Robertson's Encyclopedia of Things That Almost Were. Alst, Minotan (born 1958 ece, Stoffstance, Robertson's Planet) Current president and chancellor of the Stoffonian Republic, and the de facto leader of a large portion of Robertson's Planet. Alst is descended from both Yothor Stanstan, first president of the Republic, and the Rostoffial emporers, and his great-grandfather, Aix Alst, was Prince of Elos during the last decades of the Stoffonian Empire. He is also a cousin of General Nomnor Alst, who fought in the revolution of 1908. Minotan Alst was educated in the traditional manner at the University of Stoffstance, and joined the National Party soon afterward. He served in the legislature for a 5-year term, from 1983-1988 ece as a representative from the city of Stoffstance. He began to be associated with Iarnstoff, then Chancellor, who led a reform movement in the government. Iarnstoff and his adherents crusaded to end the mixing of economics and politics in the form of the Industrial and Business League, the semi-private, semi-official organization that directed Stoffonian economic policy. Iarnstoff, together with Alst, propogated the idea that the League was a major cause of economic difficulties, which was most likely the case. They effectively creatied a rebellion within the party against its then-powerful leaders. In 1987, the legislature passed bills that effectively severed the connection between the League and the Party. President Arstan (also director of the League) refused to approve the bill. Iarnstoff and Alst then undertook a lengthy investigation of Arstan's political career, and finally alleged that he had bribed certain representatives in his unfruitful efforts to keep influence over legislation. Arstan was never actually convicted of this charge, but his guilt soon became widely suspected by the public. In the elections of 1987-88, Iarnstoff won, marking the domination of the National Party by the anti-Leaguers. The League was stripped of its political power, and became a private-sector organization. Alst became Chancellor, and was widely admired by the public for his youth and good looks as well as sharp mind. Over the next three years, he grew in popularity at the expense of Iarnstoff, and took much of the credit for involving Stoffonia in the Fifth Alliance War, which ended in virtual Stoffonian hegemony in that part of the world, replacing the Alliance of Free States with the Stoffonian-controlled International Union of Nations. Increasingly violent opposition to the government by the supposedly socialist Stoffonian People's Party (in actuality financed in part by the disempowerd Leage) during and after the war, culminating in the attempted assination of Iarnstoff, brought about tighter security around the President, who began to seem far from the people and the real world. Alst, on the other hand, was applauded for his courage to continue to make public speeches. The final straw came in the form of progessivly worsening health for Iarnstoff, who died of a respiratory infection. By virtue of an ammendment to the constitution that had been passed during the war to insure strong leadership, Alst became the President while keeping his office of Chancellor, which would otherwise have been impossible in the Stoffonian page 1 system of government. Andria of Elos (born 351 ece, Elos, Robertson's Planet; died 398, Elos) Empress of the Elosian Empire from 368 to 398 ece, the only female to ever hold that position, and the prototypical figurehead ruler of Elos. Andria was the daughter of Emporer Divindroy and the sister of Mondroy, the heir apparent to the throne. Neither Andria nor Mondroy knew of the degree to which Divindroy allowed the High Council (made up of the five most important senators) and his top military commanders to run the affairs of the Empire. In 367, Mondroy went away on some sort of a semi-military/semi-diplomatic visit to the Stoffs, who were at that time located in the extreme western portion of the Elos river basin. Whatever the exact nature of this mission, Mondroy was killed by a Stoff warrior known as Ronthor the Bald early in 368. At about the same time, Divindroy mysteriously died (probably of a heart attack), leaving only Andria and the infant Mondroy (son of the first Mondroy) eligable for the throne. The Council took the unprecedented step of placing Andria on the throne, giving her all the ceremonial powers and titles usually accorded to Elosian rulers, excepting that rather than "honourable" she was referred to as "beautiful". Andria seemed to make an almost perfect figurehead, and the power of the council was much greater than it had been during the reign of Divindroy. But, apparently motivated by the idle talk of Ordinff - the scientist that she actually employed as her court fool - she soon resolved that she wanted to hold the reins of government. Previously, she had nearly always agreed to whatever the council asked of her, but now she began to give orders that went against their judgement. They suceeded in allowing her to think that her orders had been carried out when they had not been. But she somehow discovered that her orders to invade the territory of the Stoffs were not obeyed, and was angered. She ordered the Council dispersed by the army, but the