From: Barbara Braun (zbraun@minyos.its.rmit.EDU.AU)
Date: Sat 16 Nov 1996 - 05:15:31 EET
G'day all, (this is Andrew emailing),
Orlanthi in Jonatela
====================
I have just retired an Orlanthi character from our Jonatelan campaign and
he left in anger because his hereditary Malkioni Lord (another player) has
turned in to a Yelm type evil emperor (greedy, dishonourable, contemptous,
etc). Basically acting llike a typical dark age noble stereotype and
treating the character like a servant (all from the characters point of
view). In case the character comes back to haunt the other PC sometime in
the future I was trying to think of the mythic resonances that are
occurring and how my character would be perceiving it. Because really the
lord figures in Jonatela are the Malkioni lowlanders who are allied to
some of the local Orlanthi kings, or on the edges you have Orlanthi
villages/clans nominally loyal to a landed knight (as was our original
setting).
So we have a conservative Orlanthi backlash to his lord moving onto some
lowland river land with only oppressed peasants to rule over and going all
posh to fit in at the Counts court. NOW how would the myths about Yelm,
etc have been changed to fit the Malkioni ruling lords into Yelms place as
sun worshippers have very little relevance to South Jonatela. I'm looking
for mythic resonances (e.g. kinstrife to John Hughes Far Pointers) to help
guide suggestions for the characters NPC actions. His father and family
are still loyal to the knight's old decrepit father on the old traditional
lands and so he has had a very bitter fight with both his father and the
knights father on leaving for the mountains. The knight character was off
"poncing at the Count's court" <to quote Helmutt> and the LBQ myth isn't
available as if Helmutt kills the knight his soul will just dissolve and
so he can't be rescued from Hell after a suitable softening up period. So
Helmutt left rather than risk something he would regret later (plus trying
to kill another characters player is pretty anti-social and I would like
to try and get a good tragedy out of this schism).
Our campaign is based on a copy of Jonats tale (although my GM says it is
not a very good quality manuscript) bought at Con auction. The
current kings of Jonatela are quite dependent on the Orlanthi since it
was only with their aid that they won a civil war a hundred or so years
ago.
Cheers, Andrew
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