In Choice of the Petal Throne, the reader is cast in the role of a military officer commanding troops in the midst of the civil war tearing apart TsolyГЎnu, the titular Empire of the Petal Throne. Once those initial barriers are overcome, what youвЂ™ll find is a fantastic setting filled with amazing opportunities for adventure, from treasure-hunting expeditions into subterranean labyrinths to cutthroat imperial politics to visitations to other planes of existence.Д®ven so, overcoming TГ©kumelвЂ™s initial alienness isnвЂ™t easy, as there is no straightforward way to learn about the setting, which is why I am so very pleased to see the release of Choice of the Petal Throne.Д¬hoice of the Petal Throne is a 124,000-word вЂњinteractive novelвЂќ written by Danielle Goudeau and published by Choice of Games, a company that specializes in these electronic choose-your-own-adventure games. The same is true of TГ©kumelвЂ™s lengthy imaginary history and its complex religions and societies. The names (like MuвЂ™ugalГЎvya and TsatsayГЎgga, to cite two examples) and scripts are intimidating at first, IвЂ™ll admit, but, with time and effort, they become much less so. The truth is that TГ©kumelвЂ™s вЂњinaccessibilityвЂќ is (mostly) on the surface. I think thatвЂ™s a shame вЂ“ and not just because IвЂ™m personally very fond of TГ©kumel. Add to that the unfamiliarity of TГ©kumelвЂ™s constructed languages вЂ“ Barker was a professor of linguistics вЂ“ and you have a recipe for supposed inaccessibility. Consequently, the settingвЂ™s peoples, flora, fauna, mythologies, and elaborate social systems are quite unlike those to which most roleplayers (especially in North America) are accustomed. Instead, its primary inspirations are ancient Egypt, pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and Mughal India вЂ“ all seen through the lens of sword-and-planet writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jack Vance. Part of the reason why that is the case is that, unlike most fantasy settings, TГ©kumel owes little to the histories or legends of the WestвЂ™s Classical and Middle Ages. TГ©kumel, on the other hand, has languished in semi-obscurity, despite the fact that the RPG in which it first appeared, Empire of the Petal Throne, was published only a year after D&D, making it one of the most venerable of its kind.

Of the two, I suspect Glorantha is the better known, at least in the roleplaying world, if only because the RPG with which it was long associated, RuneQuest, was very successful, particularly in Europe (where it was, at various times, more popular than even Dungeons & Dragons if you can believe it). In my opinion, the hobby of roleplaying has only ever produced two fantasy settings to rival Middle-earth in terms of depth and creativity: Greg StaffordвЂ™s Glorantha and M.A.R.

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