The Dragon Urn

A couple of years ago I came across an illustration by J.R.R. Tolkien that has been used as an interior illustration for some editions of The Hobbit. “Conversation with Smaug” (1937) depicts an invisible Bilbo Baggins parlaying with the great dragon of Erebor, who lies atop a mound of golden treasure.

I find Tolkien’s drawings extremely charming, but my eyes were really drawn to the great terra cotta jars or cups filled with treasure that seemed to line the dragon’s lair. These are extremely tall, given the ladders needed to reach the top, filled with treasure, and marked with mysterious runes. Just one of these would hold a tremendous hoard. Who built these massive vessels, and to what purpose? Were they perhaps made to carry tribute to Smaug?

The eminent Tolkien scholar and RPG designer John Rateliff has noted that the words on the jar are English using Tolkien’s Tengwar script, which Rateliff translates as “... gold [of] Thror [and] Thrain ... accursed be the thief.” So these great jars seem to have held dwarven allotments of treasure, and carried a traditional curse.

In any case, I knew then I wanted to write an adventure for the Great Dungeon of the North around these containers, which eventually became “The Dragon Urn,” which I ran for some friends this last February. As previously noted, I used a map from Dyson's Delve for a new unexplored area of the Great Dungeon. The setup was simple enough: “Reports of a lost treasure hoard on the Fourth Level create a stir in Delvetown.”

I had several 5e pregens for the boys and they picked six 3rd-level PCs: Malcolm (human cleric), Robb (elf ranger), Jimmie the Nimble (human fighter), Volevert of the Firs (human barbarian), Greybough Longleaf (elf wizard), and Dravynn (dragonborn sorcerer).

Beginning at the Staff of the Magi inn, the adventurers learnt that three years ago the wizard Metriochus the Mysterious had returned to Delvetown claiming to have discovered a new area on the Fourth Level that contained a giant urn guarded by a dragon. While the dragon killed the rest of his party, Metriochus found a way to lower a portcullis, trapping the dragon and its treasure. Most listeners assumed the wizard was a liar, and only weeks later Hrodgoth the Barbarian killed Metriochus and soon his story was largely forgotten.

However, a week earlier some thieves claimed to have rediscovered the lost area on the Fourth Level, and Greybough and his companions believed they recognized where this fabled urn might be found.

My simple key for the dungeon follows:

The Dragon Urn

Room	Contents	Encounter	CR
1	Monster	2 Giant Toads	Easy
2	Empty
3	Monster	Veteran and Bandit	Medium
4	Trap	Gas Vent
5	Monster	Chuul	Medium
6	Special	Room of Geases
7	Trap	Sickening Gas
8	Monster	1 Wererat and 2 Giant Rats	Medium
9	Empty
10	Empty
11	Special	False Fireplace
12	Monster	Black Pudding	Medium
13	Trap	Posion Gas Trap
14	Trap	Nausea Gas
15	Monster	2 Black Dragon Wyrmlings	Hard
16	Monster	Ghost	Medium
17	Empty
18	Special	Ardeth Inkscale (Young Black Dragon)	Deadly

As the party explored the new area the players began improvising their characters’ backstories. It came to pass that Greybough had once been a fairly powerful wizard and patron to the rest of the group, but the long years had ravaged his once brilliant mind and he had steadily regressed in ability until he was no longer any more powerful than his much younger clients. Confined to a home for aged wizards, his loyal clients had sprung “Pops” to take him on one last adventure: to kill a dragon. Greybough was cranky and forgetful, but still remembered enough magic to effectively contribute to the expedition.

The party eventually found their quarry: Ardeth Inkscale, Daughter of Delith, Granddaughter of Old Brokehorn, the terror of Black Lake. Ardeth was a young black dragon trapped behind a magic portcullis and guarding a great urn of treasure. The party raised the portcullis, but Ardeth turned on them and in the ensuing fight killed two of the party before being killed herself.

“Pops” finally got to kill his dragon and the urn held some choice loot: 900 cp, 12,000 sp, 2,200 gp, 100 pp, 11 50-gp gems (carnelian, moonstone, sardonyx, citrine, quartz, moonstone, chalcedony, bloodstone, moonstone, star rose quartz, sardonyx), and a longsword +1.

The game was a blast to run, and I hope to bring this crew back for future adventures.

Winter Hooch XXXII

A couple of weekends ago we held the 32nd installment of our annual winter gaming retreat. We have about a dozen guys—most of us friends for thirty years or more—who come together every winter for a few days to play games, eat and drink, and laugh. The event is always a highlight of my winter and this installment did not disappoint.

