From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Tue 02 Nov 1993 - 09:50:05 EET
> Esrolia is a unique society, woman-dominated and earth-based. I guess
> when I think of their Babeester Gor warriors I think either Egyptian
> or Aztec. Egyptian does sound too easy.
Like Celtic/Saxon/Scandinavian sounds too easy for the Orlanthi? When you have a densely populated agricultural region that runs things the Old Way and is ruled by someone they call Pharoah, it seems a convenience (or, to put it another way, why should we make trouble for ourselves explaining Aztec Pharoahs?). Chuck in bits of the old Mesopotamian religion run by women as pre-Pharoanic stuff (linked to the Esrola cult and the Year Sons), and you're away.
NB: in this theory, it could be that "Pharoah" is Belintar's Esrolite title, and the trolls, Heortlings etc. have a different name for him. As his people are mostly Esrolites and the architecture of the City of Wonders was once said to be Esrolian, this doesn't cause me any real trouble -- except for having to work out what the Heortlanders call him. King of Kings? God-King? Who knows?
> Steve Perrin LIKES recalculating his bonuses. He viewed that as a
> plus in RQ III.
Oh my God...
> RE: Do you join Storm Bull at first initiation?
Chatting with Steve Thomas, and we thought maybe the simple solution was that initiation into the god of your culture, people and religion (opposed to Cult) was free on reaching maturity. This gives an advantage to people who decide to go the way their culture points them. Generate any Sartarite character, and he'll become an initiate of Orlanth for no POW cost. Ditto Trolls and Kyger Litor, Praxians and Waha, etc.
> Only Adults can do adult things - buy fags, drink beer, go with
> Ulerians, join the moonies, become a beserk...
^^^^^^^
(Greydog propaganda, given an Irrippi Ontor Truth Rating of 0: so what?)
The rest of your discussion is good fun and probably right.
> Most of the countryside of the Left Arm Islands probably just lacks
> overall spiritual guidance.
> Ekron: Who would be the cossacks?
Char-un cavalry in the service of the Lunar Red Army.
> Gray: The Paps are their great sacred ground. That's why
> they allowed the Lunars to remain on the plains of
> Prax.
Is this the subtext to KoS p.144? Something like, "Leave us alone, or we sack your temples and sow the Sacred Ground with salt"? Doesn't seem to fit with the source as I first read it...
> Gray: The Wastes look much more like the Gobi or Sahara...
> And many of the tribes live there.
Vultures Country, the bit of the Wastes that's just across the River of Cradles, is far and away the worst mundane part (i.e. leaving the Copper Sands out of discussion) of the Wastes. But it's also the first bit you come to if you want to find out what they're like, which is why no Praxian tribe went into the Wastes for the whole of the First Age (they were eventually forced there by the Pure Horse People coming through Dragon Pass). Most of the Wastes aren't *too* bad, if you like that sort of thing. Similar to Prax, but not sacred.
Re: Dara Happan Cuneiform
I've seen cuneiform as the Esrolite script (Clay tablets, Earth culture...), and think the Dara Happans are more likely to use something like Hieroglyphs on their monuments (agreed this crosses with the DH = Mesopotamian, Esr. = Egyptian: but I'm not advocating cultural *identity* in anything I write: just the need to find a workable parallel so you know what kind of people you're dealing with).
Re: Pelorian Cultures
My Carmanians look Persian/Assyrian, with cataphract cavalry and religious dualism. The Lunars strike me as more Greek in "cultural" ways, Roman in "organisational"; late Dara Happans would probably have Roman morality (Cato the Elder, Horatius on the Bridge, etc.) and trad. Middle Eastern social organisation. Western Pelorian native populations are turning out to be very Greek, which is probably where the Lunars get a lot of it from. I won't be posting any more on this topic for now, so please don't ask.
Maybe part of the answer is that POW lost to gain Divine Intervention is set aside by your God for your use in the afterlife, but isn't of any use to you in mortal existence (i.e. Ever). This way, someone who'd DI'd several times in life, and attracted his deity's attention a lot, would be looking forward to a really nice time after death. Saves this biz about "Those whom the Gods love, die young with shrivelled up souls and no real prospects".
DI-ing off the RunePower pool is a plausible suggestion. Maybe only priests can do it. And, surely, you don't stop becoming a priest just because God has worked a miracle through you (taking your Rune magic below 10 points)? That's elevating mechanics above common sense.
> Should PCs be able to DI to associate gods in their pantheon?
I prefer the recent suggestions that your god can ask his friends for help getting you out/bringing you back/whatever.
Two and a half days to go, then I can start writing for this Daily again...
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