The Ninth World
The Ninth World is Earth. But it is an Earth that has undergone multiple dramatic changes, for it is Earth approximately a billion years in the future. Over that nigh-incomprehensible span of time, nothing remains constant. Add in the rise and fall of civilizations so great that to us they would seem, again, nigh incomprehensible, and anything is possible.
THE PERSPECTIVE OF CHANGE
When attempting to grasp the Ninth World, there are two complementary shaping forces to keep in mind. First is the vast amount of time. Even if Earth were left completely alone, the drastic changes of celestial mechanics, continental drift, erosion, mass extinction, and evolution would render our home unrecognizable.
The second force is that of intelligence. Over the billion-year span, the earth has been home to at least eight civilizations that have arisen (or arrived) here, flourished and advanced to incredible power, and then either declined or left, never to return. Although we know little about these civilizations, we do know the following:
- At least one was the center of a galactic (or perhaps intergalactic) space-faring empire.
- At least one wielded the power of planetary engineering and stellar lifting.
- At least one had knowledge of the fundamental forces of reality and could alter those forces as they wished. The very laws of physics were theirs to play with, like toys.
- At least one filled the world with invisible, molecule-sized machines called nanites (or nanomachines) that could deconstruct and reconstruct matter and manipulate energy.
- At least one explored the multiverse of other dimensions, parallel universes, and alternate levels of reality.
- At least some of these civilizations were not human.
THE WORLD AS IT REMAINS
Most of the land mass has once again joined to form a gigantic supercontinent, leaving the rest of the globe to the mercy of a single ocean dotted with islands. The moon is smaller than we are accustomed to because its orbit is wider. Due to the effect this has on the planet’s rotation, days are now 28 hours long. The year’s length has not changed, however, so a Ninth World year has only 313 days. Words like “week” and “month” retain their meanings, and for the sake of understanding, this book also uses terms like “second,” “minute,” and “hour,” although the inhabitants of the world probably use different terms, perhaps with slightly different meanings. The people of the Ninth World don’t realize it, but at its current age, the sun’s luminosity should have increased to a point where life on Earth (as we know it) is impossible. And yet it continues. Something happened millions of years in the past to prevent life from disappearing. Most planets in the solar system remain, although their orbits have altered somewhat, but the planet we call Mercury is long gone. (Ninth Worlders don’t know it ever existed, so they don’t wonder why it’s absent.)
THE PEOPLE OF THE NINTH WORLD
In the youth of an age, the people use the resources they have on hand, coupled with whatever understanding of their world they can master, to carve out a life for themselves. In the Ninth World, the resources available are the numenera—the detritus of the prior eras—and the people’s understanding
of these resources is crude and incomplete. The Aeon Priests possess just enough discernment and knowledge to suggest possible uses for things, but so much remains to be discovered. Even the creatures and plants of the Ninth World are strange by-products of the prior ages; the past left behind flora, fauna, and machines, some designed by lore or nature, others transplanted from distant stars or dimensions.
The Ninth Worlders clothe themselves in newly spun fabrics but weave the relics of the past into each garment. They forge armor, weapons, and tools from materials recovered from ancient structures and devices. Some of these materials are metals, but others are (or appear to be) glass, stone, bone, flesh, or substances that defy categorization and understanding. Those who risk the mysterious dangers to recover the relics of the past provide a valuable service. Typically these brave souls bring their findings to the Aeon Priests, who use the artifacts to fashion tools, weapons, and other boons for the growing civilization. As time passes, more individuals learn to use the numenera, but it remains a mystery to most people.
But who or what are the people of the Ninth World? Most are humans, although not all that call themselves human truly are. Is an engineered 8-foot (2.5 m) tall person with mechanical limbs and biocrafted brain implants still human? In the Ninth World, the answer is very likely yes, but some people will eagerly debate the point. Perhaps an even better question is: After a billion years, why does Earth still have humans at all, in shapes and forms that we—the people of the 21st century—can recognize? This might seem particularly curious once you consider the fact that many of the prior worlds were distinctly nonhuman.
Ninth Worlders don’t have that specific perspective, but they do wonder where they came from. They have a sense that Earth was once theirs, and then it wasn’t, and now it is again. How can this be? Perhaps one day they’ll find the answer. Beyond the humans are the abhumans: mutants, crossbreeds, genetically engineered, and their offspring. How is it that some engineered or mutated beings remain “human” while others become “abhuman”? It has more to do with mindset than physical form. Abhumans are once-human creatures that rejected humanity to become bestial, murderous, and degenerate. In other words, they (or their forebears) chose to be abhuman. And then there are the visitants, who are not native to the earth but who now call the Ninth World home. They have no more understanding of the past (even their own) than anyone else.