I ran a couple of games, including “Song of Myself,” the latest installment of my Into the Interface Traveller campaign. This time the crew of the IMV Starjammer were dispatched into Solomani territory, charged by their Duchess with the destruction of a new A.I. designing the latest dreadnought for the Confederation Navy: a ship so advanced it threatens the balance of power in Magyar sector. The game was heavily influenced by several ideas from Mongoose's awesome Singularity campaign. I′ll post the write-up soonish.

The second game was “The Dragon Urn,” a romp on the Fourth Level of the Great Dungeon of the North. I used an awesome map from Dyson's Delve, translated into a Dwarven Forge setup (shown above). It had been a while since I had a chance to break out the terrain, and I was glad for the opportunity. The climax was a showdown with Ardeth, the black dragon daughter of Delith, spawn of Old Brokehorn himself. I′ll also post the dungeon key for this delve at some point.

I got a chance to play some D&D, which is always a hoot. We did a session of my friend Rob′s Erlach campaign, investigating the mysteries of Gray′s Cove. Another friend, Eli, ran a rip-roaring session of Keys from the Golden Vault that involved a heist from the devil-themed (and staffed!) casino called The Underworld.

There was a booster draft of Magic the Gathering, some sessions of Power Grid, our annual Amoeba Wars tournament, poker, and more. We even did a belated Friendsgiving, which gave us an opportunity to reflect on how lucky we are to be part of such a band of brothers.

Clan Status across One Thousand Hierates

The clan generation system presented in Clans of the Aslan was born right here on this blog just about four years ago and I’ve continued to refine it ever since. An early version was used to flesh out clans for The Deep and the Dark, which fed into the next iteration of the system, which I used and further refined for Clans.

As I worked on The Aslan Hierate manuscript I used the published system to develop several new clans for Hlakhoi sector. And as I’ve noted before, I began to observe some emergent properties that hadn’t been obvious when generating clans within the context of a single subsector. At scale it seemed clear that the Holdings for Multiworld clans should follow a skewed distribution, and that change also necessitated a tweak to Vassal clans.

One of the key characteristics used in the clan generation system is Clan Status, which is roughly equivalent to Social Standing for individual Travellers. Aslan are extremely conscious about their place in Aslan society, and equally aware of their clan’s place within the Hierate. Clans have a pecking order in terms of social precedence, with roughly half of the recognized clans being assigned rankings that are followed (and debated!) as closely as the rankings of human sports teams.

Status follows a familiar range of 0 to 15 (F). Clans with older pedigrees, clans with larger holdings, clans with access to higher tech level goods all tend to have higher Clan Status scores than those without. A 1D roll is used to capture unquantifiable traits like luck, honour, leadership, or notable deeds.

Page 83 of Clans of the Aslan has a Clan Status table that assigns a range of rankings to each Status score. Status F, for example, includes clans ranked from 1st to 288th. The following page includes a discussion of the loose relationship between a clan’s Status score (used by females like a credit score to roughly assess economic clout) and a clan’s ranking (used by males to determine social precedence).

If Status scores are assigned to clans by Aslan corporations much like bond credit ratings, who determines clan rankings? I expect a Tlaukhu standing committee does nothing but debate the rankings of the top 2,048 recognized clans in the Hierate. (2,048 is 4,000 in the Aslan octal number system.) Although rank, like Tlaukhu recognition, is materially inconsequential, these debates are as fierce as any other in the Council of 29. As Sayre’s Law states, “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” The resulting rankings are published on a regular schedule like an Aslan Who’s Who, maybe every four ftahea or so.

Prior to Mongoose Traveller, we knew the specific rankings of only a small number of clans, including all 29 members of the Tlaukhu. A sidebar in the MegaTraveller Referee’s Companion also gives the ranks of a few more random clans: Akhailrau (340), Aroaye’i (397), Loakhtarl (730), and Raohkerl (450), suggesting that at least the top 800 or so clans in the Hierate have designated rankings. But that was it for known clan rankings.

The Aroaye’i are known to us: as noted in CT Aslan, they are a vassal to the Tlaukhu clan Hlyueawi, ranked 6th, and overlord to the Wahtoi. No rank is assigned to the Wahtoi, but it would presumably be lower than 397. According to CT Merchant Prince the Aroaye’i and Wahtoi are equal partners in the ancient transport company Khu Su’ikh (“Five Shields”), which “maintains a benevolent monopoly on rift passage service.” This suggests both clans are well established and prosperous as of 1105.

We also know the Loakhtarl and Raohkerl, who are both described in the “Syareahtaorl” adventure from CT Aslan. These are Multiworld clans of significant means; the Loakhtarl were able to outfit an ihatei expedition of “ten armed 50,000 ton ships, each capable of jump-3 and 3-G.”