commanders professed loyalty to the Council. With no means of force to use against the mutiny, Andria backed down and withdrew from all concerns with regards to government and war. She spent the remainder of her reign as a completely ceremonial ruler, barely even pretending to have any power. During this time, the Empire went through a great period of progress in the arts and sciences, exemplified by Ordinff's discoveries of many mathematical and physical laws. In forein policy, the council did in fact invade the Stoffs in 374, adding much territory to the western side of the Empire. Centuries later the Stoffonians still felt indignant about having been defeated by the forces of a woman, even though the winning of the wars was more a result of the skill of the Elosian troops and the superior Elosian sciences, and not of anything Andria had ever done. Meanwhile, the younger Mondroy was brought up as the next in page 2 line for the throne after Andria. He served in various military campains, successfully putting down revolts in Hemalia, and subduing the Eshtikur after they had invaded the part of the empire that now bears that name. In 398 he returned to Elos, and finally became aquainted with the true nature of his aunt and the monarchy. Hungry for power, Mondroy had Andria assassinated by "Lermozmuans" (actually his mercenaries). Mondroy apparently thought that as a man, he could reclaim the authority that Andria had lacked. Making use of the fact that the armies of the borders, who guarded the tributaries of the Elos river from such potential intruders as the Erctilians and the Lermozmuans were personally loyal to him, he tacitly posed the threat of civil war to the civil and military authorities in the capital if he was not allowed to excercise the ancient powers of his office. His designs were postponed, however, by an actual invasion of Eshtikur by the Lermozmuans, which was probably brought on by his allegations that they were responsible for the death of Andria. Mondroy personally took command in the field - something that no reigning emporer had done in over a hundred years previously. He was totally successful in driving them out, and was comtemplating the conquest of their homeland before he saw it firsthand and realized that the entire place was "worthy of neither the bloodshed of conquest nor the expenses of occupation". Meanwhile, the Council had been increasing the forces under its command in Elos itself. When Mondroy learned of this (in 401), he immediately advanced to the capitol with huge armies not merely of Elosians but of also of foreign mercenaries. The opposing forces met in battle on the plain west of the capital, and the forces of the Council were nearly obliterated by Mondroy's superior numbers (even though the Council's forces were better trained and better armed). Mondroy set himself up as a military despot, publically torturing the Council before having them killed. He did not choose new councillors, as an emporer normally would. He simply ruled with no Council, making decisions by pure whim and enforcing them by brute force. This tyranny lasted until 408, and was thereafter known as "the seven years of hell". In 408, Mondroy's forces proved insufficient to put down riots and peasant rebellions in the city of Elos. He was overthrown by a group of men who immediately began to style themselves the new High Council, and who quickly won the loyalty of the empire. They selected as emporer a man known as Konrian who came from an old and wealthy family but who knew nothing about (and cared little for) politics or war. This promised a return to the days of Divindroy and Andria, which apparently everyone except Mondroy had been quite satisfied with. The power of the Council was not contested by any emporer for the remaining millenium of the empire's existence. Andria was nearly deified by the Elosians of later generations, as a contrast to the demonization of Mondroy. Even the Stoffonians, who would eventually bring down the power of Elos forever, inherited the myth of Andria as a pure and chaste woman, while in actuality she was quite amorous. Only the Knarrians, who distorted so much of their Elosian heritage, considered Andria to have faults of any kind. They held that it was her carnal sins, page 3 committed with the men of the Council as well as with all manner of inferiors, that doomed the empire to the tyranny of Mondroy as a punishment from the gods. As for Andria herself, she was thought to spend eternity by being forever reincarnated as an unwilling concubine-slave of infamous tyrants throughout history, and Othor the Evil is said to have possessed her at one time. This difference in opinion over Andria's proper place in the afterlife contrasted sharply with the Elosian view that she had been made a goddess, and is one of the basic reasons why neither the Elosians nor the Knarrians have ever been proud to admit that the latter are descended from seagoing colonists of the former. The Stoffs, in their very early (ie., pre-Igermeshiel) mythology, held the view that Andria was waiting in a state of suspense until the end of the world, at which time she will become a true godess. Until then her only respite from the boredom of waiting is to assist in the few earthly affairs which