LIFE IN THE NINTH WORLD
The life of a Ninth World human isn’t all that different from the life of a human around the year 1000 AD. Farmers till fields, herders tend flocks, hunters and trappers provide meat and skins, weavers create clothing, woodworkers build furniture, authors write books, and so on. Meals are cooked over fires. Entertainment comes from a lute player, a group of singers, or perhaps comedic thespians.
Throughout the Ninth World, couples of all orientations join together in commitment ceremonies. However, because traditions, religions, and cultural norms vary widely, the ceremonies and resulting relationships take vastly different forms from place to place. Parents typically raise children, although in some places extended families are common. Many children attend some kind of school until the age of about twelve, when they learn a craft. Some students, usually those in larger cities, go on to higher learning. Most people live in small, agrarian villages, but some settle in larger towns or cities. The largest city in the Steadfast, Qi, has a population of 500,000.
Life expectancy varies wildly, but those who survive to the age of thirty can expect to live to at least sixty. It’s rare but not unheard of for someone to live to be ninety or even one hundred. Those fortunate enough to be rich or to live in a locale where the Aeon Priests have discovered secrets of longevity might live twice that long—or longer. The dead are buried or cremated.
CLASS
Generally speaking, humans in the Ninth World are aristocrats, peasants, or slaves. In some places, a “middle” or “merchant” class arises from the ranks of the peasants, populated by those who have wealth but not nobility. True feudalism exists only in certain locations, and as might be expected in cases of land ownership, the nobles usually own the land and the peasants usually work it. A peasant likely earns a few shins per day, whereas a merchant could earn a hundred times that. Aristocrats rarely bother using coins at all except when dealing with the peasantry. Only the nobles own slaves, which are usually taken from conquered enemies or their descendants and are considered property. (The children of slaves are born into slavery.) Sometimes criminals are consigned to slavery as well. Slaves toil as manual laborers, house servants, and guards. A few nobles prefer to use abhuman rather than human slaves, and some own both kinds.
RELIGION
The religions of the Ninth World are varied and many. With the exception of the Order of Truth’s quasi-religious veneration of the past and the understanding its inhabitants had of the forces of the universe, no religion is widespread—they’re local affairs. An explorer coming to a new town or village will find that the inhabitants have their own specific gods and religions. Some of these are based in local myths and stories, while others are more grounded in reality—creatures or other weird aspects of the world are often explained using the trappings of religion. For example, a village might worship a machine intelligence left over from the prior worlds as a mysterious deity. In some places, religion is vital and fervent. In others, it’s casual. And in some locations, the people have no concept of religion at all. One thing to keep in mind is that the Ninth World is not shaped by Judeo-Christianity, Islam, or other current religions. The taboos, virtues, and other behavior-modifying beliefs prevalent in the 21st century are not necessarily true for the Ninth World.
LANGUAGE
Language is a complex topic for a 21st-century reader trying to understand a civilization a billion years in the future. In a fantasy or pseudo-medieval fictional setting, it’s typical for everyone to talk in a vaguely Shakespearean British manner. This style of speaking probably isn’t appropriate for Numenera. The Ninth World is filled with words that—while not strictly modern—aren’t medieval or Shakespearean either.
And, of course, no one in the Ninth World actually speaks English. Words like “pope” and “synth” and other real-world terms are just English approximations of words used by Ninth Worlders. “Pope” means “father” but implies more, and the word has an association with Medieval Europe. “Synth” isn’t a word used by Medieval Europeans, but its meaning—and, just as important, its sound—suggests something wholly artificial yet simple, common, and acceptable to our 21st-century ears. Those terms and hundreds like them were chosen because they convey the right ideas. So what languages do Ninth Worlders speak?
The Truth: The Aeon Priests teach a language based on rationality and intellect. Because of its name, it means something different in the Ninth World to say, “She speaks the Truth,” but that subtle double meaning is intentional on the part of the priesthood. The language’s rules are simple and straightforward, easy to teach and easy to learn. The Truth is the predominant language in the Steadfast, where it’s spoken by about 80 percent of the people; in cities, that number is closer to 100 percent. In the Beyond, about 60 percent of the people speak the Truth as their primary language, but many isolated villages have their own specific tongue.
Shin-Talk: This is a crude and simple language used only for trade and related tasks—counting, assessing quality, and so on. Shin-Talk is older than the Truth but not as widely used.
Other Languages: At least 500 (and perhaps far more) completely distinct languages are spoken across the Ninth World. It’s not unusual for a traveler to discover an isolated village—particularly in the Beyond—and be unable to speak to its few hundred residents because they have their own language. Fortunately, this is a common problem, so people are used to struggling through interactions without relying on words.
