Reproduced without permission. It all belongs to Steven Brust.
There is an orange-red overcast that hangs over the Dragaeran Empire.
Standing near the eastern border, there are, indeed, times when the
overcast will break and you can see a blue sky, or a grey overcast, or
white clouds, or a yellow sun, or bright stars. Other times, with a
strong wind from the west, the Easterners will see orange-red instead
of blue or grey or white.
The overcast may, if you are so
inclined, be considered pollution. It is the result of sorcerers
casually using magic for war, pleasure, and taking out the garbage for
something like two hundred thousand years.
Sorcery is not
unusual in the Empire; it is the norm. The question is not, "Are you a
sorcerer?" but, "How good are you?" If, like a Dragaeran, you will
live two- or three thousand years, you might have time to get very
good.
Think big.
The population, amount of land, wealth,
power, and culture are big. The continent on which the Empire rests is
roughly the shape of Europe, but twice the size, and the Empire
encompasses (at the moment) more than half of it. Easterners (read:
human beings) make up the rest. But we are not concerned with human
beings, because there are very few within the Empire, and they are
small (rarely even six feet tall), short-lived (sixty years is old),
and weak.
We can also forget about the Teckla, who make up more
than ninety-five percent of the population. They are a peasant class,
and it is a very rare one indeed who has enough sorcerous skill to do
more than an occasional fertility spell. The study of sorcery takes
time, and the Teckla are too busy eking out a living to have the time
to study sorcery or anything else useful.
Teckla? Well, they
are one of the Seventeen Houses.
Houses?
Every Dragaeran
(with a few sad exceptions who are cross-breeds) is born into one of
the Seventeen Houses. Each Houses is named for an animal, and has
certain characteristics bred into it. Each House takes a turn, in
order, at being the ruling House, and the closer the House is to
ruling, the higher your status in society (except, again, the poor
Teckla, who are rather sneered at even while in power, which they only
acquire through revolution).
The House of the Phoenix is in
power now. The Phoenix represents decadence and rebirth. The next
House to take the throne will be the Dragon. The Dragaeran dragon is a
large reptile that does not breathe fire. As a general rule, it
doesn't need to. It is distinguished by tentacles with which it can
pick up psychic impressions from other animals. The House of the
Dragon represents war.
Next is the lyorn, which looks like a
medium-size golden-haired dog, except for the horn sticking out of the
middle of its head. The Lyorn represents tradition.
The tiassa
is a large panther with batlike wings, and the House represents
catalyst and inpiration.
The next House is the Hawk, and to a
Dragaeran, a hawk is anything from a goshawk to an eagle. The Hawk's
characteristic is curiosity.
The dzur is a large, black tiger,
and represents heroism.
The issola is vaguely storklike, with a
sharper beak and darker colors, and represents courtliness and
surprise.
The tsalmoth is somewhat bearlike, and is known for
unpredictability and tenacity.
The vallista is an amphibious
creature living around streams and ponds, and the House is that of
construction and tearing down.
The Jhereg, which, along with
the Vallista, shares the bottom of the Cycle right now, is a small
flying, poisionous reptile that lives on carrion. It represents
corruption.
Starting back toward the top of the Cycle (though,
in its movements, heading down) is the House of the Iorich. The iorich
is a large, slow-moving, river dwelling reptile. It is an [sic]
herbivore, but is also known to follow (sometimes for weeks), track
down, and kill anything which attacks it. This House represents
justice and retribution.
The chreotha is a large foxlike
creature, whose saliva can be used to build a web strong enough to
snare a Dzur [sic] and, sometimes, a Dragon [sic]. The Chreotha
represents the trap.
The yendi is a desert-dwelling sand-snake.
Its bite is so subtle that few animals (or people) will realize
they've been bitten until, a few minutes to an hour later, the victim
will collapse. The House of the Yendi represents subtlety and
misdirection.
The House of the Orca is mercantilism and the
viscious side of business.
The teckla is a salt marsh harvest
mouse, and the House of the Teckla represents cowardice and
fertility.
The jhegaala lives in swamps, and starts as an egg,
becomes a large moth, and then a very large toad, passing through a
few other stages in between. The House represents
metamorphosis.
The athyra is an owllike bird. It is capable of
emitting subtle psychic signals which causes its prey to come to it,
or make its enemies fear it. The Athyra is the House of
magic.
Except for the Teckla, all Houses are considered
"noble", although this has greater or lesser meaning depending on the
House.
A few hundred thousand years ago, or so the story
goes, an accident happened to the godlike Jenoine who lived on
Dragaera and whose genetic experiments led to the tribes which
eventually lead to the Seventeen Houses. What remains is a large Sea
of Chaos, in the northeastern part of the Empire.
The Empire
began when the Imperial Orb was created, which allowed the Empress to
draw power from this chaos. Every citizen of the Empire has a link to
this Orb, and it is from this that sorcery is done. The amount of
power is, for all intents and purposes, unlimited, although doing a
great deal of sorcery will cause fatigue that may lead to the power
getting out of control, with unfortunate results.
It should be
noted that every citizen, through the Orb, can instantly reach the
Emperor or Empress (at the moment, Empress Zerika), but this is rarely
done since it means instant death to anyone who bothers the Empress
needlessly.
There is, incidentally, no armor as such, though
few sorcerers can accomplish similar effects. The most common weapon
among Dragaerans is the hand-and-a-half sword, which they wield in a
fairly primitive manner. The cultural feel of the society should be
thought of as Western Europe around the time of the
Reformation.
The other thing worth mentioning is that, about
four hundred and fifty years ago, there was an attempt to take the
throne that failed, resulting in a small Sea of Chaos where the old
capital was two hundred years Interregnum when sorcery didn't work. It
ended something like two hundred and fifty years ago when Zerika took
up the Orb, and society has building itself since then.
[End]