Ares Places

Information is from Never Say Neverre unless otherwise stated, and has primarily been complied by WordSmith .

Overview

A sub-plane or planelet of existence in the 'Home' plane – Ares is similar to the Thunor of Alusia.

Quick Guide on Stuff to Take

Stable	Tarnished	Will Degrade
Cloth Bone Gems Stone Wood Gold Gilded Weapons	Truesilver Truesilver-Alloys	Metals: Iron (rust in hours) Bronze Copper Silver Silvered Weapons

Concerning metals, weapons, & Ares ...

• Magic is fine; Gold is fine; weapons-grade gold-alloy (a.k.a. gilded) is fine.
• Silver is tarnished and corrupted: coins will never be accepted as real silver; weapons-grade silver-alloy (a.k.a. silvered) tarnishes deeply and becomes irrevocably as weak & crude as bronze in Alusia -- fumble on a 98-00 rather than a 99-00; 1 pt less damage; etc.
• Truesilver & truesilver-alloy may be cleaned of surface tarnishing (with some metal loss) and will otherwise function normally on returning to Alusia.
• Iron rusts within a few hours, and all other metals decay with a few days ... sooner if put under stress.

Inhumane weapons

Using or possessing a bladed weapon automatically merits a death sentence; and most piercing weapons are treated similarly.

If a person has a legitimate (e.g., artisan) reason to use a knife, it will have a gold, stone, bone, or obsidian edge.

Likewise the almost universal lack of pins & sharp points is astounding for any country not possessing a doomed princess.

Environment

• The entire planelet is a place of power for Mind Mages.
• Things weigh about half what they do on Alusia, and Alusians can jump higher and further than at home. This has interesting effects on fighting.
• The sky is tinged red, and the sun shines but weakly. There are massive canyons, several miles high and stretching across the entire planelet.
• The elements of aeir, eairth, waeter and feire are unlike our elements (and the Alusian elemental colleges of magic don't work there). People sink in the waeter, as it doesn't support vessels properly.
• The food is edible but doesn't provide the proper sustenance – wine festivals are very good though. Honey and spices abound, and some even assist in wound recovery. Most plants are straggly, though perhaps from lack of water.
• All metals (and their associated alloys) will corrode (with varying degress of rapidity), other than truesilver (which tarnishes), and gold (which is stable). It is best to store non-magical, non-gold/gilded items in wax.
• There are large gliding insects.
• Sand (actually a fine powder) resistant clothing is recommended for travel outside the cities.
• There are tall Halflings, tall humans, normal humans and Fey (See Ares Peoples).
• There is a huge mountain to the west of the inhabited area which impacts on the climate.
• Worms are rare native land-creatures that attack non-natives; often strong enough to kill an entire squad or two and engulf the remains. They are normally invisible; can be up to several hexes in size. They are called worms because they resemble a writhing mass of snakes when glimpsed at out of the corner of the eye -- and calling them voracious & deadly invisible tentacled devourers would discourage settlers & workers from coming to the Rosy planet. It is decades since they attacked any settlements. It is conjectured that they are mature forms of the "logoste" (a.k.a. "Gliders"), aerial creatures with dragonfly-like wings that occasionally swarm to the towns in their millions, but which are easily defeated by the military.
• There are fey and mind-masters in the high-lands, where the aeir is so thin few can live.
• Wounded with broken skin, and the dead, are at risk from a local infection that makes them undead-like. Fresh wounds can be cleaned with successful healing and Remove Minor Curse.