With only these few data points to calibrate a ranking system, I initially assumed rankings would fall into tranches of 288 clans each, so Status F would include clans 1–288, Status E would include clans ranked 289–576, etc. I wanted to preserve the MT rankings, and because the Aroaye’i and Loakhtarl both seemed like fairly powerful clans I reasoned each increment of Status must cover a fairly large number of clans. The relative rankings of various clans provided in Clans of the Aslan seemed right from a cursory look.

As I built out the clans for Hlakhoi, though, the absolute ratings for the new, larger clans seemed hinky, particularly after tweaking the Holdings of the Multiworld clans. In short, it became clear that relatively few clans would have very high Status scores: our model of the Hierate presumes significant resource inequality among the clans, with a small number of elite clans controlling a large share of the available resources. As a corollary to that assumption, there can only be so many slots in that elite tier of clans.

And if all that were true, the published rankings for clans with Status D or E were probably much too low and should be higher, and many unranked clans should have rankings. In order to test whether the range of rankings suggested in Clans was accurate or not, I needed to understand what the expected distribution of Status scores would be across the Hierate if using the clan generation rules in Clans of the Aslan.

So I built a spreadsheet that would randomly calculate full profiles for every recognized clan in the Hierate, and then I used that to generate simulations of 1,000 different Hierates. This proved a fairly effective way to test Status along with all the different clan characteristics. In order to keep things apples-to-apples, I kept the total number of clans constant for each simulation, as well as the distribution of clan types:

Aslan Clans

Clan Type	Number
Major	29
Major Vassal	350
Minor	1,200
Minor Vassal	860
Multiworld	156
Single World	930
Vassal	580
Total	4,105

My initial run used the rules-as-written in Clan of the Aslan, and I was happy to see the overall results fell within my expected parameters. I then retooled the generation formulas to include the tweaked Multiworld and Vassal clan numbers. Again, the results looked decent, but it was clear the revised sim was producing too few clans of Status D+. By giving Major Vassals and Vassal clans a +1 boost to Status, the distribution fell into place.

Here are the resulting Status scores for 4,105 clans across 1,000 simulated Hierates:

Sum of Status Results

Status	Major	Major Vassal	Minor	Minor Vassal	Multiworld	Single World	Vassal	Grand Total
F	29,000	961	0	0	2,808	180	13	32,962
E	0	3,429	0	0	4,840	908	179	9,356
D	0	10,234	0	0	10,009	4,764	855	25,862
C	0	21,840	0	0	17,886	15,753	4,099	59,578
B	0	37,007	14	6	22,782	43,362	12,739	115,910
A	0	51,477	307	137	24,454	103,569	30,733	210,677
9	0	56,906	2,827	1,365	23,796	150,160	63,321	298,375
8	0	54,603	16,944	8,812	21,188	153,915	93,377	348,839
7	0	48,109	85,475	44,045	16,294	150,273	96,028	440,224
6	0	36,418	188,782	132,596	8,327	139,211	92,221	597,555
5	0	21,217	199,556	143,707	2,878	111,955	83,860	563,173
4	0	7,180	199,798	143,059	682	51,063	66,040	467,822
3	0	619	197,026	142,157	56	4,887	33,198	377,943
2	0	0	309,271	244,116	0	0	3,337	556,724

Again, these numbers looked right to my eyes: a small number of clans for each of the top Status scores, sharply rising in number at each step before flattening out in the mid range. Some of the outliers are interesting: in 180 simulated Hierates, Single World clans reached Status F; in 13 sims humble Vassal clans reached this height.

Dividing these results by 1,000 gives us the average Hierate result:

Average Status Result

Status	Major	Major Vassal	Minor	Minor Vassal	Multiworld	Single World	Vassal	Grand Total
F	29	1	0	0	3	0	0	33
E	0	3	0	0	5	1	0	9
D	0	10	0	0	10	5	1	26
C	0	22	0	0	18	16	4	60
B	0	37	0	0	23	43	13	116
A	0	51	0	0	24	104	31	211
9	0	57	3	1	24	150	63	298
8	0	55	17	9	21	154	93	349
7	0	48	85	44	16	150	96	440
6	0	36	189	133	8	139	92	598
5	0	21	200	144	3	112	84	563
4	0	7	200	143	1	51	66	468
3	0	1	197	142	0	5	33	378
2	0	0	309	244	0	0	3	557

I think we could make a case for a new Status score of G (16), reserved for a handful of Major clans that lead Tlaukhu blocs. Using this data we can revise the Status table from Clans of the Aslan like so:

