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NINTH WORLD GUIDEBOOK
CREDITS
Writers/Designers Monte Cook and Shanna Germain
Additional Writing Bruce R. Cordell
Editor and Proofreader Ray Vallese
Cover Designer Sarah Robinson
Graphic Designer Bear Weiter
Artists
Samuel Araya, Milivoj Ćeran, chrom, Florian Devos, Dreamstime.com, Jason Engle, Erebus, Guido Kuip,
Brandon Leach, Eric Lofgren, Patrick McEvoy, Brynn Metheney, John Petersen, Roberto Pitturru,
Nick Russell, Matt Stawicki, Keith Thompson, Shane Tyree, Ben Wootten, Kieran Yanner
Cartographer Christopher West
Monte Cook Games Editorial Board
Scott C. Bourgeois, David Wilson Brown, Eric Coates, Gareth Hodges,
Jeremy Land, Laura Wilkinson, Marina Wold, George Ziets
© 2015 Monte Cook Games, LLC. NUMENERA and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All Monte Cook Games characters and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC.
Printed in Canada
IMAGE HERE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: BACK TO THE NINTH WORLD 5
Chapter 1: Introduction 6
Chapter 2: The Sound of a Beast 7
Chapter 3: Life in the Ninth World 16
Part 2: THE SETTING 35
Chapter 4: The Steadfast 36
Chapter 5: The Beyond 60
Chapter 6: The Frozen South 77
Chapter 7: Lostrei: The Spiritlands 100
Chapter 8: Vralk: The Red Kingdom 125
Chapter 9: Rayskel Cays 155
Chapter 10: Lands of the Dawn 181
Part 3: CHARACTERS AND CREATURES 213
Chapter 11: Character Options 214
Chapter 12: Creatures 222
Part 4: BACK MATTER 251
Glossary: Talk Like a Ninth Worlder 252
Index 253
PART 1:
BACK TO THE
NINTH WORLD
Chapter 1: Introduction 6
Chapter 2: The Sound of a Beast 7
Chapter 3: Life in the Ninth World 16
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
T
he Ninth World presents a strange dichotomy of old and new, so it is entirely appropriate that you hold
in your hands a new book about a setting already detailed in the Numenera corebook. The Ninth World
Guidebook, however, presents all-new locations, most of them vast regions well beyond the maps you
already have.
I imagine that about half of you reading this are thinking, “This book is long overdue—there isn’t enough detail
in the corebook for me.” And the other half might be thinking, “Why on earth do I need this book? The material in
the corebook is more than enough. Surely adding to it will oversaturate the setting and step on my toes as a GM.”
Believe it or not, I’m sympathetic to both groups. And we’ve striven to try to please you all with this book. That
was no easy task, but then, nothing worth getting excited about is ever an easy task, right?
As I mentioned, most of the locations in this book are in whole new regions. This means that they cannot
contradict anything you’ve put in your campaign already. Even the areas of the Steadfast and the Beyond that
we’ve detailed here are out of the way and remote. For example, we didn’t add a bunch of new material to Lhauric
without warning, superseding all the material you’ve generated for that city in your home campaign. We don’t want
to do that. The Ninth World of your campaign is yours, not ours, and we don’t want to contradict anything you’ve
already done.
And we don’t have to. The Ninth World is big enough for all of us.
It’s important to remember that the area shown on the poster map in the Numenera corebook is only about the
size of the continental United States. There’s still a lot of land mass on the planet that is completely unknown.
Although the new regions greatly expand the amount of the world now detailed, there’s still a lot more. That means
there’s room for you to create whole new lands and kingdoms, swamps and mountain ranges, and anything else
you want. And, of course, just like with the Steadfast and the Beyond in the corebook, if you want to stick new
cities, locations, or features into Lostrei, Vralk, Corao, or anywhere else in the Ninth World Guidebook, there’s plenty
of room for that as well.
Even with this new book, the Ninth World remains a vast, mostly unexplored wilderness. The areas that we have
mapped still have miles and miles of unlabeled regions for you to expand upon. Ninth Worlders don’t always know
what lies over the next big hill or what waits on the other shore of the strange lake. You can put anything you like
over there. There could be a large city or a huge ancient complex of your design and it won’t upset anything we’ve
done. As we did with the corebook, we placed symbols for villages, fortresses, and more on the maps in this book
for you to use as locations for your own creations. We won’t ever detail those unlabeled symbols—they are all yours
and we won’t step on your toes.
Although it is in no way required to use The Ninth World Bestiary with this book, you’ll see some references to
creatures found in those pages. Use of that book will enhance your enjoyment of this one, but wherever possible,
we included a few details about the creatures referenced to give you an idea of what they’re like.
I hope you enjoy this book and find it a great addition to the weird and wondrous world so incredibly far in our
future. May the material here add to your campaigns for years to come.
