From: Peter Metcalfe (metcalph@rocketmail.com)
Date: Thu 24 Jul 1997 - 06:42:38 EEST
David Cake:
===========
Me>>Surely it would be the Rasoulti Hunters who attempt these feats
>>of [hunting Titanotheres] rather than the Vangono?
> I think the Rasouti mostly stick to more sensible mundane
>hunting, preferring a more regular flow of food in a way that doesn't
>risk life and limb. If the Rasouti hunt titanotheres and such
>occasionally, they do it using relatively safe methods like pit traps
>(and I think they do so only seldom, as its wasteful).
"We don't attack Titanotheres coz it's Wasteful". My god,
that must be a suprise to the extinct speices of the Ice Age
such as the woolly mammoth and all that. Killing a big beast
is far more economic than killing a smaller beaster because
there is more meat for the roughly the same amount of work.
Even the rasoulti have spells such as Command Titanothere
as the the primary aim of a hunter is to fifull his people's
stomach rather than indulge in greenie trance-state mysticism.
>>So the Kresh are not going to war with the Arbennan Kingdom for
>>looting their caravans but instead over the fate of the missing
>>caravans which they don't know the cause of?
> My impression was that it was much more a case of the Arbennan
>going to war with the Kresh than the Kresh going to war with the
>Arbennan.
How does your average Kresh interact with a Doraddi of the
Jolar plains? Remember the Kresh have not been seen in
Jolar yet and only know of it through the Vangono Warriors.
So why is the Arbennan confederation going to war against
the Kresh? Not because they are strange new folks because
the Doraddi know of the Blue People, the Ia Rawthri, the
Exigers etc. I should remind you that the Jolar writeup
says that the main attraction of joining the Arbennan
confederation is the chance for plundering the Kresh
caravans. To wit, the Arbennan are falling prey to
materialism.
The tragedy of the coming war IMO is that the Kresh view
themselves as Doraddi yet are sufficiently different from
the Arbennan not to be considered Doraddi. Hence the
Kresh response against the Arbenan
>As you
>mention later, so far Kresh reprisals have been very limited,
>implying no organised response to Vangono aggression - I'm sure
>they will fight back once Arbennan armies are marching against
>them, though.
Think. The Kresh are tied to their wagons when travelling
so the average daily movement is what? They can't simply
wander into Jolar to raid or attempt to mediate or else
they will get slaughtered by the Vangono. To send in an
army is virtually the only solution that the Kresh can
respond to Arbennan raiding. And yet it will only fan the
flames. Contrast with this with the Arbennan raider who
can strike deep into Kothar. But the Kresh have not done
so yet, because organized warfare (genertelan style) is
largely unknown to them as it is to the Arbennan. They
literally have to form some system of organized government
or a culture-style co-operative anarchy (I wonder what the
Kresh call their wagons?).
> I don't think of the Pamaltelan society as utopian, by any
>means. But they do have less wars [than the genertelans].
Hogwash. Their wars would be more _ritualized_ between
themselves if anything. IMO The Doraddi idea of
intra-ethinic war is to muster at a suitable field at
hurl spears and scream insults at the enemy over a
suitable distance. The distance is customary and is
long enough to avoid serious damage. Then at the days
end with honour satisfied they can go home and not have
to worry about such nasty things as balance of power
and all that. Look at the description of the Marings
Tribe in Keegans 'History of War' for more info or the
Zulu's pre-Shaka's warlike predecessor.
This makes a far more interesting society without positing
silly rubbish such as:
>The Council of Women are opposed
>to war for numerous reasons, many of them human universal, and
>largely because they fear it because they consider themselves the
>rightful controllers of tribal business, and they do not know how to
>wage war [...]
Strangely the Praxians have a strong female tradition with
similar principles yet they raid amongst themselves quite
frequently with female approval.
By having ritualized warfare, the women can vent their
feelings against the rival clan (which are magically
suppressed by some unexplained processes in Cake's
theory) by yelling at their hubbies from the sidelines
either insults or encouragement.
- --Peter Metcalfe
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