"Bradley,.Marion.Zimmer.-.Darkover.Anthology.11.-.Darkover.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradley Marion Zimmer)Marion Zimmer BradleyТs
Darkover DAW BOOKS, INC. DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM SHEILA E. GILBERT PUBLISHERS Copyright й 1993 by Marion Zimmer Bradley. All rights reserved. Cover art by David Cherry. Border design by Richard Hescox. DAW Book Collectors No. 929. DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES MARCA REGISTRADA HECHO EN U.S.A. ISBN 0-88677-593-0 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. A Reader's Guide to DARKOVER THE FOUNDING: A "lost ship" of Terran origin, in the pre-empire colonizing days, lands on a planet with a dim red star, later to be called Darkover. DARKOVER LANDFALL THE AGES OF CHAOS: 1,000 years after the original landfall settlement, society has returned to the feudal level. The Darkovans, their Terran technology renounced or forgotten, have turned instead to freewheeling, out-of-control matrix technology, psi powers and terrible psi weapons. The populace lives under the domination of the Towers and a tyrannical breeding program to staff the Towers with unnaturally powerful, inbred gifts of laran, HAWKMISTRESS! THE HUNDRED KINGDOMS: An age of war and strife retaining many of the decimating and disastrous effects of the Ages of Chaos. The lands which are later to become the Seven Domains are divided by continuous border conflicts into a multitude of small, belligerent kingdoms, named for convenience "The Hundred Kingdoms." The close of this era is heralded by the adoption of the Compact, instituted by Varzil the Good. A landmark and turning point in the history of Darkover, the Compact bans all distance weapons, making it a matter of honor that one who seeks to kill must himself face equal risk of death. TWO TO CONQUER THE HEIRS OF HAMMERFELL THE RENUNCIATES: During the Ages of Chaos and the time of the Hundred Kingdoms, there were two orders of women who set themselves apart from the patriarchal nature of Darkovan feudal society: the priestesses of Avarra, and the warriors of the Sisterhood of the Sword. Eventually these two independent groups merged to form the powerful and legally chartered Order of Renunciates or Free Amazons, a guild of women bound only by oath as a sisterhood of mutual responsibility. Their primary allegiance is to each other rather than to family, clan, caste or any man save a temporary employer. Alone among Darkovan women, they are exempt from the usual legal restrictions and protections. Their reason for existence is to provide the women of Darkover an alternative to their socially restrictive lives. THE SHATTERED CHAIN THENDARA HOUSE CITY OF SORCERY AGAINST THE TERRANS ЧTHE FIRST AGE (Recontact): After the Hastur Wars, the Hundred Kingdoms are consolidated into the Seven Domains, and ruled by a hereditary aristocracy of seven families, called the Comyn, allegedly descended from the legendary Hastur, Lord of Light. It is during this era that the Terran Empire, really a form of confederacy, rediscovers Darkover, which they know as the fourth planet of the Cottman star system. The fact that Darkover is a lost colony of the Empire is not easily or readily acknowledged by Darkovans and their Comyn overlords. REDISCOVERY (with Mercedes Lackey} THE SPELL SWORD THE FORBIDDEN TOWER *STAR OF DANGER THE WINDS OF DARKOVER AGAINST THE TERRANS ЧTHE SECOND AGE (After the Comyn): With the initial shock of recontact beginning to wear off, and the Terran spaceport a permanent establishment on the outskirts of the city of Thendara, the younger and less traditional elements of Darkovan society begin the first real exchange of knowledge with the TerransЧlearning Terran science and technology and teaching Darkovan matrix technology in turn. Eventually Regis Hastur, the young Comyn lord most active in these exchanges, becomes Regent in a provisional government allied to the Terrans. Darkover is once again reunited with its founding Empire. *THE BLOODY SUN HERITAGE OF HASTUR *THE PLANET SAVERS |
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