This map is about 4000 miles wide. It covers lands that are considered three different basins today, Uttermost West, Darceen and the Old Lands. They are three completely different regions and will be covered separately.
Geologically all these regions, plus the New Midlands, Korst, Hrrst and Old Midlands are part of the Ttharmine Basin. The Ttharmine basin complex is the largest basin on the planet. It is difficult to fit it all on one map since it spans a third of the circumference of the planet both east-west and north-south.
In Prehistoric times this area had some settlement along the coast north of what was then Thule Sound. They were a Nordic people, their culture died out because of poor agricultural practices that left their land salt poisoned. They left no written records and no imposing structures. It was a rather standard neolithic Nordic culture.
This region got its name in ancient times, but none of its current culture. This was an uninhabited wasteland during the Thulitlanth Age and the Energy Age with some rocky scrubland along the coast and dry prairie beyond that. There was little habitation and it was mentioned in history only as an abode of savages and hermit magicians. Two kingdoms did get established on the north shore of the gulf of Thule, but they are considered part of the Old Lands.
In the Energy Age it was a land of desert adventure and vast emptiness. A glideway did follow the Testigar river, which has always been considered the boundary of the basin, and another followed the coast of the time. The remaining basin remained uninhabited, even the fertile northwest corner. During the later Energy Age the forests of the Northwest were cleared but little permanent settlements were founded even then.
In the Troubled Times some fled here, and trekked the desert to the northwest corner, or into the New Midlands. One group that went far into the New Midlands are, of course, those who became the Highland Elves. Those that settled the Yornashi river have darker hair and aren't quite as tall as the Highland Elves. Their culture was not quite as isolated as the Yakhan was at the time, and could not forget there were still armies on the march. The forests of the region had grown back and provided the Elves that settled here some protection and cover, and they remained a separate culture for two thousand Earth years. Some consider themselves a separate 'Forest Elf' ethnicity.
In modern times this basin became an extension of the Highlands. During the age of classical Greece, Highland Elves rapidly settled along the rivers and built extensive canals across the prairies. They established hundreds of small cities, but their big cities are the Yakhan or Korsto, which are a couple years in either direction. Culturally, if it is possible to draw such a fine line, the basin leans more toward the Yakhan than Korsto, but because the culture of either city is infinite and similar, it doesn't matter.
Today you'll only know you've passed from the New Midlands into Uttermost West because of the spectacular peaks of the Mountains at the End of the World (Eingessdorkon) that you will pass thru one way or another. They are very reminiscent of parts of China. You will probably pass thru the canyon of the Yoranshi because the tubes will use that route when they extend to Chesendowah before 4125.
Chesendowah is sort of a hill town, it's above sea level barometrically and in hilly country. It doesn't seem very big when you're in it, like any one of thousands of Highland cities of a few hundred thousand. But it winds up lots of little valleys for many miles so there are close to three million contiguous urban people. It is the largest city in the basin and the cultural and economic center. It has the atmosphere of a city on the lake, though there are only small canals reaching it.
Culturally, the most important thing to note about the culture of this basin is that it does not differ from the Highlands. You will find the same brands and chains. The architecture is the same, the crops are the same in the northwest, a little more lowland as you get to the south and east. Education levels are the same in all but isolated villages on the prairies.
The climate of the Northwest is the same as the Highlands. To the south and east it starts to get a little steamier. The middle of the basin is still pretty dry, but some major canals cross it today irrigating a broad swath of land home to another hundred million people. Along the Testigar or the old shore it gets sweltering.
The prairies of Uttermost West do not teem with game like those of Zhlindu or Kyeb, but there is still plenty to go around and they are a local year closer. The prairies of the northwest Highlands are a half-year closer than that, with the tube now open to Kugenzglaw, but are crowded with Centorin safaris already, while those of Uttermost West are not.
The people you'll meet here today do show some of the Wood Elf, Sylvan Elf and even Lorian Elf of the Old Lands, but most of them look like the same people you see on the streets of the Yakhan. As much as there, if they have even a modest income, their appearance is a matter of personal preference.
Traveling here is the same as the Highlands, the inns have the same customs and much of the same menu. Finding companionship is the same but because you'll generally be in a smaller city, not as fast paced as the Yakhan. Prices are a bit lower than the Highlands. The public taps all have video screens and they get the same sources they do in the Yakhan.
