So rich is the setting that it is actually perhaps a detriment. This is the strange world we’re meant to explore. Much science was lost, but magic rose again.
Wars between colonists and indigenous species followed suit, resulting in the rise several empires, all in a tense peace. A catastrophe struck, cutting the colony off from the greater intergalactic empire. The world is one of science fantasy - Tekumel was colonized by humans millennia ago and turned into a pleasure planet. Petal Throne gives us the first true campaign setting (also the first RPG in a big one inch box, the first to include overland hex maps, the first to incorporate critical hits and probably more firsts that I am forgetting), designed sort of for OD&D and published by TSR. The world itself is an impressive feat of creation as well, richly detailed, a swirl of languages and cultures (drawing from many of our real world cultures, particularly those of Asia and South America), certainly unlike anything else anyone had seen at the time and unmatched for several years. The art inside is just as gorgeous, particularly Barker’s - it feels both of another era and deeply exotic. Look at that box cover! I love it to bits. Barker’s Empire of the Petal Throne (1975) is such a strange beauty.
Black metal album art got nothing on that. The four armed demon lady gives me the creeps.
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There isn’t a lick of mechanics in here, by the way, making it one of the first mechanics free sourcebooks for RPGs. Lots of RPG books embrace a “Forbidden Tome” vibe, but none so completely as this. The entities and rituals of Ebon Bindings are similarly horrific - there is even a mature readers content warning (which, amusingly, doesn’t admit the book is fiction), a first, I think, for RPGs.
A translator’s note, followed by some historical and social context that verges on boring then the reproduced tome, which invariable deals with horrible stuff like “to make the wand, murder a man at the crossroads and use his femur, this is the only way to convince the devil to give you a black hen that lays golden eggs.” (I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist of the real world grimoire, The Black Pullet). If you’ve ever read modern editions of grimoires, this is almost always how they are presented.
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The second part reproduces a famous reputed book of rituals that catalogs demons, their powers and how to call them up. It feels very much like a scholarly work on an obscure religion. The first part is a frankly exhausting conversation with a priest about the nuances of his beliefs and the structures of his rituals. It reminds me quite a bit of little turn of the century occult books you can find in second hand bookstores every so often.Īnd with good reason, because Ebon Bindings is a book of black magic! Barker presents it as an in-universe document that he has found and translated. It sort of defies good photography, too - that gold ink is so thick it is raised. The Book of Ebon Bindings (1978) is the only other Petal Throne book I own, but holy wow is it a good one.
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