—Monte
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THE SOUND OF A BEAST
CHAPTER 2
THE SOUND
OF A BEAST
Since this morning, when I woke up with a damn “Just you, Palmer,” I said. I couldn’t help it; it just
caffa grub hanging off my neck, I’d been daydreaming slipped out.
about killing Palmer in his sleep. The only thing From behind us, Norlup gave a snort of laughter in
stopping me was I couldn’t figure out the best way to the dark.
do it. Sometimes I favored the quick blade across his “Oh, great beast of wildwoods, coming to eat me,”
snoring throat. Other moments, I imagined drugging Palmer quipped. It was too dark to see his face, but
him and rolling him into the fire. Once in a while, I you could just tell he was doing the “fake fear” look,
thought I might just throw him to the next creature that all wide-eyed and sarcastic. See why I want to kill him?
attacked us in the dark. Mostly, though, I dreamed of Anyone would.
transforming in the shadow of night and dragging him This was the last time I took a job with someone
off to the wilds with my claws in the tender bits of his whose most glowing recommendation was that he’d
belly. once resisted the urge to have sex with a rubar on a
Palmer snored like a creature with eleven noses, so I dare. There was another guy with us, too, although both
figured that whatever I did to him would be lost in the “guy” and “with us” were liberal uses of those words.
great cadence of his sleep. No one would hear a thing. A varjellen, with a name that was so hard to put on the
In fact, they’d all cheer me in the morning because tongue that we just called him Ech. He was mostly a—
they’d actually been able to sleep through the night for let’s say captive rather than sacrifice—and he was smart
once. enough not to say much.
I was so lost in this daydream that I nearly They’d hired Palmer on to get us where we needed
backtracked us. No one noticed until Norlup said in to go, they’d hired me on to protect Ech from outside
that quiet way he has, “Are we going down? Aren’t we dangers, and I was pretty sure they’d hired Norlup to
supposed to be going up by now?” protect Ech from, well, me. Clearly that was all working
That’s what they get for putting me in the lead. top-notch.
Norlup’s got the enhanced eyes and ears, but he’s The tunnels had been Ech’s idea, which would make
the fallback type. You know, the guy who likes to bring them seem like a bad choice, him being our captive and
up the rear. Which is okay by me most of the time; if all, but in fact they’d turned out well until this morning,
anyone’s going to stand behind me and send streaks of with the caffa grub incident. But that was mostly
lightning over my head, I want it to be Norlup. Palmer’s fault.
Of course, not getting us lost is supposed to be The tunnels kept us off the plains, which was in the
Palmer’s job. His claim of knowing this area like the middle of its spring storms. You only have to see one
face of his own mother is the only thing he’s said so far tornado laden with flesh-eating fungus, picking up
that’s truth. Turns out, his mother abandoned him or whole herds of giant camethosaurs and throwing them
died or some such before he was old enough to talk. around, to want to avoid that for the rest of your life.
Lucky her. Of course, these hollowed pathways brought their own
Palmer, who hadn’t noticed our lack of proper set of dangers. Like the grubs that had latched onto me
direction—for a guy who claims to be good at this morning, after Palmer insisted that all those holes
everything, he’s actually kind of shitty at most things— in the ground were just erosion. Which they were, if
but acted like he did, said, “Where is your mind, Deni? erosion meant blood-sucking, face-eating larva wanting
You trying to kill us?” to use my body for a new home. Not to mention the
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chance that we’d get lost and die down here. The on our way to delivering the goods and parting ways.
tunnels were ancient, half built and half dug, and we’d Norlup caught up to me. He’s tall and wide in the
passed our fair share of the long-dead down here, face the way I like my men to be, and quiet, thank drit,
Palmer palming any spoils that remained… but that whole lightning thing isn’t for me. I’m of the
…and there it was, a glimpse of understanding into earth, planted like a stone.
why Palmer bugged me so much. “Something behind us,” he said.
“Hey, Palmer, is that your real name or your “Something like Ech?” That man was the easiest
occupation name?” Couldn’t believe that had just captive I’d ever had. He kept pace, ate what we offered,
occurred to me. Sometimes I’m slower on the uptake stayed quiet, and didn’t try to escape. I wished I could
than my countenance would imply. trade him places with Palmer.
“Both,” he said, quick and quipped. But you could tell “Something with more feet,” he said. “Listen.”
he’d just thought of it, too. Which made me feel a little But Palmer was talking poor Ech’s ear off behind us,
better, even though I knew he’d be introducing himself and I couldn’t hear a thing beyond that.
as “Palmer the palmer” from now on. Like he’d been the “Crowd?”
one to think of it. Probably even make a flourishy hand “Creature,” he said.
gesture to go with it. Tada. Damn. I’d rather fight a whole army of humans than
Norlup and Ech were quiet in the back. Not the planning- a single creepy-crawly. The tunnels weren’t very big, but
something or dying-from-something kind of quiet, but the they were wide enough to let Palmer and Ech step by
utter silence that comes from being hard on the move for a me. Ech cast a glance my way—in the light of Palmer’s
long time. I call it the plod, that death to sound. glowglobe, bulbous eyes raised a question that I
The tunnel took a sudden hard climb for the surface, couldn’t answer.
and I led my ragtag team along it. I knew we were under “Palmer, hush for a minute,” I said as they went by.
the plains somewhere, but other than that, it was knock- You could see his face getting ready for a retort, but
synth-throw-drit that we’d come out close to where we then we all heard it. That scrape of carapace, the click
needed to be. At worst, I was pretty sure we hadn’t gone of approaching pincers. Big pincers. Coming down the
backward. At very best, we’d land on the outskirts of the tunnel. Norlup had been right about a lot of legs and
plains, having missed the death tornados, and be well wrong about his use of the word creature, singular.
8
