Didn't know it was restricted to the USA, but it means "Not Invented Here", used to refer to the numerous times that people idiotically refuse to use something that they didn't figure out in-house. Examples: 1) a software programmer refuses to use the perfectly adequate 3-D engine written by another programmer, and instead takes the time and energy to write his own, rather than simply improving t'other. 2) The US army refuses to adopt the perfectly good German anti-aircraft gun vehicle (the Gerhard?), and instead gets by with none that can shoot down a modern aircraft. 3) The Kralori do not buy horses from Pent and train up men in riding them so they can have a cavalry force. 4) The Carmanians fail to adopt the Lunar tactic of massed magicianry, and in so doing get conquered. _Now_ they use this tactic, because they're Lunars.
Mark Mohrfield
>In issue #246 Sandy Peterson posted an interesting article on
elves. >However, he seems to have made a minor geographical error.
In fact >Enkloso is the large green elf forest and Vralos the
smaller brown >elf forest.
Dang. That's what I get for pontificating without a map nearby, and without having played in Umathela recently. Okay, here's a rewording of my post:
The main Vralos woods only takes up maybe a third of Vralos. The Enkloso woods are larger, and have separate councils. The elves of Enkloso are green, while the elves of Errinoru were yellow.
The Vralos woods are subdivided into councils. They do have one main council that deals with humans -- this is NOT a special separate council, as is the case with the Enkloso high council. Rather, one large elf tribe who deals with many humans on an everyday basis has taken it upon themselves to be the main human/elf mediator. The other elf tribes acquiesce in this, and even find it praiseworthy. Humans that live in other tribes' lands still deal with their own tribes, but when they want to make some kind of deal with _all_ the elves of Vralos, they travel to the main tribe's council.
Dave Dunham, with reference to the idea that the KoW is defeated by
imitating it, sez:
>Actually, it's possible that it's already happened, and the KOW has
>"defeated" the original Duchy of War at its center. Thank goodness
>that threat no longer exists!
I like this idea a LOT! And it's going into my campaign pronto. Thanks, Dave.
Sandy P.
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