All the flavors except those with ground trollkin emit little sparks when you chew them in the dark with your mouth open.
PMichaels:
>What about other forms of genital mutilation, such as subincision,
>castration, or dismemberment?
On Earth, Chinese and African Eunuchs normally lost both penis and testicles, while Caucasian Eunuchs were "merely" castrated. Dunno the reason why, unless it was because the Chinese were being thorough, while the main other Eunuch-hirer (Turkey & environs) didn't have the balls to snip off the opprobious parts on a fellow-Caucasian.
Supposedly, surgically severing the penis is often fatal, but not for the reason you'd expect -- the problem is that the patient cannot urinate for three or four days following the amputation (I don't know why) and this usually leads to kidney damage. Black and Chinese eunuchs therefore had kidney problems the rest of their life.
Subincision isn't so much "mutilation", as "adornment", no?
>What about (to include women) defloration, incision, excision,
>clitoridectomy, or infibulation?
Claustration is a nasty enough process that I don't really want to think about it. Given that Greg has seen fit to decree as fiat that there are no venereal diseases, I see no problem hoping for a fiat on this question as well.
Soren Petersen
>How does a Rokari Wizard and a Hrestoli Knight relate to each other?
Obviously, this is up to the individuals involved, but in general I don't picture the Hrestoli and the Rokari as being any more hostile than the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
Richard Crawley
>what factors are there to stop the status quo developing along
>Rokari lines with the sons (probably sons if I read Western
>attitudes to women correctly) of Lords inheriting their power
>without all this faffing around learning how to farm, fight, and do
>wizard stuff?
CULTURAL FACTOR: The need to keep the commoners in line. Since the ordinary folk all expect to be able to rise in status, they must be able to see an occasional ordinary folk do so.
RELIGIOUS FACTOR: if your son doesn't learn to farm, fight, and so on, then he might not make it to Solace in Glory. You have the money to train him in these arts anyway, so why not?
SOCIAL FACTOR: more to the point, if your son hasn't learned to farm, fight, etc. then the commoners won't obey him and even the knights under his command might not police the community on his behalf. He could be in serious trouble.
POLITICAL FACTOR: Loskalm is not a feudal state. You don't hold your lands by inheritance, but by being appointed them by the rulers of the state. If your son isn't qualified in the eyes of your superiors, he won't be able to take your place some day. Especially if you have a rival whose son might be perceived as more qualified than your own.
What is life like in Loskalm? I think it's a little like a medieval version of the modern Mexican government. The rulers change positions occasionally, but the same band of people remain in power at all times. They give lip service (and occasional actual service) to the principle of equality and democracy, The people are powerful enough that they can't simply be cowed by force, so must be enticed as well as suppressed. And there's a large and dangerous country nearby that everyone agrees is a threat (I'm speaking of Nicaragua, of course ;>) The parallel isn't perfect, but there you go.
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