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The Darceen basin is one of the smallest in area. It was entirely underwater during the Energy Age and the early Troubled Times. When the Energy Age began the average weekly high temperature in the Old Lands was just about 90F. During the Energy Age the soot in the air offset the higher CO2 content, the soot settled out after the debris from The Fall settled out. The Wars of Magic and the eruption of Klagbos darkened the sky for another century, but by the time of the breakout, only the CO2 remained, and temperatures were already rising.
The breakout of the Ttharmine put the basin over a tipping point. Today the temperature is twenty degrees higher in those same locations, while the surface temperature of the water in the Ttharmine today is 127F (53C). It is now 1731 feet lower in elevation. The breakout of the Ttharmine opened a lot of land, but that land was uninhabitable until 178ad when the Hotblood modification was made available.
Darceen is the creation of a single scientist (who wishes to have his name withheld) who developed a series of modifications to human physiology that raises the body's internal temperature forty degrees Fahrenheit and makes it possible to inhabit climates that are uninhabitable by normal human beings. Those having this modification applied are called Hotbloods, and like to think of themselves as a separate race. In truth they need to be considered a separate species because it is just about impossible for one with the modification to mate with someone without it and if they did, the zygote could not be viable. It is also true that a human of any race can undergo the modification. They will look nearly the same when complete, their blood will be a little bluer and thinner, their liver a bit smaller but harder.
The man who developed it used it on himself and lives in the city of Darseen today. He has amassed quite a fortune and is one of the wealthiest in that city. The city, by modified measure, is now one of the largest in the world and the docks he can see from his downtown apartment are some of the busiest on the planet. When watching the bustling activity round the clock it is hard to picture that in the dark of Dawnsleep the temperature might get down to 100F and those sweating in the heat of Afternoonday are in the sun when it's 138F in the shade.
The Darceen basin is the Hotbood basin. It includes the land that was underwater during the Energy Age. The northern part of the basin is already inhabited, but the southern part is only recently getting much settlement. The basin is divided by what was once a large island, the seat of a military empire in the early Troubled Times. That is still populated by Elves and Nordics in spite of the current climate. For any unmodified people it is a desperate hundred and fifty mile ride thru the dark to get in and out of that area.
The crops in the basin are also adapted to a hotter climate and grow much faster than those of the cooler lands. It is possible to support ten thousand people per square mile with the agriculture in use in Darceen. In fact the definition of urban has been changed for Darceen because people living in conditions that are obviously urban may be able to grow more than they eat on their roof alone. For this reason any area which is completely covered with human occupied structure is also counted as urban, regardless of how much food is grown on the property. If that extension was not made, Darceen would only be only 17.4 million.
When Hotbloods live in cooler climates, they wear lots of clothes, so if you've ever seen any, you've seen them bundled up. In the central parts of the basin, clothing is unknown. There is no textile industry at all in Darceen, and very few of the residents have ever had any clothing on their body.
Darceen isn't as gloomy as the polar deeps. It is only two and a half miles below sea level. Agriculture is so productive that many can live just from their roof. Alternatively, some live in their fields, with nothing more than a hammock and tent. Hardly anyone farms more than a quarter acre, a whole acre is a large commercial operation. The plants adapted to this temperature are a dark purplish green, much darker than we are used to, so the land seems more shaded than it is.
Hotbloods are derived from every race, any human can undergo the modifications in a few local years. Thus some of all cultures have migrated to Darceen, but the stamp of the Highlands is strong. The look of the people is small and delicate, but there are all racial types represented. The culture is somewhat more rough and raw than the Highlands, and people are busier than the Highlands, and the people of the Highlands are busier than average by Kassidorian standards.
There is already a lot of blending of the races taking place in the Darceen basin, more of it via pills then reproduction. The Hotbloods still implement the same species immunity complex to combat aging and that causes genetic drift thru promiscuous sex, but the blending of the racial types that make up the population of Darceen is happening too fast for that to be the cause.
There has been time to develop some unique Hotblood traits. They are considered to be more sexual than those of normal body temperature. Many claim to mate 7 to 25 times a day. Their culture accepts all forms of sexual release, and sex toys are more widely used and advertised then in other basins. There is less yaag use than in other basins, but more use of stronger drugs, especially hallucinogens and downs. Alcohol has a stronger effect on the Hotblood physiology, as if it was laced with caffeine. It is consumed in highly pure forms using very fancy stemmed shot glasses.