Clan Status

Status	Description
0	Exohierate clan
1	Exohierate clan, outcast or unrecognised Hierate clans
2	Unranked Hierate clan
3	Unranked Hierate clan
4	Unranked Hierate clan
5	Unranked Hierate clan
6	Hierate clans ranked 1,537–2,048
7	Hierate clans ranked 1,025–1,536
8	Hierate clans ranked 769–1,024
9	Hierate clans ranked 513–768
A	Hierate clans ranked 257–512
B	Hierate clans ranked 129–256
C	Hierate clans ranked 65–128
D	Hierate clans ranked 49–64
E	Hierate clans ranked 33–48
F	Hierate clans ranked 9–32
G	Tlaukhu clans ranked 1–8

While I think this is a much improved distribution of rankings, it unfortunately necessitates modifying either the Status or rankings for several clans as published in Clans of the Aslan:

• Aeahekihiykhiy – Change Status to 9 (694^th).
• Afaikhiyoi – Change Status to 9 (541^st).
• Ahroay’if – Change Status to C (71^st).
• Akhailrau – Change Status to A (340^th).
• Arao’e – Change Status to A (488^th).
• Arhiyao – Change Status to 8 (790^th).
• Aroaye’i – Change Status to E (34^th).
• Ftawsteaoihalr – Change Status to 8 (917^th).
• Hlaotiyoiho – Change Status to F (30^th).
• Hlyueawi – Change Status to G (6^th).
• Hrakoea – Change Status to E (37^th).
• Hrasua – Change Status to G (5^th).
• Hreakhari – Change Status to 8 (973^rd).
• Hweaolriya – Change Status to B (166^th).
• Ikhtealyo – Change Status to G (8^th).
• Iyhlua – Change Status to C (85^th).
• Khaukheairl – Change Status to G (2^nd).
• Khtiatiyeea – Change Status to 6 (1,751^st).
• Lahtouyo – Change Status to 6 (1,927^th).
• Loakhtarl – Change Status to A (271^st).
• Raohkeil – Change Status to A (450^th).
• Stahfiei – Change Status to 7 (1,350^th).
• Staoiyloulr – Change Status to 8 (874^th).
• Syoisuis – Change Status to G (3^rd).
• Tiykhisto – Change Status to B (145^th).
• Tralyeaeawi – Change Status to G (4^th).
• Uawairlew – Change Status to D (63^rd).
• Uiktawa – Change Status to G (7^th).
• Wahtoi – Change Status to D (49^th).
• Waisyauiai – Change Status to 7 (1,032^nd).
• Yehaso – Change Status to D (55^th).
• Yerlyaruiwo – Change Status to G (1^st).
• Zodia – Change Status to C (113^th).

Note that these revised rankings for Aroaye’i and Loakhtarl are higher than those published in the old Referee’s Companion. This can be explained by noting the MT rankings reflect the Rebellion period, when both clans suffer significant turmoil. MegaTraveller sources provide some of our most detailed information on the Aslan Hierate, but unfortunately it’s rarely clear if that information is accurate for the 1105 time period.

Copyright Information

The Traveller, 2300AD and Twilight: 2000 games in all forms are owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977–2026 Mongoose Publishing. Traveller is a registered trademark of Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Mongoose Publishing is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Mongoose Publishing’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Vassal Clans Revisited

An archival image of Hrasiyah Wi‘ (2549–3624 Aslan), former warlord of the Koihes clan, a vassal of the multiworld Boldway (Syhkikh) clan. The Koihes capital is on the agricultural world of Ahwyeu (Hlakhoi 1822, A8486B8-C). They have two vassal clans that owe them fealty in turn, the Iryoa and the Fiyliei. (Image courtesy of the Koihes Clan Information Service, 1105.)

In “Holdings and the Multiworld Clan” we created a weighed distribution of Multiworld Aslan clans, resulting in many more Multiworld clans with smaller Holdings scores and far fewer clans with larger Holdings scores. One knock-on effect was this change roughly doubled our estimated number of Multiworld clans in the Aslan Hierate from 75 to over 150.

Most Multiworld clans have additional worlds that are administered by Vassal clans—such worlds are held in fief on behalf of the Multiworld clans through subinfeudation. There are about a thousand such worlds in the Aslan Hierate; they can be identified by either Aslan Government Type M or the Allegiance Code AsVc.

We have previously estimated that the average Multiworld clan commands 2.5 direct Vassal clans that administer an average of 2 worlds each; these vassals command 2 indirect Vassal clans of their own that administer and average of 1.67 worlds each. This suggests that 76 Multiworld clans command 190 direct Vassal clans, that in turn command another 380 indirect Vassal clans.

