From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Thu 03 Nov 1994 - 20:35:29 EET
>David Cake (of Doraddi bad guys):
>
>> What I want is cults that take some of the part that religions like
>> Krarsht or Seseine, or even Nysalor, plays in Genertelan society [...]
>
>These are highly organised and sophisticated cults. Most of the realy awful
>chaos cults in Genertela are. Doraddi bad guys are likely to have more
>personal motives. eg A shaman who has become possessed, or made a pact with,
>a powerfull and wicked ancestor. Perhaps the spirit of a wicked shaman or
>disgraced chief.
>
I thoroughly agree with this. Rather than organised forces of evil, latent forces waiting for evil people to contact them. Shamans are easy - they can talk to their evil ancestors, or the King of Below, or other wicked spirits. But non-shamans should ahve access to evil as well. I have some ideas, I will post them when I get around to writing them up (in my copious free time :-)).
>Simon Hibbs
>yfcw29@castle.ed.ac.uk
>
>From: erisie@utu.fi (Sven *Erik Sievrin)
>Subject: Regarding spirits, sorcery, Pamaltelan evil
>Pamaltelan baddies: Someone has mentioned incubi/succubi as being native
>to Pamaltela. What more is, the facts we have of these chaotic fertility
>nymphs state that if they impregnate a mortal woman, the children are
>tainted "maybe ogres or lamias". This implies there may be ogres=very
>manlike maneating beings in Pamaltela.....
>
Yes, excellent. Given the evil we now know a single succubus can cause, perhaps they are one of the major evils of the plains. With a little moral lesson in there too - while in Genertela evil is mostly something from the outside, in Pamaltela most of it has its origins in human moral failure.
>From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
>
>Pamaltelan hunters/warriors
> I suspect the emblem of the Doraddi warrior is the
>triceratops or the brontothere, or similar creatures. (Note: lions DO
>fight, as it happens, so they're not a bad choice either.)
>
I had the emblem of the warriors be the assegai that they carry, but I guess they probably should have animal totems as well (especially those left hand path guys, if they have specialist warriors).
>Alex Ferguson:
>>Elder Races seems to think they're a Wareran thang, hence my
>>equivocation. Though it'd be Kewl to have Pamaltelan ogres work at
>>least somewhat differently from the "regular" variety.
> I agree. I think they're even rarer in Pamaltela than in
>Genertela, and I concur they should work differently. Suggestions?
>
Here are some from African myth, and my own suggestions.
Ogres may well be associated with hyenas. Hyenas in Africa have an
evil reputation (and in Pamaltela probably don't have the trickster
association that they do in Genertela). There is also one species of
African hyena that is a hunter, not a scavenger, and willing to attack lone
travellers. There are two sorts of hyena men - the West African ones, that
are like were-hyenas, and the South African ones, that have two mouths, the
handsome human one, and the large one for eating people with (hidden under
their hair, at the back?). There are also witches that ride on hyenas.
Cannibals are supposed to have large well developed thumbnails on the left hand, suitable for cutting meat. They can often change into vultures to pursue those who flee. The males may marry human girls and force them to cook human flesh for them (to eventually eat them when they run short). The females like to eat young brides and then impersonate them at the wedding (and eat the groom later).
I definately do not want Agimori ogres to be Cacodemon worshippers. I like the idea that they spring from succubi/incubi. I like the idea that they are sexual predators as well as literal predators. Seseine may well be a popular cult among them.
In line with general Pamaltelan tendencies, I think that instead of ogre clans, you are more likely to meet single ogre individuals, but they are often great magicians (perhaps educated by the succubi/incubi). That said, I think that they might be encountered roughly as often as in Genertela, though they are actually much lesser in number.
One idea is that some people may voluntarily (and probably covertly) mate with ogres, because it is known that they are strong, and make great warriors (thus bringing prestige on their parents). The parent hopes that brought up away from the true parent, they will not develop cannibalism, but they often do, or other bad tendencies. So it is a cautionary tale about wanting success for your children/ family more than is right. I bet the ogres often eat their maternal uncles (who are responsible for their moral education).
Cheers
Dave
---------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:37:32 EEST