The arts scene is rather dark. Music tends to be either slow and orchestral, or motorbeat industrial. Cinema is strong on horror and occultism. The fact that there is a lot of stand-up comedy should counteract that, but it is also on the dark side.
The architecture of the cities are somewhat unique. There is seldom a second level of streets, but streets are narrow and crooked. The unique feature is that just about all of the city is topped with cropland so from above what one sees is farmland cut by a network of winding crevices, two or more stories deep.
The Hotbloods have been beating back the wildhull on the Ttharmine. With enough firepower and heavy equipment, big floating factories attack the wildhull swamp and render much of the biomass down for alcohol which is used for all lighting, cooking and most process heat over most of the basin. Those floating factories are the size of towns, the machinery they use to cut and grind up the floating swamp and defend themselves from its inhabitants is the heaviest used anywhere on Kassidor.
Since the temperature in the Darceen basin ranges from 100F to 140F (38C to 60C), and 70% to 100% humidity, it is not practical to consider visiting this basin. Besides the weather, a good deal of the food is poisonous to an unmodified metabolism. In the wilds, the wildlife is fatal, that is why settlement in the southern part of the basin is so scarce, the human frontier is nearly the front line in a war. There are NO game safaris in this basin.
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At the bottom of the map are the lands of the oldest Elven legends. Denistor, Exmere, Thulia, Valindor and Illtale are names that have come down from antiquity, but they are not the names most used in history for this region, but the name of the largest town or city in the region today. Most of the names in the legends were kingdoms in what is now called Thulia.
There are some who say that each of these areas should be a separate basin, they each have their own history, language and culture. They do, but their cultures are more similar than cities only forty miles apart within the Lumpral megalopolis.
The history of the area is the Energy Age and all that lead up to it. The founding of the first Elven nation is recorded as taking place on June 23, 5939bc. This is the start of the year 0 on the Kassidorian calendar. This was the first act written in the first Elvish language ever discovered. This oldest known proclamation cannot really be the first use of written language, because it is too complete.
Indeed Elven culture seems to have been ignited by a spark from the Yondure basin, possibly as much as two thousand years earlier. This oldest known document proclaimed Valairie the First as king of all he surveyed, and he surveyed as far as the fastest keda could carry a man in a day. It then described the boundaries of a fertile lowland that was then on the southeast shore of Thule Sound.
Within a thousand years there were thirteen kingdoms all along the south shore of Thule Sound and along the shore of the Great Sea to the Igjarmine coast, and two more on the north side of the Thule. These nations were prosperous and built great sailing ships that voyaged to all parts of the Great Sea, as the Ttharmine was called at the time. Kingdoms vied with each other, but for many generations a pact was maintained that Elven states would not make war on each other. Political manipulation, assassination, concubines as foreign agents, all were rampant at the time however.
This was called the Thulitlanth Age, since the Thule sound was the center of the civilization. That was a body of water about the size of the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They ranged far beyond that gulf, colonies were established in the Korst and in the Old Midlands. The Uttermost West and New Midlands were desolate deserts at the time and could not be inhabited because of frost. Even the outer parts of the Ttharmine basin were as much as ten degrees colder at the time.
By 4000bc the kingdom of Valmar was established, approximately in the location of present day Valindor. This land was more than two weeks of hard riding on good roads in radius, twice as big as France. In little time Valmar became a serious rival to the Thulitlanth states. There is a detectable racial difference between the ancient residents of Thulia and those of Valmar. The Thulitlanths were all Wood Elves racially, while Valmar was mainly Mountain Elves, slimmer with golden hair and ocher skins. Because of that the Thulitlanth states felt justified in excluding Valmar from their ancient oath never to go to war with their brothers.
The first trouble erupted over colonies in the Old Midlands. There were several naval battles, but no armies engaged on land. The Igjarmines presented a nearly impregnable defense against land invasion by either side. The superior technology of the Thulitlanth states could not overcome the sheer numbers of Valmar.
Soon after, the kingdoms in the regions of Exmere, Illtale and Denistor were founded and soon became players, claiming colonies in the Korst, the New Midlands and as far as the North Pewpspway. Legends tell of an even larger and more powerful nation hidden in the mountains, but no ruins have been found to substantiate that claim.