LITERACY
Many people in the Ninth World cannot read. The Steadfast has an average literacy rate of about 50 percent. Although almost everyone can recognize a few written words of the Truth, genuine literacy—the ability to read a contract or a book—is uncommon. Reading is more common in cities, where up to 70 percent of the population might be literate. In small towns and villages, the number is closer to 40 percent, and in very rural, isolated villages, it falls to 10 percent or less. In the Beyond, literacy rates are about 50 percent in cities and 0 to 20 percent in the aldeia.
In communities that have a predominant language other than the Truth, literacy varies wildly.
ANIMALS AND CREATURES
A billion years in the future, all the animals we know in the 21st century are long gone. However, animal types—mammals, reptiles, insects, birds, and so forth—remain. Again, it’s a language problem. The text (or the GM) might talk about rats, deer, flies, or ravens, but the beasts being described are at least slightly different than the creatures we think of today. However, the words are still valid because they convey the proper general meaning. Wholly different creatures, such as aneen or snow lopers, are described because they have no 21st-century analog. Of course, the Ninth World also has creatures that are nothing like animals. Mutant beasts, engineered creatures (or their descendants), automatons, biomechanical blends of organism and machine, extraterrestrial and ultraterrestrial beings, creatures of energy, and stranger entities roam the planet. In one way or another, all of these things are results of the influence of the numenera.
NINTH WORLD HISTORY
To the people of the Ninth World, recorded history began about 900 years ago, with the work of learned scholars who organized themselves into what would later become the Aeon Priests. Before that time, humans lived in barbaric tribes and isolated farming villages. No one knows how much time passed between the fall of the previous civilization and the rise of the Ninth World. Likewise, no one can agree on where Ninth Worlders came from. It’s clear that many residents of the prior worldswere not human, but perhaps some were. The first Amber Pope organized the Aeon Priests into the Order of Truth about 400 years ago. At this time, the kingdoms of the Steadfast began to take the form that they have today, although wars, upheavals, and changes have come and gone since then (and more changes are likely in the future). In the end, to scholars and broad thinkers, the petty squabbles and changes that took place during the last few centuries seem as nothing compared to the vast, unknowable past of Earth. This is likely part of the reason why people of the Ninth World don’t care much about history.
GAZETTEER OF THE NINTH WORLD
The Ninth World is the backdrop of a young civilization that has grown up amid the ruins of very old, very advanced forebears. A billion years from now, we’ll be long gone, as will the civilizations that evolve and rise (and fall or leave or transcend) after us. A billion years is a long, long time—far lengthier than the span between the 21st century and the dinosaurs. In the time of the Ninth World, the landmasses have rejoined to form a vast supercontinent surrounded by seemingly endless seas with perilous storms. But did the earth come to be in this configuration because of natural forces through the march of time, or did a prior civilization design it to be so? Certainly the ancient inhabitants of the previous worlds had the ability to shape their planet, and likely other planets, as they saw fit. Proof of this is everywhere; “impossible” landscapes are a normal part of the topography. Islands of crystal float in the sky. Inverted mountains rise above plains of broken glass. Abandoned structures the size of kingdoms stretch across great distances, so enormous that they affect the weather. Massive machines, some still active, churn and hum. But for what purpose? Along the western coast lies the Steadfast, a collection of kingdoms and principalities with little in common except for a unifying religion. This religion, called by its adherents the Order of Truth (and by all others the Amber Papacy), reveres the past and the knowledge of the ancients as understood by the enigmatic Aeon Priests. By decree of the Amber Pope, the Steadfast and the Order of Truth wage war with the lands to the north, believed by many to be enthralled by a secretive and mysterious cult called the Gaians. Nobles in the Steadfast are called to the Crusades, making war against the infidels with ever-stranger weapons discovered or devised by the priesthood. Outside the bounds of the Steadfast lies the Beyond, a vast wilderness punctuated by very occasional, very isolated communities. The Beyond also has Aeon Priests, but they’re not linked by an organized network, and they don’t answer to the Amber Pope. Instead, these priests dwell in sequestered claves. Around these claves, small villages and communities known as aldeia have arisen. Each clave has discovered and mastered various numenera items, giving every aldeia a distinct identity.
