Michael: I very much liked the boundary stone ritual and your other seaseason rituals.
However, it seemed to me that the boundary stone ritual might, instead of conferring basic fertility to the farmlands, give them the sort of domesticated fertility necessary to grow barley instead of weeds. I see the Lady of the Wild's lands being quite fertile already, except they grow 300 different types of plants and animals, most of them unuseable to humans. By performing the boundary ritual and defining their own space, the Ernaldans orient that land toward the grainmother. It's a way of informing the buttercup and bunny spirits that these lands are now the home of barley and alynx spirits. Perhaps it also involves a compromise - a way of appeasing the wild spirits so that they are content to dwell elsewhere.
Of course, my canid-oriented mind immediately flew to the Telmori ritual equivalent....
Please continue posting your ideas. They are right along the lines of what we are exploring in one of our Seattle groups - Jeff Richard's Taming of Dragon Pass, 1347. (See Jeff's earlier post: JARANGSAGA). Since I'm playing an ordinary Ernaldan doing ordinary Ernaldan things (carrying children instead of weapons), I've been trying to figure out just what the seasonal magical tasks are. I'm open to everyone's ideas!
WARNING: Due to the interest of several folks on the digest, we've all been writing up the events of this campaign to post to the Daily, hoping to spark interest in the impacts of magic and Orlanthi society in the everyday lives of Gloranthan farmers. For some reason, I've been elected coordinator of the story postings. I'm finally ready with the first batch. Prepare for massive posts. Just scream if your modems overheat.
Pam
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