Renown

Factions, Renown, and Honour
The Empires are a mass of factions, each requiring loyalty and service. Characters must learn to manipulate and work within the confines of these factions, and when a job needs to be done that’s in odds of for some of their factions, the person must figure out how their loyalties tie together.

The most common factions each character is apart of are: Characters gain Renown within each faction, depending upon deeds performed for the benefit of each. In many instances, the character's faction rank allows for advancement in their Circle and\or Title\Rank for determining political and economic position(s). The characters public renown (renown not gained secretly) can also be used for their honour.
 * Clan
 * Temple
 * National, State, and City renown, and other bureaucratic institutions
 * Military legion
 * Political organization
 * Secret society

Characters can also lose renown through serious offences.

For ease of simplicity, renown can be used as the characters honour and/or etiquette, or you can use the honour score system described in the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide (p.264).

Military Rank
Gaining ranks within the Military can be slow in combat roles (except during times of war) compared to the Priestly and Governmental Circles. However, people working in support roles such as administration, intelligence, logistics, supply, etc. can move up the ranks faster but the work is far less glorious.

Priestly Circle
The "Circles" are not game terms at all but rather ranks within the temple hierarchies. They are not automatic, and they do not depend upon anything a player can count on. They are conferred by the priesthoods, and one goes up in Circle because of perceived skill, personality and relations with others, prestige of his/her clan and lineage, acts that the temple sees as beneficial to its aims, and -- bluntly -- bribes. None of this can be put into hard-and-fast gaming rules without violating "Tekumel Reality." I leave these sorts of things to the gamemaster. Do with them as you see fit. If your players feel that they aren't being promoted fast enough, send them in to see their High Priest (Ritual, Scholar, or Administrative branches, depending upon their specializations), and let him/her give them a good dressing down! It would be rather like going in to see the officer of one's army unit and demanding to know why one hasn't been promoted to lieutenant yet! I tend to promote my players only when they are in their home cities and temples -- and when I think they've deserved it by proven loyalty to the temple, friendship with their hierarchy and colleagues, and "enhancements."

-''Source: Barker. The Blue Room Vol10#293.''

Generally, people within temples can generally expect to gain a Circle around every two years, depending on one's level of work and success. Circle’s in the temples do not always come with a title, authority or responsibility, as positions are fairly scarce and any move or change in position comes with contention and political manoeuvring. Priests can not only gain in circles but also in title and offices, which can be both a reward, and curse depending on the situation.

In most cases, anyone from Low or Very Low clan cannot advance beyond Priest, regardless of age or service to the temple.

Scholar-Priests must also complete a “Work”; a dissertation or other formal academic proposition that is reviewed by a committee of senior scholars, for each Circle the Scholar-Priest wishes to attain.

Government Circle
Circle advancement within the government follows along much like within temples, but each circle comes with additional responsibility and authority. Positions with actual authority are harder to attain, and positioning within the government is highly political and at times, dangerous. It would be extremely difficult for anyone higher than the eighth circle to adventure because of the constant daily responsibilities.

Clan Rank
Clans have few ranks, so advancement is slow.

People who add to a clans Respect, Resources, or money (including business ventures), will gain more clan renown and with that, better access to clan resources in the future.

Circle, Renown, Title, and Salary
Circle: Circles are Ranks within Priestly and Government orders. Commonly someone must be a certain circle to attain a title. Circle can also correspond with character level (or NPC level).

Renown: This can be used in different ways. 1) The character must gain and maintain this amount of renown to attain a Circle rank; 2) this is the amount of renown a character has from their Title and Circle (if Circle is used to corresponds with level).

Titles: Titles come with circles and positions within the Empires. And with changes in position and titles comes a change in pay and privilege. As a general rule, lower circle/title positions must follow the direction of their superiors within their organization.

There are many other titles and positions than what is listed here. Some of which are secret.

Military: Military rank is used for legions, police, crypt & temple guards, and any military organization.

Temple Priests: Temple priests, Administration, Ritual, Scholar, and even Lay-Priests use these titles.

Magic Users: Any magic-user, even temple priests who use magic, can use these titles

Government Offices: Bureaucratic titles vary greatly, depending on the post. There are a large number of government positions and offices. The ones listed are more of an example.

Skilled Professionals: There are three types of profession:

Plebeian: skills of ordinary craftsmen and artisans.

Skilled: skills crafts requiring greater study and experience. When determining Social Status add +10 renown for being in a Skilled Profession.

Rural areas and small towns receive only 50% of stated value. Working at upper levels of society (wealthy urban clan-houses, palaces, etc.) receive 200% of the value.

Noble: skills requiring considerable study and work. The acquisition of these skills is usually restricted to children of nobility, and the priest-schools. When determining Social Status, add your Clan status a second time.

Salary (Kitars per month): the amount of your wages could be in a large city based on your Title and Circle.

Those working in a town or small city receive 10% less, and those in rural or small towns receive 25% less.

*Inducements for Advancement: Soldiers, Priests and their clan-relations, may pay inducements to gain rank faster. This only works for high clan\high lineage soldiers. 10,000 káitars for Tirrikámu (sergeant); 15,000 káitars for heréksa (lieutenant); 25,000 káitars for Kási (captain). Inducements help advance other professions but there's more requirements for what you know compared to who you might know.

**Secret Societies: Commonly recrute Priests, Magic Users, and government workers after 4th Circle, and Soldiers after 6th Circle (Heréksa).

*** Bodyguards, Gladiators and other non-military “warriors for hire” can advance in rank as Tradesmen if they hire out for pay.

**** One cannot simply ‘promote’ into these elected positions, but the Circle ratings given are roughly appropriate for game purposes.

