TEKUMEL®: Welcome to a world as complex and fascinating as our own, but unlike anything you have ever experienced. Welcome to Tékumel, the creation of Professor M.A.R. Barker. This is an incredibly detailed science fantasy world, and the basis for the first complete world setting published by TSR Hobbies. Empire of the Petal Throne is a classic of the gaming genre, setting the standard for everything that followed after it.
A rich, complex world and a complete set of rules, Empire of the Petal Throne includes rules for character generation, magic, monsters, adventuring, societies and languages. It is set in the 2,354th Year “After the Seal” – the accession of the first Emperor of Tsolyánu, just before the events chronicled in Man of Gold, the first of several novels written by Prof. Barker. Included with the rules is a four page set of charts and tables, errata for the original game, a map of the City of Jakalla, a b&w map of the Five Empires, and a citizenship document for Tsolyanu, the Empire of the Petal Throne!
Hardcover and softcover: 140pp. PDF: 140pp. [nb: Empire of the Petal Throne is the original role-playing game for The World of Tékumel and is not the same as the Guardians of Order RPG, Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne.]
The most venerable collection of Tékumel information and publications long resided at the Blue Room, an ftp site that also hosted the excellent Blue Room Mailing List (Professor Barker was a regular contributor to the list). You can find the archives of the Blur Room at www.tekumel.com - the official website of the World of Tekumel! The articles once offered on the Blue Room are available once again, along with new material for the World of Tekumel.
The Tekumel Foundation recognizes that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the World of Tekumel. While Prof. M.A.R. Barker created the World of Tekumel, he also held anti-Semitic and racist beliefs which he expressed under pseudonyms. Some Tekumel content may reflect these beliefs, which were wrong then and are wrong today. New material and facsimile reproductions of original materials are made available with this notice, because to do otherwise would erase the record of Prof. Barker’s actions and beliefs.
The World of Tekumel is an alien and fantastic world with its own diversity, far removed from the prejudices of the real world. However, we reject the racist and anti-Semitic beliefs of its creator. The Tekumel Foundation is committed to making products for the World of Tekumel as welcoming and inclusive as possible. A portion of all sales of Tekumel products goes to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, and to Holocaust education charities.
