The Fifty Worlds: DM Information

Tsing

I haven't written this up yet.

In case your players arrive here anyway, wing it, using the following as guidelines.

Tsing is a world where nothing has changed in the last several thousand years. Its rulers, the Orange Order, make sure of that.

Tsing is vaguely based on Mandarin China, and even more vaguely based on Northern Ireland. If you don't feel comfortable about taking the piss out of other cultures, even cultures which so manifestly deserve it, don't let your players reach Tsing.

The rulers of Tsing believe in the Four Pillars of Wisdom: Inscrutability, Incomprehensibility and Paradox. Anyone counting on his fingers at this point is considered an inferior person.

Many other people are inferior:

  • anyone who says what he means is considered an inferior person. Making one's meaning clear is neither inscrutable nor incomprehensible;
  • anyone who believes in the Gods is considered an inferior person. The Gods exist, and are powerful, so anyone openly believing in them is neither inscrutable nor paradoxical;
  • anyone who openly acts in his own best interests is considered an inferior person. Acting in one's own best interests is neither incomprehensible nor paradoxical. The Orange Order do not act in their own best interests, nor even in the best interests of the world they rule;
  • anyone from another world is automatically considered an inferior person. While it would be polite to wait and see before judging anyone, and then to judge each individual on his or her merits, politeness and tolerance are neither inscrutable, incomprehensible nor paradoxical, so the people of Tsing do not practise them.

    The people of Tsing behave in ways which even they don't understand. There may, thousands of years ago, have been reasons for their actions, but these reasons have been lost.

    The language of Tsing is easy enough to understand. It is the thought processes of its people which are incomprehensible. No-one from another world has ever held a successful conversation (in which real, useful information was exchanged) with a person from Tsing.

    Tsing has its own holy book, the Book of Nonsense. Since no-one on Tsing practises any religion, the principle of paradox makes the existence of a holy book a logical necessity. People quote from it, often at great length, to demonstrate their lack of belief. It is, of course, completely incomprehensible, even to the people quoting from it.

    Using ESP or other mind-reading magic on a person from Tsing does not work and results in a serious headache for the would-be mind-reader.

    The people of Tsing are numerous. Anyone getting annoyed and violent because the locals keep talking gibberish will soon be outnumbered and in serious trouble.


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