Thursday, February 13, 2014

Kuznuh Unveiled

Kuznuh is the primary world of the neshekk and a member of the Alliance. The neshekk aren't natives; they arrived there after being displaced by the Great Collapse. The neshekk have made their fortunes primarily through investment banking.They have a reputation for ethical behavior and conservative investment, but are sticklers for the letter of contracts and do not tend to offer easy terms.

Perhaps because of their wealth or perhaps due to a separate cultural quirk, the neshekk are greatly concerned with privacy. They go through the streets wrapped in a shroud of nizara, making them invisible or unrecognizable (depending on their settings) in the metascape of their world, unless they choose otherwise. It is a misdemeanor privacy violation to view public spaces of Kuznuh unfiltered by the metascape. All social interaction on Kuznuh is a process of negotiating the level and setting time parameters for permissions to access personal information. Even among family, neshekk may completely cloak themselves in nizara for privacy’s sake.



Their desire to protect their privacy and wealth (and the wealth of their clients) has led the neshekk to become security experts in both electronic and data security. Neshekk infosecurity firms are noted for their ruthlessness; they have been known to employ basilisk patterns and other forms of deadly intrusion countermeasures.

Neshekk society is divided into clans. The heads of these clans elect a Chief Executive Officer of Kuznuh. When the neshekk clan leaders lose confidence in a CEO, he or she is replaced--and memory-wiped to insure the protection of board secrets. This process is referred to as “beheading.”

Kuznuh City, the capital of their world, has a walled and checkpointed city center full of windowless, unadorned cylinders where the wealthy neshekk reside. Offworlders that work for them reside in partitioned areas around it. All visitors and offworlders are given rudimentary nizara shielding, but don’t have as many options with its use nor are theirs as opaque to legal inquiries as that of citizens.


(For those that are interested, FATE stats for the neshekk and other species can be found in a newly updated file here.)

6 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

So they're based on the Swiss!

Aos said...

I like the term "beheading" do the victims of this procedure maintain the maturity gained by experience or do they need to how to use the potty solo again?

Anonymous said...

Makes me think a little of Singapore with its large numbers of transitory (non-citizen) workers constantly flowing in and out to support the economy. Is it possible for non-Neshekk to join one of the clans?

Trey said...

@Fran - Hmmm...I'll have to think about that one.
@Aos - No, just the immediate "trade secrets."

@seaofstarsrpg- I would imagine it might happen but only rarely. The outsider would really have to have a mastery of neshekk cultural intricacies.

Jack Guignol said...

I really like the memory wipe bit...gotta keep those trade secrets secret.

garrisonjames said...

Interesting culture, great graphic.