In the 3400's bc the Thulitlanth kingdoms began using the scientific method and soon invented the steam turbine and numerous mechanical devices powered by it including mining and agricultural machinery, war machines, lighter than air flying machines, and large steamships. The use of these devices quickly spread to all the developed nations along the south shore of the Ttharmine.
Then Illewe the Undying took the Throne of Enlightenment beneath the twin trees in Valmar, and began the greatest campaign of conquest the human race has ever seen. His approach was two fold, the first was unstoppable military might, the other was to leave as much of the existing power structure in place as possible. He called himself a uniter, not a conqueror.
All the Elven kingdoms of the Old Lands seemed to have fallen into the union largely without a struggle. We really can't be sure, this history has been rewritten and sanitized several times. No doubt Illewe was completely ruthless when he had to be. For whatever the reason, it is well documented that there was a Union of Elvish States with Illewe as the head of state within 29 Earth years of taking the throne of Valmar.
Since most of the lands on the shores of the Great Sea was already colonies of these nations, he had twenty million square miles and over a billion people in his realm, the entire Ttharmine basin complex. Using a recently developed vehicle they called a 'glideway' which we know as a TGV, he was able to send expeditions out to explore and unite the four corners of the world.
Even Illewe the Undying did not live to see it happen, he lived before aging was first cured, but managed to survive 267 Earth years naturally. The TGV did not circumnavigate the globe until 3050bc and aging wasn't cured the first time until 2871bc. By then the world had been loosely united into a common 'Empire'. After Illewe, the center of power had shifted back to the Thulitlanth states. By this time the glideways had united them into a single megalopolis called Dempala that extended seven hundred miles along the south shore of Thule Sound and the Great Sea.
The glideway was an air cushion vehicle riding on a track. The track and vehicle were very finely made ceramic so only a thin cushion of air was required. It was steam powered, and large enough to use cordwood instead of alcohol. The vessels were about twelve feet wide, seven feet tall inside, with two more feet below for the mechanism, and fifty to seventy feet long. They had a driver, a fireman, a host, two serving girls and a chef, as well as passengers. Some had rows of seats, some had compartments. Trips on them often lasted several weeks, in some places there was a week between stops.
Communication was needed and it was provided using blinker code. This was an optical morse code. Telescopes and mirrors were used, as well as fiber optics. They were able to build real time relays, but they required an operator to man the mirror. It was all made from lenses, mirrors, finely crafted wood. With these devices, communication thruout the empire became nearly instantaneous, a day or two instead of years. These devices remained in general use in the Bordzvek basin after The Fall, but most of them were destroyed in the Old Lands. Those few that remained were kept secret and used by those who possessed them as eldritch magic from then on. During the late Energy Age a newer optical communication device known as a 'far seeing eye' (pallantir) came into use by the Dempalan military. Many of those have been found and put back into service in the planet's data system today.
Most of the data describing this time comes from the old crystal at the Kassikan. It is claimed the scenes were recorded live, but we have to remember it is just data. The decor is over-the-top Victorian, except the business clothing is closer to Victorian era beach or seduction wear. Grown housing was unknown, complex and intricate woodwork was common, well varnished, with paint used only for accents in places. Metal was common by current Kassidorian standards, but rare for any time period on Earth or Centorin. Some bearings and other moving parts in machinery was made from it, but most was laminated wood. Gold and chromium was used for jewelry by the wealthy.
People were more into clothing fashion at that time than they are today. They spent a lot more time decorating, and one either had servants or was one if one lived in the cities. There was a tradition of 'vacationing' and most city people took a few weeks a year at a lake or seaside resort, with the woman who kept a resort on an island in a lake in Exmere being known as a secret advisor to the mighty of the Empire.
The political organization never advanced above a feudal hereditary system. Three dynasties reigned during the golden age of Dempala. In all these kingdoms the governments did pay attention to the mood of the people, there is no evidence of widespread slavery or repression. It is true that the very poor were never able to afford youth during the entire Energy Age, and the Kluboeb religion first arose in that time. The very poor were a small fraction of the population of all the lands ringing the Great Sea at the time, but the facilities for production of the youth drugs were all concentrated in the Old Lands, mainly in the city of Dempala itself.