The typical Multiworld clan thus has 7.5 Vassal clans, including both direct and indirect vassals. These basic assumptions are largely reflected in Clans of the Aslan. However, by doubling the number of Multiworld clans in the Hierate we then need to adjust one or more assumptions around Vassal clans. I think the easiest way to go is to reduce the number of vassals each clan controls, resulting in the following revised assumptions:

• The average Multiworld clan has 8.326 worlds under its direct control
• The average Multiworld clan has 3.75 Vassal clans
• The average Vassal clan administers 1.78 worlds
• The average Multiworld clan has 6.675 worlds administered by Vassal clans
• Vassal clans therefore administer a number of worlds equal to roughly 80% of the worlds directly controlled by their overlord clan.

These assumptions are illustrated in the following table, which breaks out Multiworld clans by their Holdings scores:

Multiworld Clans and Their Vassals

	Clan Holdings
	6	7	8	9	A	Total
Number of Clans	26	87	30	9	4	156
Worlds Controlled	66	479	346	212	190	1,293
Average Worlds per Clan	2.5	5.5	11.5	23.6	47.5	—
Vassal Worlds	53	383	277	170	152	1,035
Number of Vassals	30	215	156	96	85	582
Average Vassals per Clan	1.2	2.5	5.2	10.7	21.3	—

With these revised assumptions, the following table can be used to determine the number of Vassal clans owing allegiance to a Multiworld clan, based on the Holdings score of that Multiworld clan.

Number of Vassals

2D	Holdings
	6	7	8	9	A
2	D3-2	D3-2	D3-1	2D+1	2D+4
3	D3-2	D3-2	D3	2D+1	2D+6
4	D3-2	D3-1	D3+1	2D+1	2D+8
5	D3-1	D3	D3+2	2D+2	2D+11
6	D3-1	D3	2D-2	2D+3	3D+9
7	D3-1	D3+1	2D-2	2D+4	3D+11
8	D3-1	D3+1	2D-1	2D+4	3D+13
9	D3	D3+1	2D	2D+5	4D+11
10	D3	D3+2	2D	2D+6	4D+13
11	D3+1	D3+2	2D+1	2D+7	4D+15
12	D3+1	D3+2	2D+1	2D+8	4D+17

Roll to determine the total number of Vassal clans; divide by 3 and round up to determine number of direct vassals. The remainder will be indirect vassals that owe fealty to one or more of the direct vassals.

Copyright Information

The Traveller, 2300AD and Twilight: 2000 games in all forms are owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977–2026 Mongoose Publishing. Traveller is a registered trademark of Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Mongoose Publishing is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Mongoose Publishing’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Holdings and the Multiworld Clan

Aihao (Iwahfuah 2409 A9CA947-C), the industrial capital of the multiworld Hlaotiyoiho (Manytongues) clan, a likely Tlaukhu contender ranked 30^th in the Hierate, and said to control over 50 mainworlds.

Clans of the Aslan introduced the clan profile, which defines an Aslan clan much like the world profile defines a Traveller world. One of the keystone characteristics is Holdings, which measures the amount of mainworld territory directly controlled by the clan. (A clan might also hold additional territory on secondary or split-control worlds, or in lands held by vassal clans in fief.)

A Holdings score of 4 or less indicates the clan controls less than one entire world; a Holdings score of 5 indicates the clan dominates exactly one mainworld in its entirety; and a Holdings score of 6 or more indicates the clan controls two or more mainworlds. Each step in this scale represents a rough doubling of worlds:

Clan Holdings Scores

Holdings	Description	Average
6	2–3 worlds	2.5
7	4–7 worlds	5.5
8	8–15 worlds	11.5
9	16–31 worlds	23.5
A	32–63 worlds	47.5

A Multiworld clan therefore will always have a Holdings score between 6 and A. Aslan worlds controlled by Multiworld clans can be identified by either Government Type K or the allegiance code AsMw.

In a previous post on Independent Clans we assumed that approximately 1,300 worlds in the Hierate are controlled by Multiworlds clans, and an average Multiworld clan controlled 17 worlds, implying there were probably around 76 different Multiworld clans. These estimates were reflected in this passage from Clans of the Aslan:

There are probably less than 100 Multiworld clans in the entire Hierate. On average, Multiworld clans have populations in the low tens of billions. These clans can hold as few as two mainworlds to over 30, with an average somewhere between 12 and 24 worlds.

These estimates are also reflected in the clan generation system, where the average Holdings score is between 8 and 9.

While I think the clan generation system works perfectly well for fleshing out a handful of clans for a subsector, as I worked up details on an entire sector I felt the system was producing too many Multiworld clans with Holdings scores that were too high, even though the averages were consistent with our previous assumptions. Hlakhoi sector, for example, has 78 worlds with the AsMw allegiance code—which, with an average of 17 worlds apiece, would represent only 4–5 Multiworld clans. This struck me as far too few, even assuming that Multiworld clan territories overlap sector boundaries.

