Numenera is a game published by Monte Cook Games. Its setting is the Ninth World, and this list has ten rumours for that setting. The rumours, which are similar to the Hearsay that can be found in the official books, can be used as adventure hooks or as simple misinformation.
- Auspar is the capital of Thaemor and is known as the City of Needles, for it is filled with tall, thin structures of many different types. Residents use these, and other means, as a way of ascending into the sky so that they can literally look down on the kingdoms around them. Recently, there have been an unusual number of incidents involving these structures. Though anything that involves people climbing into the air on a thin structure is naturally prone to accidents, there have been far more such recently than would be expected.
- Children in the city of Stirc in Thaemor, at about age two, all begin to have an imaginary friend called Olpenda. Every child in the city has Olpenda for a friend. To date, Olpenda has been treated as an unusual, but not malevolent, being, and some assume that there is a being behind the imaginary friend. However, there have recently been rumours of children going missing, apparently having followed Olpenda to somewhere unknown.
- Goldguard Landon was the warrior who drove the forces of Navarene, Draolis and Malevich from the lands he would call Thaemor, though he proved less able as an administrator. His son, Kaldon, had no heirs survive him and Holiva the First took over the rulership, even though no-one remembers his origin. Recently, there has been a rumour that Kaldon either did not die when it was thought, or that he was deposed by Holiva and imprisoned somewhere, and that Kaldon’s location has now been discovered.
- Holiva the First, ruler of Thaemor, has been attempting to revive something called the shadow herd, who will make the whole world kneel at the feet of Thaemor and Holiva. Superstition in the land does tell of something called the shadow herd, but most believe, or perhaps hope, that it is just superstition. Because there have been rumours of shadowy things being seen within the country in recent weeks, perhaps suggesting that Holiva has achieved a measure of success.
- Jyrek in Thaemor was built by Kaldon, a former ruler of the nation, to protect just his family and may well be one of the best-defended cities in the entire Steadfast, though now it has a significantly greater population. There’s a rumour that the city’s leaders think this makes them better suited to rule the country from their city, and given the current leader, they may well have a point, and are planning on using Jyrek as a base from which to conquer the rest of Thaemor.
- Navarene, Draolis and Malevich each used to desire the land now known as the kingdom of Thaemor, and fought a three-way war over it. Though the war ended when Goldguard Landon took control of the land and created Thaemor, the three kingdoms have never truly given up on their desire to own the land. It’s rumoured that at least one of them is undermining Thaemor from within in order to weaken it so that they can move in and take possession.
- Recently, a device was activated in Thaemor called the Great Reach that allows instantaneous travel from Thaemor to the distant land of Corao. Though the Great Reach has proven a boon in some ways, there are rumours that there’s a price to use it. That, every so often, one of the travellers who uses the device never emerges from the other end, instead swallowed up by something that lives in the space between the spaces.
- The Eyren is an egg-shaped structure floating in the centre of Jyrek that was commissioned by Kaldon, the former rumour of Thaemor, as a place to house and protect his family. After a flaw in the Eyren resulted in Kaldon’s family all dying, the structure was sealed off and no-one was allowed to enter. Though the Eyren still floats in Jyrek, most inhabitants pay it no heed, but there’s a rumour that activity has been seen around, and perhaps even in, the Eyren recently, suggesting that perhaps new occupants have moved in.
- The people of Thaemor know that their ruler, Holiva the First, is not sane though they dare not say this. Holiva’s vizier is the Hand of Melch, which is merely a shadow puppet created by Holiva’s own hand. There are rumours, though, that the Hand of Melch has been seen to move without Holiva’s hand making a movement, which leads to the worrying theory that the Hand might be real.
- The Precipice is the tallest and thinnest building in Auspar, the capital of Thaemor, and is the home of Holiva. Holiva increases the height of the Precipice every year, dangerous work that nowadays is suicidal. Recently, it’s said that the last piece added to the Precipice fell off, and that Holiva is now planning on getting someone to increase the height again, with a warning that any failure to do so will have consequences on their family.
Want some items that could be used as oddities? Check out 100 Xenoarchaeological Finds.
