From: Alex Ferguson (abf@cs.ucc.ie)
Date: Mon 12 Oct 1998 - 05:44:27 EEST
Jose Ramos can't Bear to part with his Hsunchen mercs:
> First. IMO, the Rathori were already mercenaries before the Ban. They
> formed the backbone of Black Hralf's army, and many veterans of those wars
> still live.
An entertaining suggestion, though I have my doubts. (What were
Loskalm's borders in 1443? Present day ones are a long way away
from Rathorela.) The Uncolings are more obvious culprits,
surely, or perhaps the Jonatings.
Even if so, there's a considerable distinction between being part of
a "barbarian confederation" and hawking oneself out to as a mercenary
to quite different cultures, methinks.
> The Rathori [...] are also present in Tastolar
They are?
> The nomadic nature of the rathori
I didn't think "the average bear" was particularly nomadic. (Polar
bears excepted, in more ways than one.) Indeed, my (admittedly
at best glimmering) understanding was that black bears were quite
territorial. (Not sure which the predominant bear in Rathorela is,
though.) Granted, no hsunchen seems to be exactly sedentary.
> besides their advanced religion
In what sense is their religion "advanced"?
> I just believed the Player's Book: Rathorela "Note
> that this culture is (sic) developed a culture more complex than the usual
> Hsunchen, approaching the level of the barbarian cultures".
Ah, thanks for the reference, I had missed that. That this complexity
is of a sort that lends itself to incorporation into civilised armies
I still have grave reservations about, though.
> And they are
> called barbarians instead pf primitives all over the Fronela chapter.
I hadn't noticed that, at all. Such as where? Aside from the above-noted
"barbarian confederation", which I'm not sure is even them. Mind you, I
give you that "barbarian" is a notably slippery term at the best of times,
and in RQ supplements not the least...
I realise the above sounds largely negative, but look at it as
"helpful testing to destruction (or otherwise)", rather than any sort
of hostility. (Wouldn't want to disturb the Karma of the new kinder,
gentler Digest, after all.)
Slainte,
Alex.
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