she is permitted to intervene in by the gods - she is the guardian of sexuality, though not of fertility. Her name was actually invoked as a form of supernatural birth control when it was not fitting for a woman to become pregnant with the child of the man making the pleas to Andria (ie., in cases of incest, miscegnation, and adultery). She was left out of the pantheon of Igermeshiel completely, though some echo of her worship can be seen in the later veneration of the slain Empress Kime I, though for totally different reasons. Binalon I * * Devouria * * Dostoff III * * page 4 Robertson's Encyclopedia of Things That Almost Were. Elantan * * Elosian Empire * * Eteria * * * Firedragon see Sacreso * * * Geoffrey I (Knarr) vVšÍ÷šÝ÷ƒ~ * * Hell Avenger, The * * * Heyeneye o' Neoneye * page 5 * Igermeshiel I King of Stoffstance who united the stoffonial plain by conquest, and gave the Stoff religion its modern form. Until his time, Stoffstance had been involved in numerous shifting alliances among the different cities, and internecine warfare was the rule in the area that is now known as Stoffonia. The city held a few possessions outside of its urban limits, but on the whole it was still "only one city-state", as the Elosians often said with condescendsion. Trade was steady with many other localities, but travellers were nevertheless preyed upon by theives and local warlords in many areas. Recongizing that the people of the entire area surrounding the Stoff river shared a common language and culture, he remarked "This country is one nation, and it ought to be one state". From the very start of his reign, he began mobilizing the resources of the city-state toward vast military undertakings take control of the country. He had many successes, due largely to the loyal and well-manned armies that he was able to maintain. Inevitably, he had to rely on mercenaries in some cases, but he made these swear loyalty as surely as his regular soldiers. He often exploited local rivalries to gain control of towns and cities. Meanwhile, the King had become interested in all things Elosian, with the possible goal of making use of their expirience in running a large state. He was dissapointed to find that the Elosian Emporer was little more than a figurehead, and that the government of the Empire was in effect a huge aristocratic beaurocracy led by shifting factions within the High Council. He decided that "as my father ruled the city, so shall I rule the nation", which meant that he would have absolute power over all the areas he conquered, making Stoffonia a unified kingdom with a monolithic throne in the capital city of Stoffstance. He was, however, impressed with the fact that the Elosians throughout the Empire worshipped the god Ristkon Wa to the exclusion of all others. He perceived this to have a great political advantage. Under his direction, religious leaders undertook the elevtation of the god of the city of Stoffstance, Ristkon, to a position of supreme deity of the pantheon throughout the kingdom. Indeed the entire system of gods, demons, and spirits was somewhat standardized, often borrowing ideas from the Elosians. vVšÍ÷šÝ÷ƒ~ * Juturia * * * page 6 Juturia (Robertson's Planet) * * * Knarr * * * Knarr, Five Great Crystals of * * * Knarrknox vVšÍ÷šÝ÷ƒ~ * * korr beast * * * Kukalkhan * * * Lightning Man Real Name : Hobie McKenzie Jr. ( born 1968) A super-powered earth human who fights evil. Hobie McKensie was one of two children, the other of which ( Herbie ) became the super-menace fry. page 7 Because he had great skill in sciences and math, Hobie progressed through school very quickly, receiving masters degrees in physics and electronics at age 16, and his doctorate in medicine at 18. Meanwhile, and his friend John Baerlin ( later Meteorite) made many expirements in neural-net computers. Another friend, Burt Kileman lost his legs in a car accident with them, and the two decided to build bionic legs. They developed an interface from Kileman's brain to a computer, and then from the compter to a robot, which they were testing at Hobie's Bar and Grill, which was inherited by McKenzie from his father. They had developed a laboratory beneath the place where they could build nearly anything, and its location a few miles away from most civilization on the road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas was ideal for secrecy. Once when they were testing the device outdoors, the spaceship of the extraterrestrial Vartoo ( who had already bailed out ) crashed nearby. The ships kinelium reactor exploded, realeasing starnge radiation. The radiation had unusual effects on all three of them. Baerlin gained super strength, and Kileman's mind was literally transferred into the robot. McKenzie himself gained the ability to act as a "human battery", creating electrical energy from chemical ( ie, able to produce electricity from the same substances that he uses for food ). He could store electricity from other sources in his body. He could realease powerful electrical arcs between his hands, and discharge whatever electrity was in him from them at will. McKensie assumed the identity of Lightning Man and battled the forces of evil with the group of superheroes known as the Power Warriors. While with the team, he designed a suit