>...Dart Wars are characterised by
>secret murder, poison, assassination, and the like.
>Presumably then if one were to destroy an
>entire noble house by such means, as we know has been done, then (1)
>the house would have to consist of only a few members, probably the
>direct bloodline of the house chief, and (2) either minor children do
>not inherit house leadership or they are appropriate targets for
>assassination.
A noble house in Dara Happa and presumably Peloria is composed of the say the chief noble (ie the Satrap) and his blood relatives within four generations. Thus (1) does not IMO apply. Minor children can inherit the house leadership but I think the Dart Warriors kill the sprogs to save their employers headaches.
>I am not willing to accept an assassins' guild
>as reasonable in any game world, certainly not in glorantha. Since
>dart warriors seem, on the surface, to be remarkably similar to
>assassins' guilds, there must be something more to them that hasn't
>been revealed.
An alternative could be to treat the Dart warrior as a specific class of privileged slave much like the Mameluke and attached to a specific clan. Although the status would entitle them to some legal rights, I have the feeling that these are largely trivial as the circles the Dart Warriors move in circles where rules governing the conduct of Dart Wars are made to be broken...
>Q: If dart warriors kill children and extinguish bloodlines, as I
>presume they must, then would they not be much hated and reviled, and
>killed out of hand when revealed for what they are?
Hated and reviled by the nobles, yes. Killed *out of hand*? How? This is the type of job you pay 'adventurers' to do.
>Q: I've been told by people who should know that Dart Warriors must
>identify themselves as such upon entering territories, and that they
>must pay excise fees and various tariffs. Would they not be summarily
>executed upon attempting to pay these fees?
It depends. Perhaps the authority is outside the control of the nobility. Such organisations are: The Lunar Army, The Lunar Church, the Provincial Government, the Spoken Word. Of course there is nothing to prevent the clan from trying to subvert these authorities to delay the payment of fees to kill the bastards.
>What noble in his or her
>right mind would allow a legal assassin in her area when it is well
>known that this assassin could be contracted to kill him or her or a
>member of his or her family?
She'd try and assainate her of course. Presumably the Dart warrior does not go about in broad daylight.
>Q: I've also been told by people who should know that dart warriors
>must wear bells on their clothing, which must be brightly colored like
>a clown's motley, in carmania. Same question.
Perhaps it's a legal rule giving the nobility a chance to kill any dart warrior they capture who isn't wearing this costume? Or a simple means to eliminate any commoner who is getting ideas above his station?
>Q: In a situation where the ruling noble of an area has hired dart
>warriors, and they walk around free in the area, would they not be
>targets for ambushes and assassination attempts at least as often as
>they originate such attempts?
I would certainly do so. Even if the noble had a law against such a thing, a Dart Warrior would be considered fair game.
>Q: Do nobles use dart warriors against commoners?
No, It's an nobility thing. Commoners pay taxes and so are a protected species.
>Q: Do commoners use dart warriors against nobles?
This comes under armed revolt and such people are also unlikely to pay taxes. So it becomes an imperial matter.
>Q: Where do dart warriors come from? Are they soldiers gone bad,
>gutter criminals, houseless noble warriors, foreign thugs, thanatari,
>krarshti, or what?
The general criterion I suppose is how good are they at their job? I would ban Thanatari from being legal Dart warriors, but suspect that some clans are unscuplulous enough. On Krarshti as Dart warriors, given past writings on Lunar policy towards her, would be considered barely acceptable.
Sandy:
> Let me rephrase my earlier statement. The term "Grain
>Goddess" as used in GoG is a synonym for "Land Goddess". A "Grain
>Goddess" such as Krala, Ralia, etc., is NOT the goddess of a
>particular species of plant, but of all useful grains grown in her
>territory, though she usually has one particular daughter she's
>especially proud of (her own plant).
OK, I accept this definition and have nothing to argue about.
Powered by hypermail