Advancing In Title and Position
High office isn’t a simple question of salary, but the lifestyle you can afford to maintain. When selecting a new Governor of Jakálla, a major criterion is who has the financial clout to fill the position. (Churchill allegedly was offered the Duchy of London but turned it down because it was beyond his means.) The purpose of acquiring high office is prestige and influence—not hard cash, even allowing for inducements. A brilliant civil servant of only medium clan might have to borrow heavily to fill the position that a bungling but rich Sea Blue member would breeze into.

But first you must get into office. To see if someone is available to gain a position (if a position is open). First they must have the Renown. A person's Clan Status gives a base for what positions they can attempt to attain right away (through Skill and Inducements).

Inducements are four months’ salary, at the rank applied for, offered to superiors as a gift.

Social Status
Status is a complex issue whose nuances cannot be quantified by rules. However, the most visible manifestations of status (what dais you sit on, etc) can indeed be quantified. Social Status gives a way of measuring this, and it derives from three basic factors: Combine all relevant Renown earned to determine a number for one's social status.
 * 1) Clan and lineage, and seniority within the clan [Your renown within your clan].
 * 2) Renow in one’s professional circle (in a profession, temple, legion, or the bureaucracy).
 * 3) Public honour and local renown (or infamy).

This gives an accurate indication of where he would be seated at a grand banquet, how she would be addressed by someone acquainted with her provenance, etc. It does not provide any definitive guide to his influence in society, which will be crucially affected by others factors including inducements, public honours, contacts and patrons.

In circumstances where a person’s exact lineage and provenance are not known, he is treated solely on the basis of clan — or office, if he is clearly of high rank in temple, legion or bureaucracy. The same applies to irregular social interactions. (This means that it is appropriate for someone of low lineage within a noble clan, say, to refuse a challenge from another of high lineage in a medium clan, even though the latter may technically have higher Social Status. Shámtla payments are awarded entirely on the basis of Social Status, however, and so the young noble in this example may find that his clan-elders would prefer him to take the duel!)

A group of people with the same status need not have arrived at it in the same way. One of them might belong to a prosperous lineage in a medium clan, another to a less important lineage in a noble clan, while a third might be of peasant stock and owe his status to a brilliant career in the Civil Service.

Just because two characters have the same Social Status, it does not mean they are equal. Class in Tsolyánu is far too complex to be accurately expressed with just a single number. Jorúne hiMektésh, an elder of the Black Stone Clan, will still indicate a certain deference in speech and manner towards a scion of the noble Clan of Sea Blue, though their nominal status might be equivalent.

Social Ranks
The nation of Livyanu to the southwest uses tattoos called aomuz to specify caste and rank and religion and shoe size and wine preference, in a pattern and code which has never been interpreted by any other nation except that the more one has the more important one seems to be. This is due in large part to the fact that the nation is very secretive -- you cannot travel in Livyanu outside the Foreigner's Quarters (more like a Foreigner's Compound) without an encyclopedic collection of authorization papers. If you try, the all-encompassing Vru'uneb (secret police) will definitely catch you and kill you.

Tsolyánu has no such coding for social ranks. The only distinctions are subcultural: the Vriddi are proud and arrogant with a distinctive beak-like nose (what would be called a "Roman nose"). They are Vimúhla worshippers and delight in tracing their lineage back 20,000 years to the Empire of Engsvan la Gánga, which gets boring after a while but is their basis to claim that THEY ought to be running the Empire. (Do NOT point out to them that if they were so clever then why'd half of it get sunk in the ocean. They HATE that.) Other such cultural hallmarks exist, but are not of major importance.

Changes in Honour and Renown
Honour and Renown can be all too easily lost. It can also be acquired - through combat and other 'risk-taking' actions that are "socially visible" and considered significant.

Gaining Honour

 * Completing missions, tasks, and quests put forth by your patron(s) (Clan, Temple, Legion, etc.) (e.g. great bravery, making a good marriage, lavish spending on a family banquet, etc.)
 * Doing missions or favours for local lords
 * Fulfill an obligation or keep an agreement
 * To convince a large mass (Clan, Legion, or Temple) to thrown in their support for you in a major undertaking
 * Being awarded the “Gold of Glory” +100 renown
 * Obtaining a famous artifact +100

Losing Honour

 * Being contrary to one's beliefs, miserliness, selfishness, disregard of the group’s needs and wishes, failures, disservices, irresponsibility, enmity with the group’s leader(s), and other “ignoble actions” all merit minuses.


 * You attempt to save a social network member from shame, incarceration, or public humiliation. (You could gain or lose renown depending on the outcome).
 * Mild humiliation (e.g. losing or destroying items borrowed from one’s clan, failing a mission)
 * Significant shame or scandal
 * Major shame or social humiliation (and ruin!)
 * To save yourself from well-founded accusations of treason and sedition. You usually cannot scrape up the social capital to avoid the High Ride for challenging the Tlakotani Clan or avoiding the fate of someone who backs the "wrong" heir in a contested Kolumeljalim.
 * To publicly challenge a deeply ingrained social myth, ritual, or custom (which does not violation of the Concordant, overthrow of the ruling regime, etc.) in a broadway within your social class (clan or lineage)
 * Poor etiquette, insulting or ignoble mannerisms, and boorishness are each negative in the punctilious societies of the Five Empires.

Access to Clan Resources
The majority of the time, Tsolyáni don’t got out to buy things they need - they borrow or get them from their clan’s stores. The items do need to be something the clan keeps in store, or can access.

As a clan member you have access to resources such as equipment, storehouse goods, slaves and retainers. This value is equal to your social status within your clan.

You have unlimited access to your Social Rank in káitars. If you need more resources, your clan will loan you the resources with an expectation of getting the items back to a return on their investment!