with electrical contacts that harnessed the electricity produced by his body, and used this energy to allow him to fly and to create powerful beams of electrons from his hands at his enemies. He created a helmet that both protected his head and released energy in a similar way from "antenae" (projections on top of the head). The suit could create a strong electro-magnetic field around his body that would protect him from ordinary hand-to-hand attacks by electrocuting anyone who attempted to touch him. Later modifications to the costume were more complete body armour, metal "wings" that were actually large razor blades used as weapons, and a "lightning gun" that allowed more accurate and focused release of energy than the suit had previously provided. % % Meteorite * * * page 8 Namkon Wu * * Neoneye * * Oras, Ron'l ko a.k.a. Ronthor Orinstan born 1879, Juturia (Robertson's Planet); died 1848, Stoffstance Companion of Yothor Stanstan and important leader in the Stoffonian Revolution of 1908. * * Othor the Evil * * * Power Crystal An object made of an unknown crystal-like, seemingly indestructable, substance, that is able to release powerful amounts of energy by tapping an extra-dimensional source. It is capable of creating electro-magnetic radiation of any wavelengths, of teleporting its user through space and time, and of projecting a powerful force field that distorts the local fabric of space, thereby making the user immune to most forms of attack, and freeing him from the constraints of gravity. All of these functions are actualized by the will of the user, who typically holds the crystal, though this is theoretically only neccessary when first "powering up". It would seem that the crystal has some sort of logic system built into it, though it appears to be solid crystal. The logic system will not, for example, allow the wanton alteration of history when traversing through time before the natural time of the user. It will not allow the user to travel into times later than the natural, for reasons unknown. Also, the crystal seems to have built-in page 9 instructions for its use that are transferred into the mind of the user. It would seem, however, that the user can in fact alter history to a certain point ( as yet undetermined ) and then return to his natural time, where the crystal will permanently cease to obey his will. The origin of the crystal is unknown, though it conceivably could be linked with the Planet of Power, which has similar properties. Its earliest recorded appearance was among the Eeviliians, during the high days of their interstellar empire, or the 14th century AD in earth time. Presumably, they had plundered it from some location that is shrouded in mystery today. It seems that due to the nature of the Eevillians' minds, only superior ones could use the crystal. In any event, it was soon lost on Robertson's planet in the Great Crash of 1347. For many years it remained buried in the wreck, until uncovered in the 18th century AD by the Knarrian adventurer and military hero Elantan. He eventually had to trap the crystal in a pocket dimension in order to prevent the entry of the evil being Namkon Wu into the physical universe. Some years later, the crystal, along with a small fragment of Namkon Wu's consciousness (which took the form of general hostility throughout the universe, contributing to the violence of the Napoleanic Wars on earth, the growth of the Devourian interstellar empire and the birth of Sacreso, among other things), was brought into this universe by a careless magic user named Fiszak on the planet Yytuiskt. Its sudden appearance in the warring society of that planet brought about the decimation of civilization on that world. For most of the rest of the 19th century and part of the 20th, the crystal was looked upon religiously by the savages who inhabited the planet. Vartoo, who had recently escaped from servitude under Shattar of Devouria, came to the planet and was accepted as a god by the savages, who admired his high technology. Meanwhile, Sacreso heard of the existence and whereabouts of the crystal, and came to Yytuiskt in search of it. He pursued Vartoo across the galaxy, and finally both of them were brought down on earth. Vartoo was able to pass the crystal on the the earthman James Renoldson, who subsequently used it to battle various evils as the superhero Timewarrior, a name which he chose because he was the first to make extensive use of the crystals time traveling capabilties, though others had known of this potential. Since then, the crystal has remained in the hands of Timewarrior (that identity is now carried by Alexander Renoldson) and the Power Warriors. % Power, Planet of * * * page 10 Robertson's Planet Earth term for the planet officially called NPC 1500 ( new planetary catalog ), called Ristkon in Stoffonian. The planet is a classic earth-class world, with landmasses, oceans, and carbon based life-forms. The most striking characteristic visible from the surface is the fact that the sky in daylight is a shade of cyan. This is due to the nature of certain ( unknown ) gases in the upper atmosphere. The planet's crust contains small deposits of substances not found naturally one earth, some of which are compounds which would not be in any way stable if