Ammeni, Flower of Hell

Introduction
''Phillipe, lord of the manor, stood with a grin. "Lord Fleur shows me much respect with this spread before me," he said to the servant girl draped in silk gauze over a low-slung chaise. "These fruits and dried meats are spectacular. Nomi, do sample them."''

''The Zaru slave nodded, his mutilated tongue ruined for speech but trained in the art of poison-finding. After tasting the many presents given to Phillipe, and washing them down with a sip of wine from Before the Shadow, he glanced at the succulent gift upon the chaise with a question in his eyes.''

''"Ah, Nomi. This delight is my own to sample," Phillipe grinned. He placed a wedge of starfruit on his lips and swallowed it down in one overtly sexual motion. Drawing close to the girl, he began to unwrap his present. "Let us see what is ripe in this garden." He nestled his face in her bosom, then trailed downwards, drawing the fragrant juices like fresh honeysuckle.''

''As Phillipe's eyes rolled back, the girl kicked him backwards onto the floor, his swollen tongue lewdly protruding from his lips. "You were correct, Nomi. This one is too trusting," she said, reaching between her legs to pull out a delicate, but deadly, blossom, and tossing it upon Phillipe's unmoving breast.''

Houses of Treachery
Ammeni is a land of beauty and death, exotic foods and terrible poisons, incredible wealth and decimating poverty. It is geographically positioned to be a focal point for trade in northern Near, with its north coast bordering the Sea of Teeth and its eastern shore a wide delta against the ocean. The western and southern borders end at the intersection of the Belhor River and Absolon's Way, although it controls only the eastern portion of that land well, with the west fallen into barbarism and savagery. The primary seats of power run near the River of Vipers, which cuts down from the Sea of Teeth to the Zaru Delta, which Ammeni has captured for its own.

Ammeni, being incredibly hot and wet, is extremely fertile. The majority of the Houses' business is growing rice and fruits and farming fish and water buffalo. These staples, plus the chiles grown further in the west, provide them with an endless source of trade. Their navy is powerful and is used for shipping, not only for Ammeni, but to allied merchants in Maldor, where it makes a tidy profit on the deal. Ammeni is also home to Near's most wondrous drugs and deadliest poisons. A career in death is definitely a lucrative one here. The items Ammeni is most deficient in, yet craves, are metals and jewels. Most of their trade is for these two goods.

Power in Ammeni comes from the seven Houses, plantations with have grown into both tremendous mercantile houses and governmental entities. The "House" refers not only to the ruler of the House, or the business, but also the land that House controls. Within a House, laws are determined by the ruler of that House or his staff, and are usually capriciously enforced. Trade law is created by majority vote among the rulers of the seven Houses, the Council, which are normally embroiled in the covert sabotage and annexation of each other, forming alliances that last only weeks before backstabbing allies. These Houses are seven heads of the same hydra; before the year of Shadow, the seven Houses were seven sons of the same ancient father, who ruled the waterways and fields of Ammeni. Those sons' descendants emerged after the Shadow to divide Ammeni, and quarrel with each other only slightly less than they subjugate the peasantry.

The one cause that has recently joined the Houses is a war on the Ammeni-Khale border. Rumors of a strange substance called "moon-metal" have emerged from Khale, and the Ammenite Houses have thrown their normal caution regarding Khale to the wind in order to control this material, rumored to have powerful properties. This has worked out poorly for both sides of the conflict: the Khaleans strike in small groups and have eradicated every excursion into their land by Ammeni military, although with high losses.

Sleeping Among the Snakes
Ammenites are known outside their country for their cruelty and decadence. The appearance is misleading, however: only the richest of Ammenites have the opportunity for cruelty and the ability for decadence. The rest of them are merely opportunists, making the best deals they can in a colonial society. The upper class of Ammenites, however, are decadent to an extreme, clothing themselves in the finest silk and eating bizarre delicacies grown only in the fertile delta soil. Ammenites are the descendants of Maldor, although they do not like to be reminded of this fact. Their language is much like the language of Maldor, but is filled with pops and flecks in between words to convey connotation.

A full five percent of the population of Ammeni belongs to the hyper-wealthy House families, although many of these are not related by blood. The habitual assassination of family members means that ambitious types may rise quickly. Slavery is common in Ammeni, and at least twenty-five percent of the population is made of slaves, many of them from the former nation of Zaru. The incidence of death among slaves is almost as high as that among House family members: slaves are treated with the utmost brutality by the desensitized and dazed rulers. The rest of the population are either what we would know as middle management - low-level employees assigned to control slaves and supervise menial labor - or poor freemen, who try to attract as little attention as possible, and often leave Ammeni to become wanderers or traders.

