> Since in the Praxian debate, I've pretty much rejected Joerg's
> plains apes model, its only fair to put forward mine own vision
> so he can likewise criticize. I'll confine myself to what
> visiting heroquesters see and leave the Waha riddle out of sight.
Appreciated. I've decided to cut off the other debate, since it is getting us nowhere.
> What I think to be the case is that the Founders surrounded by
> Hunter or Warrior societies that took as the Totem a particular
> beast (Bison, Impala etc). Most were humans although the more
> magical appeared as minotaurs. They had a taboo against their
> chosen animal but were quick to make sport of the totems of
> rival animals.
> The Protectresses were a native Eirithan cult of humans that
> followed the herds and protected them with their lives.
> They didn't do it for food or anything, they did it because
> they had vowed to protect their chosen holy animals.
> They are the origins of the Herd Sisters.
That's too dry and non-magical for me.
I can live with a race of magical people - minotaur-like and able to mate with the totemic herds, lesser copies of Storm Bull. Able to take human shape, or have human shaped offspring when mating with goddesses choosing that human shape, and able to have animal shaped offspring when mating with goddesses choosing that animal shape.
Said goddesses being the daughters/aspects of Eiritha.
That race of minotaurs getting less and less beast-like over the generations would be the origin of human shaped beast riders and herd men.
> Now the Golden and Storm Ages are periods of plenty and so I
> think that both the Founders and the Protectresses are a
> minority of humans living in Genert's Garden.
For me to accept this, make that peoples. I see the Copper People, the Elf Lords and other strangeness surrounding Genert, and I wouldn't be surprised to find entities resembling the Grotaron or Gold Wheel Dancers there. IMO Genert's Garden preserved an unusual amount of Green Age innocence well into the Storm Age. Then it failed spectacularly, and most of the special beings died out.
> There's little need to follow the herds for food if
> rabbits came freely to the eating etc. Most humans lived in
> what later became the oases, practicing their own special magic.
Not too different from my way of looking at the role and number of animal nomads in Genert's Garden. Comparatively late comers, entering from the Spike, being welcomed despite bringing some disruption with them (aka Storm Bull).
> Now it's the Chaos Age. Genert's dead and there's a lot of humans
> wandering around starving. The Founder cults are around fighting
> against chaos and the darkness but they are unable to provide.
> The herds are scattered because the Protectresses are gone. Waha
> comes along and does something about it. He frees the
> Protectresses, thus ensuring that the herds grow in number. He
> assigns the humans to one of the herds using various contests
> (midgets go to the Impalas etc) and inducts the men into the
> Founder cult of that herd and the women to the worship of
> Herd-Eiritha. Then he teaches the men how to kill animals for
> food.
I see a totally different story at this point.
Genert's death also was the death for a large part of his population, even if Genert sacrificed himself and a huge portion of his forces in a rearguard action to allow them to escape.
Neither Storm Bull and Eiritha nor their descendants are present.
Storm Bull then gathered his sons (among them the Founders), their wives and children (the animal nomads, both two-legged and four-legged) and leads them chasing Chaos. Drawn onward by his rage, they are a lot less subject to the terror that would numb the refugees. While a lot less numerous than Genert's host, they move and fight with the cohesion of a herd facing off a dangerous predator.
Through the struggles Storm Bull leads them on, hounding the Chaos forces. Finally he faces Wakboth. The fighting portion of his people are slain all around him, both two-legged and four-legged, and Storm Bull himself is all but slain. Eiritha, hidden beneath her hills, still sends him her aid, and he rises again from the Dead Place. Then the Block crushes Wakboth beneath, driving its body deeply into the sacred earth of Prax.
>From below the earth, Waha is born.
Other humans, magical beasts (like the baboons) or magical beings found refuge in distant places, like among the Vingkotlings or in Beast Valley, or hid out in the oases, but most perished.
> Once was once a minority practice on the plains has now become the
> dominant culture.
I really don't see the Praxians as the great adoptive and inclusive culture you describe them. To me, they are a tightly knit group of common divine ancestry shaped by their fights against Chaos and the retirement of both their main ancestral deities. Waha picked up the shards, made half of them sustainable sacrifices and subjected them to the Peaceful Cut butchery.
> But what about the Morokanth? I think that the Morokanth were one
> of the few fully intelligent Eirithan beast species before the
> Great Darkness and Waha assigned them the irredeemably stupid
> humans in the Survival Contests. But since both Men and Morokanth
> have limited memories of the Survival Contests, they have different
> myths about what the contests were meant to achieve.
I can't really say that I like any of this much.
I have no idea why the Morokanth should have been any more intelligent than the other Eirithan beasts, or e.g. the minotaurs descended from Storm Bull and the Lady of the Wilds. IMO the Eirithan Beasts of the Golden Age resembled the Baboons in sophistication and intellect, as did their humans.
I can see where Peter comes from, now. But that's not how I will ever view the Praxians.
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