created by anything other than the power of a supernova. The life forms are similar but not exactly like those of earth, though evolution is basically parallel on most planets of this type. rockrat * * Rostoff I byname of Othan Lanstan an Rostof The first Emporer of the Stoffonian Empire. * * Sacreso A.k.a. The Hell Avenger, Firedragon (born c. 1800 AD) A semi-human being who seeks domination of the universe. Sacreso is the son of Shattar the Destroyer, founder and ruler of the Devourian interstellar empire. He was apparently a physically normal devourian. But owing to the fact that Shattar had by this time been infused with some of the essence of the evil being Namkon Wu, Sacreso had some supernatural qualities that would later prove of great import. At some point in his early manhood, Sacreso quarreled with his father, possibly over the fact that Shattar would apparently never die, and thus Sacreso would never come to the throne. He decided that he would, indeed, found his own empire somewhere in space that would over-run that of Shattar. For many years, page 11 Sacreso gathered armies of followers, but was unsuccessful in becoming more than a petty warlord and space pirate. He also observed that he was not aging normally, and was like his father virtually immortal. When Sacreso heard of the existence of the Power Crystal, he immediately went to the planet Yytiskt to take it from Vartoo. Vartoo eluded him with the crystal for quite some time, until both of their vessels crashed on Earth. This damaged Sacreso's body beyond recovery, but his supernatural nature allowed him to transfer his consciousness in the form of a human named Henry John Foots who approached the wreck of the vessel. Foots had a latent mutant ability to transmute different kinds of matter, and the new Sacreso magnified this ability and made full use of it. He became known as the Hell-Avenger, presumably out of confusion with the other mutant human of that name. vVšÍ÷šÝ÷ƒ~ * Scavengers * * * Shattar the Destroyer * * * page 12 Robertson's Encyclopedia of Things That Almost Were. Stanstan, Yothor (born 1875 ece, Stoffstace, Stoffonia, Robertson's Planet; died 1921 near Stoffstance) A revolutionary leader and president of Stoffonia who ended the succession of emporers and helped to bring order to Stoffonia after the chaos of the Fracture (civil wars). Stanstan was the son of representative for a loan and credit firm who had to travel to visit each client. Consequently, his father was often away from home and the family moved several times. Young Yothor, who was a shy boy who made friends slowly, was almost never adjusted to one location before the family moved again. Yothor's mother spent time with the boy, but even she was unable to relate to him, as he was usually preoccupied with daydreams which he would not relate to others. He did display a great amount of intelligence and curiousity about the world, and he asked many questions that his mother could not answer. In school, he was aloof and silent, and he seems to have only given the slightest attention to his lessons, except for those few assigned tasks that coincedentally happened to be a passing interest. When Yothor was 11 years old, the family moved to Juturia. He had even more trouble making friends there than he had had in Stoffonia. In 1889 the family moved back to Stoffstance, but Stanstan was irrevocably changed. In Juturia he had seen the darker side of the Imperial regime, in the form of official policies which effectively made the native Juturians into slaves of the Stoffonians. He now began to to see an even more insidious form of oppression in Stoffstance, when he realized that the Emporer and other government officials lived as parasites sucking life from the people. He came to understand that no information from the mainstream press could be trusted, and at first felt like "the only seeing man in a crowd of the blind", until at the age of 14 he discovered the literary underground of Stoffonia, and joined a secret organization known as the Democratic Republicans ("Stanstipil Sinistilstanst") which spent its time planning for the coming of elective, limited, and non-imperial government to Stoffonia. During his 4 years in high school, Stanstan rose to a position of leadership in the club. Under his direction the original group of dissatisfied intellectuals, who subsisted mostly by "idiot work", gained many adherents who were businessmen who had grown to hate the system of official monopolies that forced them to sell either to the government at meager profits or on the black market at risk from the police and gangsters hired by competitors. The club, which began to style itself a political party, had branches in many major cities, all well coordinated by Stanstan. With a viable source of news from all parts of the Empire, Stanstan could clearly see that the Empire was in a state of collapse. The great Armies of the Empire had become self-indulgent and corrupt, living off the fat of the land. All traces of loyalty to the Emporer had long since evaporated in many of the areas outside of the immediate Viceroyality of Stoffstance. All over the Empire, local generals excercised the authority of martial law, while the civil governments simply formed a leisure class supported