I was also concerned with how these Multiworld clan results stacked up against the Tlaukhu clans. When I first reverse-engineered the composition of the Hierate, I assumed all Tlaukhu clans had Holdings scores of A, and thus an average Multiworld clan Holdings of 8 or 9 made sense. But once I had sleuthed out details on the individual Tlaukhu clans, I ended up with a handful of Tlaukhu clans with Holdings as low as 8, and another handful with Holdings as high as B. This meant the average Multiworld clan had Holdings comparable to the weakest Tlaukhu members. While some overlap in strength between the two groups is both reasonable and desirable, too much would contradict previous canon, which holds that membership on the Twenty-Nine is relatively stable.

The problem, I concluded, was that clan Holdings should likely exhibit a highly skewed distribution, wherein a small number of very large clans push the average Holdings results upward, much like average “real world” incomes can be skewed upward by just a few ultra-wealthy individuals. Traveller world populations exhibit a similar skew, as each increment in the Population code represents an order-of-magnitude increase in population. Using straight-up world generation, the average Traveller world has a population of 1.71 billion, which is driven by only a handful of Pop A worlds.

For skewed data like World Population, real-world income, or clan Holdings, the median value is often more informative than the average value, as it reduces the impact of extreme outliers on either end of the data set. So while the average Traveller world population is 1.71 billion, the median population is only 500,000. Roughly half of the worlds produced by Traveller world generation would be expected to have populations below 500,000, while half would have populations above 500,000.

By going back to basics, I played with a 2D6 distribution that would produce more Multiworld clans with lower Holdings scores and much fewer clans with higher Holdings scores. I wanted to target a Holdings score of 7 (4–7 mainworlds) as the median result.

Multiworld Clan Revised Holdings Distribution

2D	Probability	Holdings	Total Clans	Worlds/Clan	Total Worlds	Weighted Result
2	2.77%	6	4	2.5	10	0.07
3	5.55%	6	9	2.5	23	0.14
4	8.33%	6	13	2.5	33	0.21
5	11.11%	7	17	5.5	94	0.61
6	13.88%	7	22	5.5	121	0.76
7	16.66%	7	26	5.5	143	0.92
8	13.88%	7	22	5.5	121	0.76
9	11.11%	8	17	11.5	196	1.28
10	8.33%	8	13	11.5	150	0.96
11	5.55%	9	9	23.5	212	1.30
12	2.77%	A	4	47.5	190	1.32
			156		1,293	8.326

With this distribution, the median number of mainworlds controlled by a Multiworld clan drops to 5.5 (Holdings 7), with an average of 8.33 (Holdings 8). This seems much more reasonable to me, though it does increase the expected total number of Multiworld clans in the Hierate from 76 to 156. These results can be further consolidated like so:

Multiworld Clan Holdings

2D	Probability	Holdings	Clans	Worlds
2–4	16.65%	6	26	66
5–8	55.53%	7	87	479
9–10	19.44%	8	30	346
11	5.55%	9	9	212
12	2.77%	A	4	190
			156	1,293

Based on these changes, the description of Multiworld clans in Clans of the Aslan could be revised to read:

There are probably more than 150 Multiworld clans in the entire Hierate. Multiworld clans have median populations in the high hundreds of millions and average populations in the low billions. These clans can hold as few as two mainworlds to over 30, with an average somewhere between 6 and 12 worlds. A Multiworld clan also controls a comparable number of secondary worlds and have many smaller holdings on split-control worlds.

With these change in mind, the table of Random Clan Holdings on page 79 of Clans of the Aslan can thus be expanded from a 1D to 2D table like this:

Random Clan Holdings (Revised)

2D	Major	Multiworld	Single World	Minor	Major Vassal	Vassal	Minor Vassal
2	8	6	5	0	5	5	0
3	8	6	5	0	5	5	0
4	8	6	5	0	5	5	0
5	9	7	5	0	6	5	0
6	9	7	5	1	6	5	1
7	9	7	5	1	6	6	1
8	A	7	5	2	7	6	2
9	A	8	5	2	7	6	2
10	A	8	5	3	7	6	3
11	B	9	5	4	7	6	3
12	B	A	5	4	7	7	3

This revised table reflects another important change from the old table in Clans of the Aslan: Vassal clans have minimum Holdings scores of 5, meaning they administer at least one world in its entirety. Vassals that hold less than one world in fief are by definition Minor Vassal clans.

The old table works fine for most uses, but if a referee wanted to develop an area larger than a subsector or two, this revised version should work better for that purpose. Using this, the number of Multiworld clans in Hlakhoi increased to twelve, with one clan with Holdings A, one with Holdings 9, three with Holdings 8, three with Holdings 7, and four with Holdings 6—a much more varied and interesting result, in my mind.

