>IMG cubical dice are a Lunar innovation, and are like Chinese dice with the
>one spot enlarged and coloured Red (there's a practical reason for
>enlarging the one-spot, it balances the six opposite it). The Orlanthi use
>knucklebones, and other cultures probably throw shells or sticks.
That's a good point; perhaps sheep knuckles were used for divination by the Hererings, and then caught on with the general public. On the other hand, for those who want more "advanced" dice, there have certainly been a lot of opportunities for them to get nto circulationin DP -- Arkat's followers could have brought them from the West, same for the God Learners, EWF missionaries could have brought them from Peloria or the East, or the Pharaoh could have introduced them. Of course, the cube in an Earth symbol, so maybe there's an Esrolian/Tarshite connection.... Still, I like knuckle bones.
>In Europe cards didn't appear until the fourteenth century, but again the
>Chinese seem to have had them first. IMG they're not used in Dragon Pass
>or the Lunar Empire, I haven't decided yet where they are found.
The West or East seem the only places where "pasteboard" cards seem at all likely. On the other hand, I can imagine similar sorts of things using bark, thin sheets of wood, vellum, or thicker leather. There are tribes in the Cameroons who have made fantastic fortune-telling "decks" out of wood chips (the system uses spiders to pick the "cards"...), so it's possible to have fairly elaborate things out of unlikely materials. In the East, Pamaltela, and Vithela, "cards" made out of bamboo, leaves, or "rice paper" (actually a tree pith) are possible; I suppose DP could have something similar.
Peter Larsen
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