David Dunham was describing Vingans as a bit on the wild and crazy side, less likely to marry. In our campaign, we just ran the 1613 Cinsina elections last week, and our redoubtable Ernalda priestess managed to convince her daughter Cadwina (a Vingan) to marry Ivar Quickstep. Ivar's uncle (me) was pushing him from the other side. Cadwina was very firm about not wanting to be married for her support only, and ignored after. Ivar went from dead last in the first ballot to a very comfy majority in the second, as a result of all the extra support. It wasn't rigged for Ivar to win, honest!
Sandy says that he doesn't think that it is possible to be truly vegetarian in most of Prax. I suspect that is what did for the vegetarian aspect of our Chalana Arroy in the first place. We were gaming there for about six years in the same campaign.
Also, in gd 139 and 146, Takehiro Ohya corrects my statements about Japan both as to climate and to meat-eating. I was going by my atlas for temps, and they gave a pretty generous range. Since Japanese climate is that much milder, it does weaken the thesis, because that means a longer growing season, and less chance of crops getting pasted by frosts. However, not classifying fish (or rabbit) as meat does bear out the main statement that most Japanese are not strict vegetarians, since they do eat dead animals. Thank you for the expert's opinion, Takehiro! By the way, how does a rabbit qualify as fish?
Paul Reilly (140) says "some Earth 'monotheists' (e.g., Solomon the Wise) are not at all averse to sacrificing to gods other than the god(s) they are sworn to."
At the risk of upsetting Jewish members of the digest, it is not necessarily so that Solomon was a monotheist, anyway. The first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" probably meant "No other gods shall have primacy of place in my temples", at least according to some scholars. Other gods were perfectly acceptable in minor positions. (See Robin Lane Fox's book The Unauthorized Version for the rest of the evidence.) It would be interesting to know if the Malkioni have the same split. By now, I suspect not, as they have a fully developed monotheism. Maybe before the Sun died?
In response to Mike Cule's question, "why anyone, anywhere chooses to base his
culture on sorcery", giving as his example peasants vs. barbarians, there are
several good reasons.
1. Nobody expects peasants to be good at it. That's why they are peasants. A
group of peasants good enough to stand off raids might become good enough to
think of standing off tax collectors. This would never do. Barbarians, on the
other hand, will learn more than most peasants because of the increased
individualism inherent in their cultures.
Most of the countries in which sorcery is the staple magic have excellent armed
forces to keep most of the barbarians away and the peasants properly respectful.
Some of them may be armour enchanted to be extra-hard to kill (ask Greg about
the Brithini). These troops will have decent sorcerors with them, when
necessary.
2. A good sorceror has the ability to thump those barbarians from a distance
comparable to arrow range. A great sorceror can do things with magic that no
barbarian can conceive of. If the sorceror has specialised in battle magics,
the barbarians are toast.
3. If you don't believe in gods (the Brithini), or don't believe that gods will
do miracles for you (the Malkioni), sorcery is all you've got. It requires a
different philosophy, but those cultures live by different rules. The Lunar
Empire, which embraces sorcery, spirit and divine magic, get the best of both
worlds, and have been worldbeaters because of it.
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