wholly by page 13 taxes while doing absolutely nothing. Stanstan judged (correctly) that this state of affairs would invariably, and soon, deteriorate into open civil war. The only real chance for a Stoffonian Republic would be to bring down the Emporer (who still ruled Stoffonia itself with the iron hand of a dictator) when his government had been ruined by this war. For this purpose it would be neccessary to have a well-trained army of revolutionaries. Such a force could not be trained inside the Empire, so Stanstan and other top members of the Party secretly went to Foelia, the government of which secretly supported all manner of activities aimed against the Stoffonian Empire (Foelia was a long-time rival of Stoffonia). In 1900, Stanstan foresaw that the civil wars would begin in Juturia, and he had a sizable portion of his forces secretly positioned there. In one of the biggest mistakes of his life, Stanstan made an alliance with Ractor Aks, head of a criminal organization known as the Bloody Knife that made money on everything from robbery to fraud and the selling of illegal narcotics and juvenile sex slaves (mostly by extorting the money from other criminals who actually engaged in these activities). Stanstan felt that it was important that the Bloody Knife be on the side of his Party when war came, and for some inexplicable reason felt that this was important enough to require collaberation with a man who had once said "The Bloody Knife is just like the Government, but even more profitable. They just tax what's legal, and we tax the rest. We both get stinking rich". In any case, the war that had been predicted finally came in the rebellion of 1902. The government Stoffonian Empire (stoff. Stofstansil Eustenelicaln ) A political body of Robertson's planet (npc 1500), from 1343 to 1908 AD (earth year). The Empire grew out of the Kingdom of Stoffonia, which began as the City of Stoffstance. page 14 Robertson's Encyclopedia of Things That Almost Were. Stoffonian Republic (stoff. Stofstansil Sinist) Political unit of Robertson's Planet, roughly corresponding to the Stoffonia of Igermeshiel I, and slightly larger than the Imperial principality of Stoffstance. The Republic was declared in the city of Stoffstance in March 1908, and its existence and boundaries were diplomatically recognized by most of the world some three months later. Yothor Stanstan was recognized as the ruler of the country, and for a time ruled by decree, with the title of "emergency president". Most of the country had been spared from total warfare during the Fracture, but that war had finally killed the already shaky economy. Also, the forces under Stanstan's command proved inadequate to maintain order. Looting and pillaging was rampant, with no end to the violence at hand. To maintain civil order, Stanstan enlisted the help of Ractor Axe, the notorious leader of the Bloody Knife, an extremely powerful criminal organization. Axe was appointed Director of Public Safety, and was expected by Stanstan to use his power and influence to curb random violence. Axe actually took advantage of his position to enforce a monopoly on criminal activities for the Bloody Knife, while publically denying that the organization still engaged in such things. He eventually plotted to assinate Stanstan, but his plans were discovered, and he was imprisoned along with other top members of the conspiracy. Stanstan rallied the masses in disgust with the Directorate, and soon raised a volunteer police force to replace the Bloody Knife, which thereafter split into variuos warring factions. With the country now safely in his hands, Stanstan in 1910 called for elections of delegates to a convention that would draft a constitution and institute a representative government. In 1911 an organization known by variuos names which all contained the word "League" was established, which was a represenative body of industrialists, corporations, and other economic interests. The function of the League was to recommend economic policy to the President, and its immediate goal was to revitalize the economy. The first thing done toward this end was the liquidation of what had been the property of the Emporer and other aristocrats seized during the revolution, followed by the investment of much this money (and the treasury inherited from the Empire) in various industries. Stoffonia soon expirienced an economic revival, though mostly due to the fact that it was already ahead of other countries after the Fracture and not neccessarily caused by the policies of the League. Meanwhile, the constitution was slowly and painstakingly drafted, and was finally finished in 1912. The government set up by the constitution had a unicameral legislature presided over by a Chancellor, a President to serve as the head of state and to approve all legislation, and a system of courts to be appointed by the President and the legislature. The legislature was to be made up of one representative from each city and rural county (the counties were re-arranged to be of approximately equal population). Representatives, President, and Chancellor were all to be choses by popular vote. Stanstan easily won the office of page 15 President of the Republic, and Aikst Illist was elected Chancellor. Stanstan immediately