Thanks for the detailed response! It will take me a while to sort through it all, and think things out. Here are a few quick comments, though...
> Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 13:18:40 +1200
> From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
>
> This doesn't sound right. Rather than postulate Carmania as a budding market
> economy with individual Karmanoi and Hazars becoming free-dealing entrepreneurs,
> one should think of it in terms of Noble Houses, like Dune.
Well said. I was definitely going down the wrong road there. I am too used to thinking of individuals and less in terms of groups, which makes me a poor student of the Lunar Empire! <laugh>
> These are Dara Happan Gods and would not be worshipped by the Carmanians as their
> gods are Pelandan
> (the type that appear in the Entekosiad).
Ah, I was thinking they might have picked them up at some point in their imperial past. I will admit a bias here because the Dara Happan deities are more likely to be published than the Pelandan ones. I think I might be subconsciously lazy. :)
> Argan Argar would really be Ganesatarus, the Devil. His worship would not be
> open among the Carmanians (or
> particularly the Spolites) and it is geared towards darkness rather than trade.
Really? I was trying to strike a Light/Dark balance, but must still have a serious misunderstanding of Carmanian Dualism. I was under the impression that "Darkness" is not automatically evil. Ganesatarus is The Lie, and could come in the form of Light or Dark.
This is something that I have been trying to wrap my mind around for some time. Carmanian "Darkness" isn't the same thing as "Elemental Darkness". It is more of an attitude. Carmanian Light says "The ends don't justify the means." while the Dark says "The ends *do* justify the means." Mind/Heart, Male/Female, ect. Or something like that. Humakt is "Light", while Zorak Zoran (or its Pelandan equivalent) is "Dark" because of their attitude (cold killer vs berserk frenzy)? This is something I would *really* like to grasp before I release players into the Western Reaches...
This reminds me of something else (unrelated). The Lunar Empire is described as "Red" and "Feminine", while the heroes of Sartar (Harrek and Argrath) are described as "White" (White Bear/White Bull) and "Masculine" which is a classic Eastern (Tibetan) male/female dualism. In the Hero Wars we have a White/Male force invading the "body" of the Red/Female Empire and causing the birth of something new through suffering. It is probably nothing more than a nice coincidence, but I like it anyway! <laugh>
> Why is Buserian a Modern Cult? He should be dropped anyway as a Dara Happanism.
Patron of the Lunar Bureaucracy? I was reaching there, I will admit...
> There would be a few priesthoods, but I think they are magical societies
> sponsored by a House for power purposes (ie a Valind Priesthood to invoke Winter
> against one's enemies, an Atyari priesthood to steal secrets or a Ikadz
> priesthood to invoke torment) rather than being the average vizier deities to
> help with the knowledge.
Ah, that makes sense. Aren't Ikadz and Atyar listed as part of the Chaos Pantheon? I figured outright chaos worship would be rare, even in the Lunar Empire. If they are *not* tainted, then they certainly do fit.
> Drop Urvairinus and rename Maran Gor (perhaps JagaNatha, the drinker of blood)
> and Zorak Zoran (Ratakar the murderer
> or Daak the stranger).
It looks like I am going to need Entekosiad to do this right. I was under the impression that the information in that book was too dated to be applicable to modern usage.
> Many of the descriptions in the Prosopaedia recite the standard God Learneroid
> description and are not how the Carmanians themselves would see those gods.
Agreed. I might want to put a note to that effect on my page somewhere. The links to the Prosopaedia were to give my novice players a little boost. It may confuse them more than help, though.
> >Bisos (Carmanian version)
>
> These would be Pelandan (Spolite, Worian etc) Farmers rather than Carmanians.
> Why the need to identify it as a Carmanian
> version since Bisos the Freeholder is worshipped similarly in Free Pelanda?
I got as much cult and descriptive info as possible from Martin Laurie and Wesley Quadros' proposed Cults list from She Guards Us (http://www.bvcompuworks.com/wesley/gods/cults/sgu_cults.html). They were probably using the term "Carmanian" to refer to all people in the Western Reaches rather than just the ruling class, hence my confusion.
Still, the list is obviously not intended to be an authoritative reference and I will certainly have to make many changes to my cults list when the actual book is published.
Thanks again for the info!
~Kevin
The Only Good Lunar Is A Dead Orlanthi...
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http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kpaul
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