Copyright Information

The Traveller, 2300AD and Twilight: 2000 games in all forms are owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977 - 2025 Mongoose Publishing. Traveller is a registered trademark of Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Mongoose Publishing is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Mongoose Publishing’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Sleuthing Out Tlaukhu Details

Hlakhoi (-4/-2) sector, known to the ancient Terrans as Albireo.

I turned in The Aslan Hierate manuscript back at the end of October; the book is currently on the Mongoose Release Schedule for next summer. Unfortunately, I have been too busy on various projects to catch up with this poor, neglected blog.

I haven’t been completely idle on the Traveller front, though: I’ve provided a few suggested tweaks regarding Aslan Traveller generation for the upcoming revision to Aliens of Charted Space Volume 1. I’ve also been hard at work outlining a campaign book with the working title of Kith and Clan. I’m shooting for a big, sandboxy romp very much in the same vein as Pirates of Drinax, but set in Hlakhoi sector.

As part of this work I’ve been playing with the clan generation system from Clans of the Aslan, and realized I’ve never really explained how I derived many of the details for the 29 Tlaukhu members that appeared in Clans. I’ve previously discussed a bit of this in an older post on Developing the Tlaukhu.

To recap, we know from the CT Aslan Alien Module (1984) that the “Hierate includes more than 4,000 clans spread across about 7,000 worlds in 17 sectors.” Aslan world generation and published sector data indicates how many of these worlds are controlled by members of the Tlaukhu.

Unlike other types of Aslan clans, we know the names of all 29 members of the Tlaukhu, their relative ranking to each other, and their associated power bloc and the ranking of those alliances:

Tlaukhu Power Blocs

Power Bloc	Member Clans
AsT0	Yerlyaruiwo (1), Hrawoao (13), Eisohiyw (14), Ferekhearl (19)
AsT1	Khaukheairl (2), Estoieie’ (16), Toaseilwi (22)
AsT2	Syoisuis (3)
AsT3	Tralyeaeawi (4), Yulraleh (12), Aiheilar (25), Riyhalaei (28)
AsT4	Hrasua (5), Eteawyolei’ (11), Fteweyeakh (23)
AsT5	Hlyueawi (6), Isoitiyro (15)
AsT6	Uiktawa (7), Iykyasea (17), Faowaou (27)
AsT7	Ikhtealyo (8), Tlerfearlyo (20), Yehtahikh (24)
AsT8	Seieakh (9), Akatoiloh (18), We’okunir (29)
AsT9	Aokhalte (10), Sahao’ (21), Ouokhoi (26)

This information allows us to estimate additional details about the Tlaukhu members. We know from our post on Governments and Allegiances in the Hierate that there are probably about a thousand worlds (16%) completely controlled by a Tlaukhu clan. Evenly distributed, this would be about a hundred worlds per power bloc or a little more than 34 worlds per individual Tlaukhu clan.

The composition of the Tlaukhu has been fairly stable for over 3,000 years, at least in terms of individual members: most current seats have been held by the same clan since the council’s founding. We also know that members are not completely equal, as they can be ranked both individually and collectively as power blocs. So I assume the most powerful Tlaukhu members are much more powerful than the weakest ones, but not so powerful as to bully their lessers with impunity. In fact, the various blocs probably arose to address persistent power disparities.

I further assume that the best indicator of power among the Tlaukhu members is probably the number of worlds controlled. While other considerations undoubtedly influence rankings, such as honor, cultural or historical importance, or economic and military might, the sheer number of worlds under direct control is probably the clearest signal of clout.

To start, I looked at dividing up a thousand worlds between the ten power blocs. First I ordered the ten blocs by rank. I assumed that the first ranked bloc (Yerlyaruiwo) would not be more powerful than the bottom two blocs (Seieakh and Aokhalte) combined. So I assigned the first ranked bloc an arbitrary strength of 1, and the tenth ranked bloc exactly half that: 0.5. I then did just a simple linear interpolation for the remaining eight blocs. An interval of 0.05556 separated each consecutive bloc. These strengths sum to a total of 7.5, which I used to develop prorated estimates of the number of worlds controlled by each bloc:

Tlaukhu Bloc Strength and Estimated Worlds

Power Bloc	Rank	Bloc Strength	Worlds Controlled
First (Yerlyaruiwo)	1	1.00	139.20
Second (Khaukheairl)	2	0.94	131.47
Third (Syoisuis)	3	0.89	123.73
Fourth (Tralyeaeawi)	4	0.83	116.00
Fifth (Hrasua)	5	0.78	108.27
Sixth (Hlyueawi)	6	0.72	100.53
Seventh (Uiktawa)	7	0.67	92.80
Eighth (Ikhtealyo)	8	0.61	85.07
Ninth (Seieakh)	9	0.56	77.33
Tenth (Aokhalte)	10	0.50	69.60

Thus, the first (Yerlyaruiwo) bloc was estimated to control 140 worlds, while the tenth (Aokhalte) bloc was estimated to control 70. Now that we’ve estimated the number of worlds controlled by each bloc, we can further break these numbers down to individual Tlaukhu clans.