appointed Nomno Bellstan as Cheif Justice of the high court. Stanstan's term as constitutional president (1913-1918) was basically uneventful on the surface, while in actuallity the League was quietly building its influence. The League was re-chartered by the legislature to be the source of economic law, ie., even though the Legislature and the President had the choice to make or break laws, laws that affected the private sector of the economy had to start as proposals to the government by the League. The League very quickly became a vehicle for a coalition of businesses to oppress their competitors, thus giving certain corporations a pseudo-legal monopoly in their respective fields of production. Politically, the National Party of Stoffonia (formerly the Republican, or Revolutionary Party) held most of the legislature by the popularity of its associations with the struggle against the Emporer. Other parties existed, but took little of the vote. Thus, those who controlled the Party controlled the government. After Stanstan, the Party was controlled by the League. A pattern soon emerged in which the Chairman of the League dictated the actions behind one or more figurehead presidents, and the eventually took the Presidency himself, and then retired from both of his positions after serving the constitutionally set maximum of ten years as elected president. This tyranny of the League was ignored by the public at large for several decades, until the economy began to seriously suffer from the effects of the manipulation of the League, and the effects of inflation and overproduction were countered by the expenditures of the numerous Alliance wars. Only in the 1980s, with the economy at its worst since the Fracture, did there occur a wave of public disgust with economic interventionism, resulting in a "mutiny" within the Party that stripped the League of its powers. The economy is yet to recover from the long-term effects of the League, and the Stoffonian Worker's Party now agitates quite violently for the institution social welfare programs. Also, the supremacy of the National Party has been challenged by the Neo-Republicans, who claim to hold more faithfully to the ideals of Stanstan, and the Traditionalists, who advocate the instatement of traditional religion in the government of the republic. Currently, however, President Minotan Alst holds the respect and admiration of most of the country, and can easily be thought as the most important person on Robertson's Planet. page 16 , Stoffstan I official name of Ayst Inst an Stofstans first King of the City of Stoffstance (Robertson's Planet) Legend has it that he founded the city of Stoffstance, but historians beleive that he was actually its first strong ruler, who took power from what was probably some sort of aristocratic assembly. This would seem logical, for it was a common trait among Stoffonian-speaking peoples in their earlier times that cities were lead by a coalition of important families. Also, it seems that by the time of his reign, Stoffstance was already a well-established trading center, as noted in the writings of the Elosians at the time. In any case, he began the pattern of rulership followed for a thousand years afterward. He established the kingship as a total dictatorship, and did all he could to stamp out the powers of the leading families. Most importantly, he set put all public offices directly under the control of the throne. In other cities, it had been a common occurrence that many offices within the government were actually passed from father to son within the system. Stoffstan felt that this was a threat to his authority as king, so he did away with it. Also, he created a military where advancement was based solely on performance, so that the sons of the great families began just as low on the ladder of command as common men. In future generations, many who would otherwise have lived their lives as peasants made it up through the ranks of the military, and were appointed to important places in the government afterward ( some of these even made it to the throne). He also established the idea that a king could appoint anyone as his successor, and that hereditary succession would take place only when the king willed it, or when he died without naming a replacement. He did appoint his eldest son to succeed him, but he emphasized that he could have actually chosen any man in the city if he had wished to. The only vestige of oligarchial power was a body called the King's Council, a group of men appointed by the king as a sort of brain-trust. The Council had no legal authority whatsoever, and its members could be dismissed and replaced by the King at will. The size of the Council under Stoffstan I and his immediate successors was about a dozen men. It almost always included the High General (commander of all forces under the king), the Patriarch of the Faith (religious leader), and various others who also held other important positions. * page 17 * Timewarrior I * * * Timewarrior II * * * Uglies Demonic creatures that enter this dimension through the bodies of persons involved in black magic at the moment of death. Whether or not the Uglies actually contribute to the death of the medium is not known. They come in many different variations, but