Societies

• Ares was colonised by humans and hobbits from 'Home', a planet of several hundred millions. Most humans come here for 30 years and then retire back to 'Home' – few humans like Ares. There are some estates for nobles. Most middle to high status people serve a 'military service' and hence form readily available contract labour to undertake civic works, like building the afore mentioned estates. Ares is sold as the 'rosey world'. But most tall hobbits and tall humans born here cannot visit Home due to their stretching, and anyway they like it here.
• The human settlers have a governor, military and taxes. There are special "wizards' Eyes" that stay high above the planelet enabling the governor to track changes, swarms of locusts, worms, ships and the denudation of forests.
• Not a good idea to talk about the powers of light.
• Swords and other edged weapons are considered barbaric, due to the undead infection.
• There are no horses, but they use aeir-ships to move around in. They take about four hours to go 400 local miles (about 250 Alusian Miles), and several weeks to travel to the 'Home' sub-plane (you have to take your own aeir with you as you can't breathe aether!).
• The Micheline order has been given permission to build a compound a few hundred miles away on an island.

Advice

Sir Hwan, Michaeline, gave the following advice on Ares:

1. Don't wear or use edged or pointed weapons
2. Don't resist the portal magic, as it transforms you into a local native, which may be why we can eat the local food.
3. The Village of Quorn is on the other side, which is run by hobbits – these are scouts who see colours.
4. Recruit a local guide if you leave the village as they are quite helpful and the place is intrinsically dangerous.
5. Stay at the Michealine hostelry.
6. If you have to leave the village, go to the provincial capital first, and use the order's 'legate' (local speak for ambassador or consul).
7. Use the local coinage, which is gold – we can provide some.
   • The gold coins are all identical, with a woman's face and the word "victory" written on it. The edge of the coin is 'milled'.
   • Several golden 'slivers' make up a coin.
8. Young local males hit people on the head twice a year in a fertility ritual, so don't object.
9. Some immoral business practices do occur, and business can only occur on certain days, so check first. There is significant corruption.
10. Punishments are traditional, so harsh but predictable.
11. Take food, and some water, though the wines are quite good.

There are no known portals off the planelet other than the Michaeline one, high probability that there are none, only reservation is that not all "monoliths" have been investigated. Monolith is the generic term for places that have tall stone structures, obelisk-like that are apparently remains of an ancient indigenous culture that has since disappeared.

[Carefully manipulated?] popular belief has it that the aborigines died out *because* of these monoliths. These often have an effect on those exploring them & civilians are not permitted near them -- for their own protection since they can unhinge the mind & often are associated with places that have high risk of "undead infection" and even worms.

Locations

Azmuth

Abbreviation: Region of Ares including the Provincial Capital.

Capital

Summary from Isil Eth: There was lots to see as we flew over the city: we first cross vineyards, and then a ridge of stone, to show the city is built onto a rocky outcrop of seven hills: nearly all of the land is used with many storied buildings extending down the side of the hills and tall apartments in the valleys – a bit like MiddelMarchHaupstart but without the attitude. The best houses are of white-washed sandstone, sited on the tops of six hills, with a major temple to the dead on the seventh and highest. The weather here must be lovely as the government meets in an open air forum – which just happens to be where I got off the boat.

Most people – poor and modest alike – live in lower reaches called the "Subura" which is distinguishable from the use of cheap, unwashed red sandstone. The markets and all things mechantile are down at the bottom where I guess there is enough land for warehouses and so on. The Governor's palace is quite nice with plants in pots (I am guessing they imported the soil as the local stuff hardly supports a daisy), as are some of the other better-appointed palaces, with some going so far as to import rose-tinted marble, possibly as a mark of respect for this rosey world but I think they would have shown more taste by building a folly at Home out of the material as a hint of their colonial service, which have extravagant spires and balconies leaning way out to catch any breeze that passes.

There are slaves, probably born to servitude or possibly for being a pauper – I must write that it seems unfair to enslave children just because their parents were, but then I haven't seen any horses and humans like their luxuries.

Quorn

A village a xxx miles E?? of the Capital. A few hundred 'tall hobbits', mostly scouts for the locals, who act as guides for any 'visitors'. There is a Michaeline hostelry just outside. There are 9 clans, with the current mayor coming from the Speedwall clan, one of the oldest. Most villages etc are placed in a slight depression so that the light dew can be collected for waeter

Trade of Ares

The trade goods and value adding of the planelet of Ares is fundamentally controlled by the weird elements that make up the planelet. The eairth does not grow good food, nor timber for charcoal fuel. The aier doesn't burn properly. The iron present is rusted. Coal is not reported.

