I don't think the 'watchdogs' are proper doggies. Propably a mistranslation. I'd say they should be watchlizards. In RW western myth, dragons and generic reptiles guard secrets and wealth, and i keep that mytheme in Far Point.
Oh yes - swine are indeed associated with Ernalda and, to lesser extent, Barntar and Mahome. A fat sow nursing its young is a standard symbol of plenty and fertility.
Feral razorbacks and tuskers on the other hand are ferocious and nasty and are symbols of the wrath of the Lady of the Wild.
Asrelia, Wise Woman, the Volva, hoards the riches and bounty of the earth and guards them wisely during winter. She is also an inveterate gossip and stuffs herself with various secrets. She gives good advise to leaders of the community, which puts them in her debt.
Asrelians wield quite a lot of power in society, cause they are wise in the ways of persuasion and pulling strings. They also sit on quite a lot of personal wealth amassed during years of sly bartering, which they generously give away, which leave people deeply indebted to them.
They also have some nifty magics they can share with others for a fee. They can safeguard anything. They can find 'dirt' on other people when they have their ears to the earth. They can command lots of weird earth spirits (Serpent-that-Stares frex). They are expert diviners.
But their most precious asset is WISDOM. Gift-giving and wisdom are the two big ways of gaining sustainable respect and status in Far Point, as it probably is elsewhere too.
Asrelia isn't all nice though. She (and her initiates) can be tightfisted, cruel, machiavellian crones, that curse your crops and cattle and spread rumours (true and false) behind your back and, worst of all, give you bad advice and wrong divinations and can even cause your name and fame to be swallowed by the earth, leaving your offspring renownless.
And all this you summed up in the three-word-description 'Gnomes of [Zurich].' Applause.
Powered by hypermail