none are larger than a human being, most being about half human size. It appears that they come through the dimensional portal, usually located inside the abdomen of the medium, at a much smaller size, and expand very quickly upon entering the atmosphere, apparently drawing mass from an extradimensional source. It is not known what dimension they originate from. * * Vartoo * * Wada Any of several related species of mammals inhabiting Robertson's Planet. They are classed by the Stoffonians as social carnivores for evolutionary reasons, while the animals actually tend to be omnivourous. They have also been assigned Latin binomial names for the convenience of earth scholars. The Great Wada (W. gigantis), native to most large landmasses, resembles somewhat a medium sized dog, with grey, brown, or (rarely) black fur. The animals naturally move in relatively small groups headed by a strong male. They were domesticated very far back in history, and served much the same functions as dogs page 18 to the humans of earth. They have been bred into numerous variations (called, like many dogs, after the location at which the breed originated), but they continue to survive in the wild in many parts of the planet. The Stoffonian Wada (W. stofoni), native to the Stoffo-Elosian landmass and the Foelian landmass north of the equatorial mountain ranges, is a relatively smaller animal, which travels in larger groups with a more hierarchal social order. The wild animals have short, light-brown or grey fur. They have also been domesticated, but their small size has led them to be used mainly as "toy" pets. In Imperial society, they were considered expensive symbols of wealth and prestige. The major breeds are called descriptively after the style of their coats, as this is the main distinguishing factor- "wild-and-woolly", "fuzzy-wuzzy", "long-skinny", and "sour-dough". The Badingolan Wada (W. nomadicus) is native to the Badingolan landmass south of Gresnakia, and resembles the W. stofoni in external anatomy and coloration. It is however, somewhat different in other aspects. The animals have evolved a tolerance for certain microbes in their bodies that are harmful to many other mammals, which are spread when the flesh of the wada is eaten (cooking of the meat at conventional temperatures seems to have little effect on the microbes). The microbes feed on the nerve tissue, and the victim suffers paralysis and death within a week of infection. This has served a great natural defense for the wada, as it has for several species of bird which also possess the adaptation. The animals move in large, complex groups, with a social structure order based at least partly upon matrilineal descent, with the strongest male offspring of the eldest female (the "queen") taking the role of "general" (terms applied by the indigenous peoples, who regarded the animals to the highly intelligent). The general appears to command a network of fighters and scouts who keep order and search for new food sources. The group moves from one area to another with no particular home range, though certain localities seem to be visited by the same groups year after year. The people long regarded the death as a result of eating the animals as a protection of them by the gods, and consequently accorded them a large amount of respect. In the more primitive societies, the tribal structure was actually copied from that of the wada. It is still a compliment to say that one "lives as the wada live", which means that he lives his life without being tied down to any particular home location. * * Zyxyx Large creatures native to the Kuminari plains of Robertson's Planet and used for transportation by nomadic peoples thereof. The Zyxyx represent an evoltionary puzzle, as they appear to be the only large warm-blooded animals on Robertson's planet of lack hair (they have instead numerous keratinous plates resembling page 19 scales), and in that they have six legs (allowing them to be much longer in ratio to their mass than four-legged animals). It is presumed that they represent the last remnant of a once diverse class that has now become exticnt. They have long since ceased to exist in the wild, and survive only in domesticated forms which have probably been selectivly bred for size, strength, endurance, and servility, making for a huge, sluggish, gentle animal that would not long surive in the wild. Thay are so massive that they are unable to breed without human intervention, which has been practiced as an art for many centuries. An adult of either sex is usually about 14 meters (42 feet) in length, and weighs several thousand kilograms. The people carry everything on the backs of the animals, which have a surprising amount surface area even for such large creatures. Each important family group has a Zyxyx on which the people live, and another for storage of valuables. The animals have the ability to get nourishment from almost anything, due to the fact that they have not merely symbiotic bacteria, but also symbiotic invertebrates in their multi-chambered stomachs, so the people usually do not have to concern themselves with feeding them, except when natural food is scarce. Normally, the animals will simply swallow any plants they come across when they are hungry. * * page 20