From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Thu 10 Nov 1994 - 16:40:26 EET
Nick Brooke in X-RQ-ID: 6872
> Cart before horse. They came because the way of life previously accepted
> at home (their accustomed way of life) was now being changed.
That's very relative, IMO. You stated the official Sartarite version, which is accepted as the truth among the Quivini. Yet this is the truth of today c. 120,000 Quivini tribesmen vs the truth of c. 500,000 Heortlanders, who remained in their country.
>> I believe most fled because they resisted the dominance of the city- >> dwellers, and to escape the taxes introduced by the Pharaoh.
> Que? I believe most "fled" to maintain their traditional way of life and
> religion.
"I believe" is the core of the issue. I view the Quivini Immigrants as similar to the early US settlers, partly people persecuted for their believes or political views, partly ambitious younger sons looking for a chance for a new beginning.
To traditional Orlanthi, paying taxes is a violation of their way of life, IMO. Taxes aren't an Orlanthi institution, they are regarded as a shameful tribute to be paid to an oppressor. (Paying a land rent for land owned by another (clan, lord) or for services like ferries or bridge and road upkeep is a different matter. To pay for military duty, another early tax source, is contrary to the Orlanthi way, in which a man has to fight for himself, or his friends and family.)
I suppose a number of Heortland city-dwellers took the opportunity to change their lot and followed the disgruntled clan chiefs across the cross-line.
Do you think the remaining people in Heortland did change their ways to an extent that they became unrecognisable as Orlanthi? IMO they rather adapted a bit, and remained as they were before. If you were right that their traditional ways had changed completely, David Hall's assumptions for the Aeolians resembling the Heortlings that much seem strange. If things did not change that much, well, the reasons must have been different.
IMO the most likely scenario is that several clan chiefs (like Mad-blood Malan, ancestor of both the Malani and Lismelder tribes) were exiled for their continued resistance against the changes, and rather than becoming mercenaries at foreign courts, they chose to settle with their families and friends in the recently opened Quivini lands. Thus at least some of the immigrants to the Quivin valleys were politically motivated, rather than religiously. The introduction of a general tax in Kethaela could have upset people enough that some rather sold their immobile property and emigrated, if it wasn't confiscated.
If current reading among Sartarite historians makes the Quivini settlers fighters for their creed, that's fine with me. Their cousins in Heortland are likely to have a different view on this chapter of history. Both views will be true...
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
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