Hordes in the Mouth, Fires in the Belly
The Ammenites collect art of other cultures more than they create their own: the acquisition of art is a hobby for the upper classes. Native Ammenite art is bizarre, focusing on themes of oppression and the inevitability of death. The most famous Ammenite painting is of a rice patty, red with blood, with tall stalks rising to the sky; the most famous book is the story of the last 24 hours of a rich, mad man. Zaru slaves do create art as well, although mostly ritual chants made of gibberish that manage to convey emotion. Their funeral dirges are known to bring even the strongest Ammenites to tears, which brings horrible wrath upon them.

The food of Ammeni, however, is considered a delicacy. Hot and spicy, full of cream, rice, and noodles, as well as odd ingredients such as slugs, uncooked quail eggs, and fish-eyes, it evokes either love or disgust in most people. They make a rice wine that is similar: either astounding or repulsive, depending on the taster, and they take large amounts of poiture, the pollen of a gleaming white flower that grows wild in the rice fields of Ammeni. Poiture puts people into a deep relaxed state much like slumber where the sense of time becomes elongated.

The Ammenites eschew religion, worshipping only gold and riches. The Council of Houses has outlawed religious ceremonies in the land, although both the Zaru slaves and members of the Houses often participate in odd cults, especially the Revenant Cult. This cult maintains that the ancient House Father still lives, driven on by a poisonous cocktail, and its members reach for immortality by experimentation, attempting to recreate the Father's mystic brew.

The Roots in the Mists
From the fertile ground of Ammeni grows the world's largest supply of drugs of all types. Recreational drugs, poisons, and great healing herbs all sprout up wildly throughout Ammeni. The most common of these is a flower called poiture. White poiture is a powerful recreational drug, sending the user in a hazy dream-state where consciousness becomes very third-person and the sense of time grows elongated. Red poiture, a much rarer type, causes fevered activity, occasional rage, and a loss of concentration. Black poiture is known to give a much more potent high than white poiture, and has reputed healing powers, but causes death in small quantities.

Between the cornucopia of herbs and significant studies of the inner workings of the body done by curious or disturbed Ammenites, healers are common here. Many healers find employment in Houses as personal doctors or torturers, and others become medics in the legions. Unaffiliated healers are harder to come by, and most leave Ammeni to wander, although a few stay behind to help the Zaru underground.

Freelance poisoners, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen. They might change affiliation once a week. For this reason, the hardest job interview in Ammeni is for a chef position. Chefs are known to be the best poisoners, and getting a job in a House as one means being interviewed by the ruler of that House, as well as his staff, and perhaps his torturer.

Other Species in Ammeni
Ammenites are not altogether comfortable with anything besides humans in their midst; those of the Houses are not truly comfortable with humans that don't have wealth, even. Still, some elves find their way into acceptance, given that they have a black enough heart.

Goblins, given their nature, are generally thought of as pets, and find themselves hooked on Ammeni's exotic foods and drugs. Many of them find themselves employed as taskmasters, thugs, or playthings.

Ratkin are not uncommon in the swampier parts of the land, but are either hunted or pressed into labor. Their assistance to the people of Zaru brings special torture upon them when caught.

The Taste of Death
Poisons and drugs can have the following mechanical effects:


 * One penalty or bonus die to all abilities related to one pool. This can be chosen multiple times to affect one pool more than once or different pools. It is not uncommon for a drug to affect different pools in different ways: the crimson blossoms of blood poiture increase Vigor-based abilities while eroding Reason-based ones.
 * Harm. All poisons and drugs do temporary harm to the character taking them, but this provides a real, physical harm. This works like the Secret of Imbuement to increase the poison's effect, and can be taken multiple times, like that Secret.
 * Unconsciousness. Drugs and poisons often knock their recipients into a dazed or unconscious state.
 * Loss or heightening of a sense. This is really a specialized version of penalty and bonus dice above. In this case, the bonus or penalty dice are increased by two, and all abilities that rely on that sense are affected. However, with this effect, the dice can be reversed by overstimulation. A drug which enhances touch to the point one can read print with his fingertips can result in that character having a major penalty the first time she gets hit.

There is not a definitive list of poisons and drugs in The Shadow of Yesterday. Instead, all can be made from the above list of effects. While some poisons and drugs have beneficial effects, they all have some negative effects, and are all known as "poisons."

Poisons can be undistilled or distilled. An undistilled poison is one found in nature as a plant, herb, or flower. To use it, you must deliver it orally. To find an undistilled poison, a successful Herb Lore check needs to be made. The found material can be used as a poison, but it can only have one beneficial effect from the above list. It must have one deleterious effect. The result of the Herb Lore check should be recorded as the poison's potency.

