t 3-BG-M3 RM Gams Helen Motttan. Diana, Ubny Conf Temp Senes 133 TUPILE. Tbe name traditionally used for what may be one or more planets or star systems, the sanctuary planet for defeated Houses Major and Minor under the terms of the Great Convention, also, the secret support base of the Spacing Guild About 100 B G , three ships of refugee Ixian scientists led by Aurelius Venpott and Norma Cevna touched down on a planet whose location and name are still unknown A strong case can be made dial the sanctuary planet established by the Great Convention was (or was near) the world the Ixians found, although without more evidence the question remains open Tuple apparently had enjoyed an advanced technological base before it was visited by Butlenan fanatics m the latter stage of the Jihad By that time, the original goals of the Jihad-the destruction of machine technology operating at the expense of human values-had been replaced by indis criminate slaughter The technology of Tupile was evidently bemga, its government and economy stable, and its people prosperous and unaggressive (The same may be said for the other planets, if any, in the system, for many references speak not of "Tupile" but of "the Tupiles") Unfortunately for the Tupihans, the populace suffered far more from the Jihad than did the industrial base Humans were punished for possessing any technology at all The immediate consequence of this anomaly was the survival of Tupile's hardware relatively intact, but a paralysis of industrial activity until the arrival of Aurelius Venport and the Ixians Venport estimated the situation and seized the opportunity he presented himself to a people fast reverting to savagery as a savior ordained to restore their society His resources were strong he had with him not merely zealots of interstellar travel, but experts m other scientific disciplines who had weaned of the restrictions and secrecy Ix had imposed on its scientific community He cloaked these Aurehan exiles with religious trappings, renaming them the "Society of Mystic Manners," and offered them as a priesthood dedicated to a divinely appointed task Through these stratagems he enlisted the eager support of the Tupihans Personally magnetic, Venport interpreted recent history to the Tupihans in terms of black and white, terms they were only too ready to believe They needed little convincing that the But lenans were evil incarnate, against which the Society, personifying human progress, moved toward a God-directed resurgence Venport's real purpose-finding a substitute for computerized navigation of hyperspace ships-he withheld from the Tupihans at the beginning In the years that followed, the minor damage to the planet's industrial complex was repaired and the brightest of the natives began study at the Society's academy, founded to build a local intelligentsia capable of con tinuing the program after the Ixians were gone In these efforts Venport succeeded in a remarkably short time The first spice-navigated ships, the Golden Advent and the Norma Cevna, were built on Tupile and the beginnings of the Spacing Guild fleet were laid down The tightest security (aided by Tupile's location on the margin) was maintained throughout the next sixty years, but agents from Tupile kept their superiors well advised of events m the human universe, events that 496 were rapidly moving toward the beginning of the Impenum of House Comno Intermediaries for the Guild approached the Impenum in 12 B G After some initial difficulties in establishing trustworthy contacts, the Guild offered safe, reliable interstellar voyaging, they swore absolute abstention from politics, and they sweetened the offer by revealing the geriatric properties of melange In return they asked for a total monopoly on hyperspace transport and a promise from the Impenura to forever respect the secrecy of Tupile In his wisdom, Emperor Saudir the Great saw the advantage of a relief-valve for tensions boiling in the feudal structure he had so delicately balanced He had already hoped for agreement from the Houses Major that warfare was to be strictly regulated according to the Great Convention Now Saudir saw the chance to offer a tangible reward for compliance-the establishment of a haven for defeated houses, a sanctuary in which the survivors would be secure from the threat of extermination Once the decision of victory or defeat was proclaimed, the signatories of the Convention were bound to end hostilities, and the emperor saw in the Guild a means ot assuring compliance Only the Guild, through its hyperspatial reach, could maintain the secrecy and guarantee the sanctity of such a haven, but only if they were granted the monopoly .