Numenera is a game published by Monte Cook Games. Its setting is the Ninth World, and this list has six 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.
- “Iyene Who Knows” is a broker of knowledge in Norou outside the Clock of Kala. She trades information and is known to many, from criminals to the law-abiding to those in distant towns. Iyene is always increasing the amount of information she has, and there are rumours that she has also amassed a stock of blackmail material that means she is the true power in the city.
- Lord Abellor is the tyrannical despot of Norou, the trade city that serves as the last waypoint for people heading through the Clock of Kala. Abellor has soldiers, but his brain is also encased inside a powerful automaton, meaning that defeating him is extremely difficult. There’s a rumour, though, that the automaton needs certain specialised compounds in order to keep functioning and that, if it was deprived of those, Lord Abellor would become powerless.
- The circular mountain range known as the Clock of Kala gains its name for its resemblance to a clock face, when viewed from above. There’s a rumour that this name is not merely because of the range’s resemblance to a clock, but it is a clock, one constructed by a prior civilisation for an unknown reason and purpose. It’s said if the clock starts ticking again, it will be the herald of the end of the Ninth World and the start of the Tenth.
- The Ghostis is the ruler of Wislayn in the Clock of Kala and behaves as if the town is her own private home and that others are only there as her guests. She is said to have the ability to eject people from the extradimensional space, and it’s rumoured that some of those ejected don’t end up back in the normal world.
- The Sheer is a clearly artificial path cut through the Clock of Kala and, despite years of geologic activity, it has remained in almost the same shape as when it was first cut. There’s a rumour, though, that rockfalls have been more common of late; usually, they are so uncommon that it’s possible for none to happen in a human lifetime. Why this should be happening, if true, isn’t known.
- Wislayn is in the middle of the eastern end of the Sheer of the Clock of Kala, and is a strange artefact that appears to resemble a living thing made of violent crystal, perhaps a polyp, tree or tentacled sea creature. About a thousand people use this artefact as their home, living in an extradimensional space inside the artefact. There’s a rumour that Wislayn doesn’t merely resemble a living creature, it is one, though one that is currently in some form of stasis. What might happen to the people inside should this turn out to be true, and the stasis broken, isn’t known.
Want some items that could be used as oddities? Check out 100 Xenoarchaeological Finds.