The Cambias Digression

In honor of the forthcoming mass-market paperback edition of Arkad's World, here's a random encounter table for the city of Ayaviz, where the story begins. Ayaviz stands right on the twilight line of the tidally-locked planet Syavusa. To the east the planet's ice-capped night side stretches away to the spaceport; to the west the Sun…

(In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19.) In the late 17th century, the capital city of piracy was Port Royal in Jamaica. It was the biggest city in the Caribbean, and sympathetic governors turned a blind eye to British, Dutch, and French Hugenot pirates preying on the Spanish treasure fleets in exchange…

Three-fourths of Earth's surface is covered by ocean, so it seems almost inevitable that people will someday try to live in the sea. This undersea city is funded by the inevitable eccentric billionaire, but is at least intended to become a self-sustaining, economically viable settlement. It's built in the shallow water atop an undersea plateau…

The city stands at the junction of two great artificial canals bringing life-giving water to the dying seabeds of the Red Planet. Though ruled by an absolute monarch, the city is virtually lawless, as the tyrant cares about nothing beyond the walls of his palace and all his underlings are corrupt. Here, thieves from the…