We know the number and identity of Tlaukhu clans within each bloc as well as their individual rank. I simply grouped each bloc member by relative rank within their bloc: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. As a starting estimate, I assumed the second-ranked clan controlled half the worlds of the first ranked clan, the third controlled a third, and the fourth, a fourth. This resulted in the following distribution:

World Distribution within Tlaukhu Blocs

Power Bloc	No. of Members	Worlds by Member				Total Worlds
		1st	2nd	3rd	4th
First (Yerlyaruiwo)	4	67	34	22	17	140
Second (Khaukheairl)	3	72	36	24	–	132
Third (Syoisuis)	1	124	–	–	–	124
Fourth (Tralyeaeawi)	4	56	28	19	14	117
Fifth (Hrasua)	3	59	30	20	–	109
Sixth (Hlyueawi)	2	67	34	–	–	101
Seventh (Uiktawa)	3	51	26	17	–	94
Eighth (Ikhtealyo)	3	46	23	15	–	84
Ninth (Seieakh)	3	42	21	14	–	77
Tenth (Aokhalte)	3	38	19	13	–	70

I then laid out all 29 Tlaukhu members in order. I had honestly expected the result would need a lot of hand tweaking but the raw numbers seemed pretty decent:

Tlaukhu Worlds by Clan Rank

Rank	Clan	Bloc	Worlds
1	Yerlyaruiwo	AsT0	67
2	Khaukheairl	AsT1	72
3	Syoisuis	AsT2	124
4	Tralyeaeawi	AsT3	56
5	Hrasua	AsT4	59
6	Hlyueawi	AsT5	67
7	Uiktawa	AsT6	51
8	Ikhtealyo	AsT7	46
9	Seieakh	AsT8	42
10	Aokhalte	AsT9	38
11	Eteawyolei’	AsT4	30
12	Yulraleh	AsT3	28
13	Hrawoao	AsT0	34
14	Eisohiyw	AsT0	22
15	Isoitiyro	AsT5	34
16	Estoieie’	AsT1	36
17	Iykyasea	AsT6	26
18	Akatoiloh	AsT8	21
19	Ferekhearl	AsT4	17
20	Tlerlearlyo	AsT7	23
21	Sahao’	AsT9	19
22	Toaseilwi	AsT1	24
23	Fteweyeakh	AsT4	20
24	Yetahikh	AsT7	15
25	Aiheilar	AsT3	19
26	Ouokhoi	AsT9	13
27	Faowaou	AsT6	17
28	Riyhalaei	AsT3	14
29	We’okurir	AsT8	14

Note that “worlds” here refers only to main worlds directly controlled by a single clan. Each Tlaukhu clan has a comperable number of worlds held in fief by Tlaukhu Vassal clans, as well as additional holdings on Split Control and secondary worlds. All told, the main worlds might only represent about a third of a clan’s total holdings. Knowing the number of worlds held by vassals also helps us estimate the number of vassals sworn to each Tlaukhu clan.

These numbers help explain the importance of power blocs among the Tlaukhu members. Although the Yerlyaruiwo clan individually holds only the third-highest number of worlds in the Hierate, their leadership atop the most powerful bloc helps place them as the top-ranked clan. In contrast, the Syoisuis clan, which controls almost twice the number of worlds as the next largest clan, has no allies and thus is only ranked third in the Hierate. This also explains why the clan has adopted a “studied neutrality” in Hierate politics: it is vulnerable to an attack from any two blocs.

Copyright Information

The Traveller, 2300AD and Twilight: 2000 games in all forms are owned by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright 1977 - 2025 Mongoose Publishing. Traveller is a registered trademark of Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose Publishing permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Mongoose Publishing is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Mongoose Publishing’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Spotted in the Wild

Hard copies of Clans of the Aslan, my second book for Mongoose Traveller, have finally started to land on people’s doorsteps. Mine arrived on Monday and—maybe this is due to my old, small laptop screen—I think the artwork is far more impressive on paper than in the PDF. Cassie Gregory at Mongoose really did a fantastic job laying out this book.

So what’s next? I am hard at work on the manuscript for the The Aslan Hierate, the third book in what is turning out to possibly be a quadrilogy. Hopefully there’s much, much more to come on that in the not-too-far future.