In one, the inhabitants might raise unique bioengineered beasts for food. In another, people may pilot gravity-defying gliders and race along the rooftops of ancient ruins. In still another aldeia, the priests of the clave may have developed the means to stop the aging process almost entirely, making the residents nearly immortal, and some are no doubt willing to sell the secret—for a staggering price. Because the aldeia are remote and separated by dangerous distances, trade of these discoveries is occasional and haphazard. But not every village or tribe in the Beyond has a clave to help guide them amid the dangers of the past. Some of these communities have tried to use the numenera to their peril, unleashing horrors, plagues, or mysteries beyond comprehension. Travelers might find a village where the residents have been transformed into flesh-eating monstrosities, or one whose populace works as slaves for a machine intelligence left over from an earlier era. Outside the aldeia and other settlements, the dangers multiply. Amid the ruins of the past lurk tribes of vicious abhumans that are as likely to kill and eat an explorer as talk to her. Clouds of tiny, invisible machines called the iron wind scour the wilderness, altering everything they touch. Monstrous predators, ancient death machines, and stranded extraterrestrial or transdimensional beings (also called ultradimensional beings or ultraterrestrials) also threaten the uncharted reaches of the Beyond. But so too can a careful, capable explorer find awe-inspiring numenera that can accomplish anything they might imagine. In the Ninth World, the numenera is both the risk and the reward.
WEATHER
The numenera has changed the environment of the planet many times over. The inhabitants of the prior worlds reshaped not only land and sea but sky as well. Even the weather of the Ninth World is influenced by the numenera. In the Steadfast and the Beyond, it grows colder as you travel south. The southernmost lands of the Steadfast, for example, have cool summers and harsh winters. The central and northern portions have warmer summers, but even the southern edge of the Cloudcrystal Skyfields sees snow and frost in the winter. The mountains of the Black Riage have long, oppressive winters, with the southernmost passes open for only a few months. Overall, the climate is dry, and with a few exceptions (along the coast, for example), rain is uncommon and accompanies terrible storms. Rumors say that particularly harsh or strange storms are either the result of a harmful numenera effect or the slow degradation of a beneficial one. Either way, storms with dangerous winds, hail, and lightning grow more frequent each year. Other storms—still thankfully very rare—bring oily black rains that kill crops rather than nourish them, or weird magnetic fluctuations that bend matter and disrupt minds. But even these pale in comparison to the most terrifying weather effect in the Ninth World: the iron wind.
THE IRON WIND: The iron wind is the Ninth-World term for clouds of dangerous nano spirits (also called nanotech by the more learned). Malfunctioning machines—insane, really—that are far too tiny to see travel across the landscape in terrible clouds borne by strong winds. These machines warp everything they touch, transmuting all matter. An iron wind storm twists the ground, turns rock into clouds of vapor, and creates new features out of thin air. And woe to any living thing caught in its passing. Trees become rocks, pools of water, or unrecognizable lumps of pulsing, living substance. The iron wind tears apart creatures only to rebuild them in bizarre, seemingly random shapes. Flesh is transmuted to nonliving substances, ropy tendrils, or even more alien configurations or textures. Nine times out of ten, this transformation results in the death of the creature—sometimes a long, painful death as it tries to cope with its new form.
THE STEADFAST
(refer to chapter 10 of Discovery for maps and marginal information)
The Steadfast comprises nine different countries. Collectively, the rulers are often called the Nine Rival Kings, or just the Nine. These kings, queens, princes, and councils share no love for one another and truthfully have no relationship except that each rules over a land whose people owe faith and favor to the Amber Papacy. Generally speaking, the Steadfast is more settled and civilized than the Beyond, but it can be just as dangerous. Communities are isolated. Travel on the roads is risky and nearly unthinkable at night—but at least the roads exist. The Steadfast includes all the land from the sea to the Black Riage, south of the Tithe River and north of the Sadara. The nine kingdoms of the Steadfast are Navarene, Ghan, Draolis, Thaemor, Malevich, Iscobal, the Pytharon Empire, Milave, and Ancuan.
Explore The Steadfast
THE BEYOND
The Beyond is a very Steadfast-centric term, used essentially to describe any area of the world that isn’t part of the nine kingdoms. As the scope of the world known and understood by even the most learned scholars in the Steadfast is limited, however, what the Beyond technically includes are the lands south of the Caecilian Jungle, west of the Clock of Kala, and north of the Southern Wall. The people of the Beyond are even more disparate and isolated from one another than the folk of the Steadfast are. Although these lands are full of would-be rulers, most communities are truly independent. Many have little contact with the world outside their own limited bounds, and some have none at all. The scattered villages of the Beyond are called aldeia, and most are centered on a clave of Aeon Priests.
Due to the perils of the Ninth World, many aldeia don’t welcome strangers. Some of these villages are dangerous in and of themselves, as the inhabitants have taken up cannibalism, human sacrifice, or similar practices.
Explore The Beyond