> I suppose Morokanth -might- have cheated, but just look at their
>useless scrabbly claws, they are no good for trickery, so it must have
>been down to their innate charisma.
HOW THE MOROKANTH CHEATED
As related to Inire the Red by a Sable Rider.
When Waha became Khan, people walked the land dazed and stupid. You can look at the Bison Riders to see how they behaved then.
There was no food to eat, for all the Old Food had been burned by Oakfed.
But Waha had found a magic which would allow people to eat the New Food. But it made people Stupid.
Many people were so hungry so that they wanted to be made stupid. Many more wanted to have the magic put on them for they were so stupid it wouldn't have made any difference.
Only our ancestors wanted to keep their wits for they saw that those who would be witless would need protection from the Broos and the Dark Men.
Waha was going to grant everybody their wish but saw that our ancestors were too few to protect all the ones who wanted to be made stupid. He also saw that if the beasts were allowed to keep their wits, they would be hamstrung by having no hands. The Fight against Chaos would be tougher and Waha might not win.
So Waha thought long and hard. In the end, he said that he did not have enough magic to grant everybody's wish. To choose who would be the lucky ones, he divided the people into tribes and paired them off against one of Eiritha's beasts. The side that won the contests would be the protector of the other side.
Waha also said that the side that won would eat the better food. He said this for he feared that some people might try to fail the tests, such was their hunger.
Everybody agreed that this was good.
He set our ancestors against the Sable for he knew that if the Sable were set against any other people, they would win through sheer cleverness. We won our contest and so became the Sable Riders.
Waha paired the Haughty Ones against the High Llama. When the Haughty Ones saw they would be ridden by haughtier beasts than themselves, they lost their pride and resorted to low tricks to win. Waha had intended this, for they would have lost otherwise through their pride.
Likewise Waha paired the pygmies against the Impala for he was worried that their small brains might cause them to lose against any other beast.
He tested the Brutes against the Bisons. For good measure, Waha drugged the bisons with a drink of fermented mushrooms from the Land of the Dark Men. This was a good thing for the Brutes barely won. Even then, Waha had to remind them five times that they would get better food if they won.
The Morokanth came to be paired off. They wanted to keep their wits and remember the taste of cooked meat. They knew that Waha did not know them very well. So the Morokanth hung out their tongues and drooled like a Storm Khan, they staggered when they walked, they even glazed their eyes to make people think they suffered from Brain Fever.
Waha was pleased when he saw them for he had not known which beast to pair the Stupid Ones off with. The sight of the Morokanth lightened his heart and so he commanded the Stupid Ones to take the contest against the Morokanth.
When Waha did so, the Morokanth dropped their tricks and defeated the Stupid Ones. Waha would have helped the Stupid Ones win but he had used up all his tricks to make sure that the Bison Riders would. This made Waha very angry for he would have chosen the Stupid Ones over the Brutes. In the end, Waha upheld the results of the contest for none of the beasts had been made Stupid yet and he feared that some might suspect trickery and cause trouble.
That is how the accursed Morokanth cheated and were not made Stupid like the other beasts.
>Please correct me if i have made some 'howlers,' but if the morokanth
>had lost, might there have been a praxian tribe which rode tapirs? The
>potentials beggar the imagination.
Certainly. If you think that's weird, wait until you hear Sandy speak about the Hippo Tribe.
>I presume people trade with morokanths, but who would want to buy a
>zombified herd man? Do they travel up near Dagori Inkarth and flog
>their creepy wares up there?
The Morokanth do a roaring slave-trade in non-bestial humans.
>Do morokanths have their own snuffling, snorting language?
Praxian as far as I know.
>And who do they worship? Storm gods?
Waha and Eiritha plus the usual spirits.
Mike Cule:
>Well, that's an example of my problem. The God doesn't seem to have a
>nature that he teaches to his worshippers. The worshippers just impose
>whatever image they want on the god.
Not really. The worshippers impose a image to reach *closer* to their god. The better the description is of the god's nature, the more potent (or relevant) the cult magics will become. However the criteria for deciding the quality of the image depends on what the needs of the cult or society is.
Frex, a culture's image of the Earth Goddess will change significantly when it changes from a hunter-gathering lifestyle to full agriculture; that does not mean that the Earth Goddess herself has changed especially if a related culture which worshipped the same Earth Goddess has not changed and still worships her via the same rites. All that has changed is that the farmers are worshipping the Earth Goddess for different attributes than the Hunter-Gatherers.
The *nature* of the God or Goddess does not change and never will save for some world-shattering event. I can't worship a Sea God to learn how to cast Sandstorms. The Image of the God can change and does.
Loren Miller:
>To become a hero, you need to transform yourself from an ordinary
>person into a great person with a goal to free society from a tyrant.
Hmm? Most Heroes are tyrants in their relation to society IMHO...
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