WARNING!  THIS PODCAST CONTAINS SORCEROUSLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL.

Welcome to The Hall of Blue Illumination, the podcast dedicated to the world of M.A.R. Barker’s Tékumel.

Double-check your diagrammes and sharpen your sacrificial daggers, because in this episode our hosts discuss The Book of Ebon Bindings.  This legendary, out-of-print work is a fascinating and unique piece of Tékumel.  Our hosts describe The Book, discuss its content, and offer some theories on the motivations behind its creation.

Show Notes:

[00:01:25] The Book of Ebon Bindings is currently out-of-print. The Foundation wants to re-release it in the future.

[00:01:45]  When was the first edition released?  The second printing says the first printing was 1979.

[00:02:27]  Professor Barker did the layout for the first and second editions on his own typewriter.

[00:02:37]  The Theatre of the Mind edition has a copyright of 1978.

[00:03:00]  Victor briefly leaves to attempt to sort this matter of publication dates.  He returns with a copyright date of 1978.

[00:04:09]  Warning!  Discretion advised.  Children are especially susceptible to the demonic influences to be found inside.

[00:04:58]  James relates a rumored origin of The Book of Ebon Bindings: that it was an attempt by Professor Barker “to tweak sensibilities”, and comment on concerns regarding the subject-matter of fantasy gaming.

[00:05:49]  While Victor can’t speak to the Professor’s motivations with respect to The Book of Ebon Bindings, he can say that at the time, the Professor and his players had nothing but contempt for concerns about gaming’s effect on children.  Most of the gamers back then had the attitude that the world was a dangerous place, and to pretend that gaming was unusually problematic was silly.

[00:09:25]  The Book was released three years into the publishing history of Tékumel and several years before Swords & Glory Vol. 1, yet remains one of the longest pieces of Tékumel source material.  So why The Book of Ebon Bindings?  The Professor discusses this in Dragon #11.

[00:10:10] “Saturday Night Specials.” (See EPT §2810, p. 100)

[00:11:05]  Even original EPT had demons.  The Professor is trying to outline cosmic relationships, using these big monsters. Kurritlakál appears in EPT’s Example of Play (§2810, p. 102).  Even there, it’s clear that the intent is that demons should be special and different from the other monsters on Tékumel (which are all, on the whole, much more dangerous than those of Dungeons & Dragons).

[00:12:58]  Professor Barker got many more questions than he answered in the “Seal of the Imperium” columns.  In Dragon #11 (question #4), the Professor responds to a question about demons, and his answer is both thorough and fascinating.

[00:17:18]  In some ways , the introduction to The Book of Ebon Bindings is the real “meat”.

[00:18:27]  Were Trasüné hiTánkolei and Kalusü hi Viridáme PCs?  Victor encountered Kalusü (a high-ranked priestess within the Temple of Ksárul) as an NPC, but these two individuals may have been PCs in the late 1970s.

[00:20:15]  Backing up the Tubeway Car: What is The Book of Ebon Bindings?  It includes two major sections.  The first is an introductory essay written in character by a philosopher priest.  The second is The Book of Ebon Bindings proper, also written first-person.  It contains a catalog of various demonic entities.

[00:21:26]  “…on a literal level.”  It’s worth noting that these are English translations of the Tsolyáni and Engsvanyáli recensions of the Llyáni original, which is no longer extant.