resources

From: BEThexton <bethexton_at_BGGHy421yWfz22gkPsL6nWKQEnxbhRun11Xvr-jyhWHhuUHah-h4SEsy8y32mbq2Dp>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 17:18:57 -0000

I think they have their "household gods", the little statues or wood carvings or whatever that they make routine sacrifices at. But these wouldn't be shrines proper. So for most ceremonies they'd travel to the chief's stead where the majority of the shrines and temples lie. I'd guess that it is a couple of hours walk up the track. (much like people trecking into town to go to church each week).

However, it isn't impossible that a minor shrine would be at or near this stead, if it was the specialist within the clan or there happened to be a holy place near there. For instance, perhaps this is _the_ fishing spot for the clan, so there is a shrine to Poverri. (not saying we should have that, just an example of one possibility). When others wanted to worship at that shring, they'd have to come to this stead.

The generic stead description in Thunder Rebels suggested that most stead would have a couple of god talkers, one male, one female. But yes, for more specialist things they'd depend on wandering god talkers.

> 3. What sort of resources are we assuming? We can have the Four
Providers,
> which is good, and honey seems like a given, but what other
resources are
> available for use and/or trade? Obviously, the stead weaves cloth
and makes
> pottery, baskets, clothing, and wooden goods for its own use, but
do we
> want to identify any of these as specialities of the stead?

I think most steads' surplus, if any, is mostly food, and is counted into the clan's totals. The real specialist crafters are apt to be at the chief's steading. Which isn't to say that there can't be a gifted amateur or two "It just hasn't been the same since Aunie Brega died, her pots were just as good as Rana's down at the Chief's stead, even if they weren't quite so fancy."

However I agree that some of the natural resources of the tula are apt to be nearest this stead, just by random distribution (although the chief's stead is apt to be near the most valuable resources, and resources near there are most apt to have been fully developed).

Some likely "resources" outside pure food would include: 

-as you said, clay
-rushes that happen to be especially good for weaving baskets.
-berries that make a good die.
-bronze (notice that the rapids run through a gap in a ridge?
Perhaps that was made in the god time during some fight, the loser's bones could still be around as a bronze source). -particular trees that don't grow widely in the tula, but which have particular uses (hickory for axe handles, cedar for chests, for instance)
-the river crossing. Hey, if there are people who want to cross, they are going to give you gifts to thank you for rowing them across. Won't be major trade, but it is something. -water fowl. That shallow mucky lake at the top of the map probably has LOTS of duck/geese nests in it. Maybe the hunters gather an excess of feathers that form part of their payments to the clan. -they probably have more hunters, proportionately, than the chiefs stead, and the hunting of water mammals (muskrat, beaver, whatever they have in Sartar) is apt to be good, so they probably also provide a certain amount of furs each year too.
-there could be a source of nice but not too valuable stones...say really pure quartz crystals that the potters like to use as decorations, or maybe low grade amethyst. -just because there are so many trees around, and they might be different than in the more fertile ground around the cheif's stead, perhaps birch bark and pine pitch?

That's all that I can come up with off the top of my head, but I'm sure people can think of other 'normal,' not too valuable, resources if needed.

--Bryan            

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