There was an extensive middle class. Hoards of professionals commuted long distances on the glideways every day to office towers in central Dempala. They enjoyed a morning newspaper with news transmitted by blinker code from all over the globe. They enjoyed a nice breakfast during the commute. The serving staff on the glideway was courteous. They knew the elevator man in their buildings. They typed on keyboards with round keys. They met at lunches full of innuendo and stopped at a romance room on the way back to the office, for though Elves did marry, they were never completely faithful even then.
There were intricate mechanical mechanisms. The auto cycle lock was invented during this time and has been in use all over the planet ever since. This lock uses the water power of the lock to just cycle thru continually, letting boats and fish go thru as they want. The airships of the day had immense but very low pressure steam turbines, plumbed with tanned intestine and fired by alcohol. They were immense, carrying up to a thousand soldiers or two hundred and fifty passengers and fifty staff. The captain had an elaborate uniform whether military or civilian. Flying away on vacation was a status symbol and the relatives turned out to see them off.
Kassidor had very little fossil fuels, and not enough uranium has been recovered to make a single reactor. The main energy input for the whole civilization was cordwood, and all the mountains of the Old Lands had already been stripped bare by 3000bc. The vast forests of southern and eastern Korst and the woods of the Old Midlands were already under pressure by 2684bc. At that time a large coal find was made in Morial of the Old Midlands. It was not enough to sustain the energy use that was common at the time, and a conflict arose. There was plenty of political posturing for a few years, but the action scene was when an airship from a base on Tanquetl, ostensibly sent by the legendary and hidden land in the mountains, invaded the mine and seized it.
That was the spark that triggered The Fall. It took seventy more years to unfold, mostly political maneuvering between the lords of Tanquetil and the remaining states over control of the Empire government and thereby resources. It has not been established if that airbase represented a hidden nation, commercial interests or elements within the Empire's military. Many distant lands in the Empire declared their independence because they saw the glideways beginning to take their forests away. The military seized control of the government and brought those close to glideways back under control by force. For sixty five years its rule held, but there were regional squabbles within the military itself.
The shortage of energy was starting to have an effect and one way it was felt was in agriculture because that had been unsustainable. Biological science was getting to the point where they could produce tailored microbes, and one was tailored to go after some of the pests. The military government had it pushed into production before full testing. It soon mutated and infected related species so that before a generation passed, the whole grub and slug phylums were wiped out. That took with it several important species of hangleaves, and all of the tallgrains, a staple crop at the time, worldwide, even among the billion or two people in lands the empire never discovered. Millions began to starve, rioting broke out all thru the Empire. When the commander of the far side in Trenst declared himself independent of the remaining military, the first rocks fell. He had orbital forts of his own however, and more rocks fell in retaliation, to the point where the land of Ardan, if it existed, cannot be found with any certainly.
The bombardment from the orbital forts was so extensive that a plume enveloped the planet, blocking the sun and causing crops to fail for ten years in a row. The majority of mankind perished. In racial memory the past assumed the form of myths among the gods. Those few that survived felt each small group that somehow got thru was all that was left of humanity for a generation or two.
There were a few others who survived The Fall with some of the past intact. There were six individuals who were lucky enough or had enough foresight to accumulate enough of the anti-aging drugs to survive the coming ages. Most Elves saw it coming to some extent, and almost everyone stocked up on enough to get them thru an Earth century.
The manufacture of the treatments required a whole civilization that was gone. The site of ancient Dempala is visible today from above. It is the landscape that is jumbled and tumbled, rocks and blocks everywhere, all eroded, mossy and overgrown, but in haphazard piles and layers, mixed with small pools of congealed magma, all overgrown by hot and humid forest for a few thousand years, then terraced off as small farms in recent times. As many as ten thousand craters can be counted along the Testigar and the old seacoast.
The survivors burned what was left and grew crops by its light. They were one in ten thousand. No one ever wrote down anything about eating corpses, but they do talk about eating the wevn caught eating corpses.
When the skies cleared it was mainly the people of the remote countryside that survived. The kids of out-of-work loggers left behind after the forests were cleared, the religious hermits farming hillsides by themselves, the ranchers with a few crops on the side.
In three generations new cities had been established on the same seacoasts, and for some time it looked like there might be a chance for life to get back to normal. Everyone remembered a grandparent who could talk about the old days. For a time most of the Great Sea was once more re-united under the rule of an island nation and more great kingdoms rose in the New Midlands. Valindor was the largest city left standing, though it was badly shaken by an asteroid landing only 28 miles off course. Many of its famous structures fell, but there are some sections nearly intact from the Energy Age.
