagramanti**: Spirits of the mist that no one has ever seen. On foggy nights, they lure travelers toward marshes and ponds with wails like weeping, or they press them with sudden screams until they fall into a stream or ravine. Those who know the path and do not follow the voices survive. Corsica: mountain mists, marshes, streams. - **Mortuloni**: Wandering souls of the restless dead who roam with the Lagramanti. They grab those 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 clear water that inhabit fountains, springs, 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 a pact with them. It is said a fisherman married a fairy caught in his nets and, having betrayed his promise, lost his male lineage forever. Seeing one is rare. Corsica: fountains, springs, water caves. - **Sarpulionu**: An enormous serpent, sometimes with seven heads, that lives in caves and ravines, guards treasures, or blocks the path to a spring. It emerges to devour flocks and men; it is defeated by cunning more than force. Corsica: caves and wild mountain places. - **Streia**: A witch who enters houses at night through cracks and keyholes, often in the form of a weasel, and drinks the blood of newborns in their cradles. By day, she can look like any woman in the village. Protection is found by lighting fires on the threshold and guarding the cradles. Corsica: villages, at night.