
The prehistory of Tékumel, its ancient unrecorded past, starts 60 millennia in our future, when human explorers discovered the planet, conquered the native Tékumelani (the subterranean Ssú and the insectoid Hlüss), terraformed the world, and colonized it alongside a dozen alien species. But when Tékumel’s entire star system fell through a spacetime warp into a pocket dimension, technological civilization collapsed. After several titanic wars, each species withdrew into enclaves.
Following a Time of Darkness lasting some 30,000 years, new empires made contact with enigmatic, amoral planar beings: the Tlokiriqáluyal, the Five Lords of Change. These powerful entities infused some of Tékumel’s races with magic-like psychic powers. For 1,500 years the Lords of Change supported princelings in countless petty wars that culminated in the 3,000-year rule of the splendid First Imperium.
When a lone human accidentally contacted a new pantheon of beings — the Tlomitlányal, the Five Lords of Stability — a wave of religious schisms swept aside the First Imperium, and a new caste of Priestkings established Éngsvan hla Gánga, “the Kingdom of the Gods.” After ten thousand years, this flourishing empire perished suddenly in a planetary cataclysm. A worldwide interregnum, the Time of No Kings, spawned legendary figures: Subadím the Sorceror, great Thómar the Ever-Living, fumbling Turshánmu the Summoner of Demons, and many more.

If this epochal history made your eyes glaze over, you’re not alone. Though universally respected, Tékumel has always been a tough sell. There have been five different official Tékumel RPGs, all short-lived and rather haphazard. It’s hard to communicate the setting’s signal virtues. Many of its most devoted fans are the players privileged to participate first-hand in Barker’s own long-running Thursday Night Group. And believe it, these fans are devout. They write monographs about Barker’s pantheons and constructed languages; they build scale models of Tsolyáni temples; and they’ve set up the nonprofit Tékumel Foundation to protect Barker’s works.
The Foundation kindly approved this offer that gathered .PDF image scans of the Empire of the Petal Throne RPG (TSR, 1975), its successor Swords & Glory (Gamescience, 1983-84), plus maps, histories, and treatises for a bargain price. This thorough introduction to Barker’s world showcased its attractions. And if you fall in love with Tékumel, as so many already have, a lifetime of exploration awaits you.


Most of these files are .PDF image scans of the original 1970s and ’80s hardcopies. (This is most obvious in Empire of the Petal Throne and Swords & Glory, where Barker went through the printed pages and manually added accent marks.) The text is crisp and readable, but no optical character recognition has been applied.
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s designated charity, the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Tékumel resources
- Start with Tékumel, The World of the Petal Throne, its Gaming on Tékumel page, and its page of Tékumel links
- The Tékumel Foundation
- Intro to Tékumel by Patrick Brady (.PDF link)
- Empire of the Petal Throne TVTropes page
- Brett Slocum’s Tékumel Site
- James Maliszewski’s Tékumel-related posts at Grognardia
- Chris Kutalik of the Hydra Collective (a frequent Bundle contributor) has lots of good Tékumel material on the Hill Cantons blog
- Howard Fielding’s blog, The Tékumel Project
- Tékumel Collecting