Valindor became the new center of the Elven world, a center now pledged to swear off all forms of violence forever. When the Wars of Magic shook the Old Midlands, many refugees came from the Old Midlands and in a short time by Kassidorian standards, Valindor was populated almost as much as before The Fall.
Many of the refugees were coming because the cure for age was no longer available in the Old Midlands, while they believed here in the undying lands there would still be a supply. Even in Valindor it became obvious that the knowledge and systems to produce the cure for age had not survived The Fall, and the average person who had hoarded what they could was running out even here.
There was a Time of Sorrow in Valindor when those who pledged themselves against violence found they had to resort to it to get the supplies of anti-aging drugs they needed to survive. Those who had larger supplies escaped from the city. Five who escaped traveled out beyond the New Midlands and founded the Kassikan. Those with remaining supplies who ran low, silently and secretly plundered each other while more and more of the population became ephemeral again. There are legends that some of these 'rogue wizards' as they were called, still survive.
The region has had a complex relationship with the modern world. While in many ways this area gave birth to the modern world, it was a troubled birth and some deep scars remain. It holds the modern world at a certain distance. There is a type of quiet here, people don't talk as much, answers and conversations are shorter.
In the Highlands, Yclel-vi, Norbin, Dos, Uttermost West, Korsto, you find examples of modern Elvish culture. Its roots are in the Kassikan, its language is Preelklar, what we call Kassidorian. They like to be pretty, they pursue education and careers as well as stay rooted in the land.
In the Old Lands you'll find old Elvish culture. There are whole texts devoted to the family trees of languages in the Old Lands, and you'll find many of them spoken today. They are all Elvish languages, but none of them are Preelklar. You will find that small villages in the hills may have one or two who speak Kassidorian, in the larger towns it can be a third of the population. Sindarin is the only one you will find translation software for. There are many secret societies, with sigils known only to initiates. The ancient cuisine of fortified breads and goulashes is still common.
Like in the Zhlindu basin, the public houses are called meeting houses, and they are where people meet for ale, yaag, meals, board games and conversation. People tend to be taciturn, but they'll answer if you speak with them, though their answers may be shorter than you're used to. The fruitbreads and rollbreads are wonderful, and many breed their own vedn.
History is everywhere, but little of it shows. When you walk a road with foot-deep wagon ruts in solid rock you'll understand the length of time that road's been trod. But there are few tourist shops, antiquities dealers, museums and the like. Few know tales earlier than modern times and if you press them, they might tell you there's parts of history best left unremembered. You'll learn more and get more of a feel for the Energy Age at the museum in the Kassikan.
There are still active digs in the ruins of Dempala and you are free to explore and talk to any archeologists you find. Most of them will become somewhat garrulous about their work, especially if you're buying the ale and yaag. Most of them are Highland Elves however and talk of the home they left and will return to once the dig is complete.
Not all of the residents participate in modern society sexually. There was rumored to be a strong custom of life-long exclusive marriage in Ardan, and today Ardanism has become a church bringing that and other beliefs related to Kluboebism into recent times. Their believers are most common in the hills between Valindor and Illtale. In the other parts of society the residents are nearly as promiscuous as anywhere. The means they go about it is not as openly in the meeting houses but follows the old Elvish tradition of the nymph. Walk in the scenic paths of the countryside and you will come across nude women luring you for recreation. They will have watched you, they won't appear unless they want you. They will say little, but they will laugh and purr. They will have beautiful nests in the woods or fields and will not take you to their home. They will appear most often for Noonsleep.
The region is accessible, if you can stand the heat of Afternoonday. It is only a three to five week packet trip from the end of the tubes in this direction. There is no packet service to speak of beyond Exmere, but a network of coaches is extensive, safe and comfortable. The roads are passable and hiking is easy during Morningday when the temperature cooperates. The Meeting houses usually have everything a traveler needs, and while the people are quiet they are by no means hostile. There are all kinds of board games and some are easy enough to learn that you'll know it by the second time you watched it. Each meeting house has a few rules that are a little bit different.
What you will see when all is said and done is a people who have gone back in time to before the Energy Age happened, as if they wished it had never happened. They are now reliving the Thulitlanth Era in a sense, though they use the improved crops of modern Kassidor. For them The Fall is like The Extermination was for Earth.