Editing Planegea (section)

===The Black Taboos===
Planegea isn't just a primordial fantasy world, there are forces actively keeping it in that state. All know that there are certain acts which a person MUST NOT DO, lest they bring the wrath of the dread Hounds of the Blind Heaven down on their heads. These forbidden behaviors, which will summon one of these eldritch entities to hunt and slay the transgressor, are collectively known as the Black Taboos, and consist of four commandments:

Writing is Death: Whilst pictures and patterns are permitted, the use of abstract symbology to communicate draws the Hounds raging from the Blind Heaven to devour whoever attempted to write.

No number higher than 9: Planegeans are only allowed to count individual numbers as high as 9; anything after that is "many". Attempting to use higher numbers will draw the Hounds. (we wish to also quickly note that chimps can count higher then 9)

Do not use wheels: Attempting to stick a wheel on an axle will draw the Hounds. (pottery wheels seem to be ok though)

Do not use money: Planegea runs on the barter economy, ''period''. Attempting to create or use abstract fiscal currency will draw the Hounds.

On a meta level these exist to keep your player's firmly in the right technology level and mind set. Even without meta gaming a player would find it hard to not just invent things. Take the Money Taboo for example, it's natural a player get annoyed with the idea of bartering everything and start hunting down some thing they know is culturally valued and so can be used as a barter item but is easy to carry, such as cowrie shells (bet you thought I was going to say gold? Nope Cowrie shells were among the first and longest lasting form of money even more then gold) since there pretty, can be used as decoration, and so have intrinsic worth and thus can be traded for other items without running into the taboo. . .Except as soon as you say 'this sword is worth <s>200 </s> enough cowrie shells to be equal the number of legs on two  <s>centipedes </s> many legs', (we can't say 'centipede since 'centi' means 100 which is a number we can't use, meaning we have to call it a 'Many Legs')<ref>This whole extended bit is it self another way to cheese the 'no number bigger then 9' taboo. You don't say '14" you say "as many as there are legs as on a crab atop a wolf" or something, which depending on your GM this sort of neanderthal math might actually be acceptable.</ref> congrats you actually have invented money and the hounds are coming for you. That thought process is how money was invented and it can be extremely hard to not even accidentally go through the steps to reinvent that or any of the other items. Hence why the GM needs a metaphorical stick to swing at players to remind them to not meta game even more then in standard fantasy settings.