To increase its potency, and allow it to be used via other methods, the poison must be distilled. Using the Distill Herbs ability, with bonus dice from the Herb Lore check, extra effects can be added. The first extra effect is free, and others can be gained using Ammenite Secrets. When a poison or drug is distilled, it is made into an infusion, the essence of the poison suspended in liquid, usually grain alcohol. The infusion must be taken orally, injected, or otherwise gotten into the target's bloodstream in order to take effect. The result of the Distill Herbs check is the distilled poison's potency.

When a poison or drug is administered to someone, they must make a resisted Endure ability check. They are resisting an already rolled check - the potency.

In the case of an undistilled poison, the character comes to no harm if the Endure check is successful, and receives any beneficial effect the substance has. If unsuccessful, all the effects take place, and the character takes harm equal to the potency. The poison's negative effects last until the harm is gone; the beneficial effects last until the end of the next scene with that character.

In the case of a distilled infusion, the character receives the undistilled effects if the Endure check is successful, but takes no harm. The effect wears off in the next scene. If unsuccessful, the infusion's full effect takes place, with harm, and the negative effects do not wear off until that harm is gone. The positive effects last until the end of the next scene with that character.

Ammenite Cultural Abilities

 * Anatomy (Reason)
 * The Ammenite knowledge of the workings of the human body is the deepest in Near. This ability can be used for all sorts of purposes, including performing major surgery on those grievously injured (helping with a Healing Check), performing cruel acts of torture while keeping a subject alive, or bizarre piercing and grafting acts.


 * Appraisal (Reason)
 * Appraisal not only grants the ability to determine what an object of art is worth, but what it is worth to a specific person. It can be used to determine where and when a piece of art originated, and the value of the piece.


 * Assassination (Instinct)
 * The art of quick and often mysterious death is the domain of this ability. It can only be used to kill an individual who is unaware that your character is trying to do so. It should be used for all inventive method of death, such as spraying an infusion into the mucus membranes of a target.


 * Bamboo Warrior (Vigor)
 * The weaponry and armor of Ammeni are generally made of bamboo, a flexible and common material in this metal-poor land. This ability is used not only to fight with the light pole-arms of Ammeni, but to create weapons and armor from bamboo.


 * Bladework (Instinct)
 * This ability is used for all sorts of intricate knife skills, from cutting paper-thin slices of meat and vegetables, to vivisection, to cutting down your enemy with a long dagger. It can be used to perform skilled work with any well-made sharp knife.


 * Distill Herbs (Reason)
 * This ability is used to draw out the essence of plants and strengthen them for good or ill.


 * Herb Lore (Reason)
 * This ability is used to identify poisonous and altering plants, as well as properly harvest them for use.


 * Smuggling (Reason)
 * Smuggling not only involves the skill of hiding illegal or restricted items in ordinary baggage, but also knowing how to find a buyer for the items in a foreign land.


 * Taste Poisons (Instinct)
 * This ability is used to detect poisons and drugs through taste and smell. Successful ability checks may be used to add bonus dice to the inevitable Endure check that will be needed to ward off the effects of tasting poison.

Ammenite Cultural Secrets

 * Secret of Healing Venom
 * Your character can distill infusions that have an unusual effect: they shock the body into healing. These infusions still harm the imbiber if her Endure check is unsuccessful. If successful, however, the character is healed of a harm equal to or less than the infusion's potency. Cost: 2 Reason.


 * Secret of Metastasis
 * Your character can increase and add to infusions' effects with great skill. As many effects as you like can be added to drugs and poisons that she distills. Cost: 2 Reason for each extra effect past the first.


 * Secret of the Serpent Blade
 * By boiling an infusion down to a sticky substance, it can be applied to any sharp surface, usable indefinitely, until the object actually pierces someone. Cost: 1 Vigor.


 * Secret of the Fire Fruit
 * Your character's skill with chiles and other fiery ingredients is so good that she can actually harm others with a successful attempt at cooking. The ability check is your cooking ability versus the eater's Endure ability.


 * Secret of the Iron Stomach
 * Your character has great ability to consume things that would otherwise harm her. Gain one bonus die to resist any poison or drug taken orally, or to resist the effects of spoiled, overly spiced, or otherwise harmful foods.

Ammenite Cultural Keys


Group::Ammeni Summary::* Key XP::* Buyoff::*

Sample Ammenite Names

 * Males: Kaarlo, Philippe, Amoux, Onfroi, Cador, Edmund, Owain, Montaigu, D'anton, Toussnint, Duval, Quennel, Dacian, Piperel
 * Females: Helene, Galatee, Shalott, Celie, Arleta, Eugenia, Sidonie, Rohais, Ruby, Eleta, Ysabel, Zuria, Marquisa, Damia, Aveline

Sample Ammenite Character Ideas

 * a son or daughter in a high-ranking House
 * a poisoner in love with a slave
 * a Ratkin "Robin Hood," stealing from the Houses and helping the Zaru
 * a spy in the employ of one House - or even a double-agent