>This brings me to my question, I have come across references to "Dart
>Competitions" which appear to be a form of ritualised combat between groups
>of Lunar nobility (this presumably circumvents laws banning internal
>warfare). Has any one got a fuller idea of what is involved ?
Dart competitons are more like outright assasinations and magical assaults. The Red Emperor tolerates this so long as his tax revenues are not harmed. This custom was so called (ToTRM#5? 6?) when somebody killed a rival for a position with a 'drunken misthrow' of a dart that was inexplicably poisoned. My opinion is that, as prior to this, the favoured method of assasination was Fish (aka choked on a fish from tharndenero, died of a sickness on the Oslir, gulping and gasping on a surfeit of sugared eels...), the assasin was promptly rewarded by the Red Emperor for having invented the first novel excuse for assasination in 100,000 years.
Nils W:
Replying to Sandy's Yelm in Kralorela hypothesis:
>Hmm, that means that the official Kralorelan history (that 5 million
>generation stuff) has been manipulated so that Aether and Yelm have
>been inserted as emperor 1 and 2 by the GLs?
I think not. What Sandy's suggesting is that the FDR were pulling a Yelmalio/Elmal stunt. They realized that a sun god ruled over Kralorela in ancient days. Now the current form to them is heavily kralorenized and somewhat useless (ie you have to pass exams to be admitted rather than have a blood qualification). So instead of trying to fool around with the Yang Long (Sun Dragon) Cult which is too much trouble, they pack off a priest with three baskets (and a baboon, a mraloti and ... Sandy as bodyguards) to import the Yelm cult. My main objection to this is that Yelm of Dara Happa is too much of an unknown quantity for the FDR and IMO they would have looked for another sun god, put it in the microwave for ten minutes and (ding!) Yang Ti.
>I have a new idea. Krala might be the original land goddess of those
>parts. Then the Kralori came as invaders from Vithela. Unlike the
>Teshnans who enslaved the aboriginal people and lost touch with Teshna,
>they assimilated the original inhabitants and took Krala into their
>pantheon, but kept Rice Mother as their primary agricultural deity.
Only problem with this idea is that Kralori Sages maintain that the Rice Mother was the daughter of Shavaya and Dendara, whereas the Kralori immigrated during the reign of either Yelm or metsyla (who were before Shavaya).
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