Golden vessels are cheaper here than glass vessels, though we are uncertain why this should be, but glass is exceptionally rare and not used at all in windows.

Gems are apparently rare and more valuable than on Alusia.

Toys are ok. Musical instruments are poor, little beyond rudimentary lyres.

Fine leather goods are available – the use of a major stone-guillotine is obvious, as traditional shears would not work here.

Prospectors seek minerals with different properties but these are not very profitable ventures. Or perhaps they just don't pay much tax?

Spices are an Imperial commodity and is harvested locally, shipped to Home for processing and then some is sent back.

Other goods are sent to Britonnia, but little of that is discussed.

There is almost certainly a sub-trade run by the hobbits, and possibly another by those humans born on the planelet.

Monoliths

Collectively called "The Ruins" by the settlers, there are eight slender spires of stone, some 600 feet high and only 25 feet wide at the base. Inscribed with indecipherable glyphs. The monoliths appear to be made of rock at least as old as Alusia. There was a major change to its aura at about the same time as the War of Tears on Alusia, and the ruin got its cosmic 'tweak' – probably same time the elements went a little weird, which seriously affected the planelet and its ability to produce food. The Orb gave it a slight nudge last night.

The eight monoliths at this site form one artefact which act together, although each is unique. There are ley lines to the other monoliths on the planelet.

The whole place is now one half of a rune portal, probably inter-planar, and possibly to Nevere. This would give Bretlond pause. {Wordsmith advises that Lydia will have to make a corresponding ritual at the other end, wherever that is, to make the portal workable}. There also the namer ritual of exclusion with a duration of 19 days (= rank 18) (multiple species including undead, deamons, and some unknown nasties).

They are set in a circle about 100 local miles across; the centre of "The Ruins", so called, is 700 local miles West & 150 South of the Capital (about 440-450 Alusian miles between centre & Capital).

Apparently weird stuff happens if you go up to a monolith. The eight are uniformly arranged in a circle, but with the cardinal pints slightly out of alignment with true north.

The eastern most Monolith recently became self aware, in the last 100 years or so, and is a fountain of mana proving the magic for the planelet. Even Loxi and Rori can channel into themselves for the purposes of casting magic – they don't need to draw mana from the planes of air and earth as there is enough free mana nearby.

The monolith is intimately associated with the plant life of the planelet. The plants are low within 50 feet of the monolith. All vegetation in the ruin is one big, though low, plant with a single aura: magical and unique to this locale. The magic has been in effect for centuries or millennia, but has no effect on other sentients.

There is more moisture here than normal, which is probably due to the intense mana field.

Those that approach the monolith without resisting get an ability the magnitude of which is related to their MA. Those that fear the monolith go mad. Few hobbits go mad as they know what to do.

Magic cast at the monolith is at additional apparent ranks (like a special Enhance Enchant).

There are other monoliths scattered around Areas, often singularly. One is probably in the centre of the Purple Drow city 600 Alusian miles (1000 local) SE of the Michaeline Base.

Alusian Locations of Interest

Guido City

A city with too many Michaelines and Urielites and others, capital of Bretlond. They control a holy portal on the main bridge, which links to the village of Quorn on the plane of Ares. The portal is opened at midnight on each Moonday, but can be opened at other times for very special reasons.

Bretlond

Realm, formerly part of Raniterre and once very poor. The Royalist Destinians bought the province from the demon-worshiping Raniterrans and paid for them to relocate abroad. The portal must be significant to the Michaelines. The trade with Ares (and purloined wealth from Albalonga, the Ellenic states, etc) has introduced massive quantities of gold, and Bretlond is now wealthy, with massive public works schemes (e.g. Cathedrals built in 2 years by 1000 masons, entire towns created in the middle of the jungle, etc).