Hi Rob
> I thought for a long time whether to ask this on the Digest, but I
> wanted widest exposure: Has anyone done any work on WHY the
> Telmori committed that particular act of infamy.
> GM info so a post off list would be smashing.
So we are currently playing through this in my Red Cow game. It is interesting enough to cover broadly here, but I'm happy to go private on details.
All IMO and YGMV.
When the flame of Sartar is extinguished the glue that binds the kingdom together is destroyed. Old feuds and emnities, long held in check begin to re-emerge. The tribes of the Jonstown Confederation hate the Telmori. They know they are baby-eating chaotic monsters. The Telmori have taken our land and taken our women. Without the house of Sartar to control them the tribes know the Telmori will rise again. Best to stamp on them first. So I believe trouble starts when the tribes begin pre-emptively to kill Telmori. The parallel I'm looking at here is the way in our own world that ethnic tensions can come to the fore when central authority that has previously held them in check collapses.
That's the basics. However it possible to propose any number of other drivers too that might have plot value. Some I have considered, though they are not all necessarily in play in Red Cow.
The rise of leaders who come to power on a platform of ethnic hatred in the power vacuum that is Sartar, both among the Telmori and local tribes.
The actions of rebel agitators stirring up the Maboder. The Maboder sided with the Empire, and that has brought them enemies, who would like to see them destroyed. Kallyr is in the Culbrea lands bordering the Telmori at this time. She is a member of the house of Sartar. The Telmori are very loyal to the royal house. Now I'm not implying that Kallyr gor involved in genocide or anything, I'm just sayin' that she is there is all...
Prophecies of doom? John Boyle has some Maboder ideas in his Road of Kings a portion of which appeared in Gloranthan Visions. He has the Maboder as a matriachy, traditionally ruled by a line of Queens, but the line has recently been replaced by a king (brother? to the last Queen). IMG the priestesses are warning that ancient prophecy speaks that the Maboder will 'fall to the wolf' if a King sits upon the throne. Of course I am cheating, I know future history, but the point is disruption within the Maboder tribe - a civil war - could make them vulnerable to attack. It is possible that the Maboder civil war is stirred by rebels or other enemies.
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