> I once worked out that an average well-off Sable Rider
> family (with two adults, two subadults, and two children = five
> adult-equivalents to feed) requires 45-50 beasts to provide a war
> steed and riding beasts, and to produce enough food to keep body and
> soul. This assumed that part of their food was by gathering or
> hunting, but at least 75% was from the beasts themselves (including
> milk).
> Dave Dunham says that 8-10 Masai folk require 125-140
> cattle, but they are considered "rich".
Note also that the Pastoral Maasai are unusual in that they do *nothing* except herd -- no hunting, no agriculture. I also think Praxians engage in hunting and gathering, and thus the numbers are in good agreement.
> the Masai
> have more than just cattle, too -- they have separate donkeys,
> goats, sheep, while the only other commonly domesticated animal
> amongst Sable Riders are dogs.
True. The Maasai also eat sheep and goats. (But this may correspond to raided animals -- I doubt a Sable Rider is going to milk a bison.)
Peter Maranci asked
> > Humakt is the Orlanthi god of honor. ...I'd say, to the Orlanthi,
> > ambush is dishonorable.
>
> But Humakt severed his connection to Orlanth, precisely *because* he
> felt that Orlanth had been dishonorable. Do Orlanthi truly consider Humakt
> to be a part of their pantheon? They're friendly cults, I have no doubt.
> But I wonder if standards of honor cross over that line.
Humakt is very much part of the pantheon. He's the war god, and the god to whom important oaths are sworn. Many clan chiefs and tribal kings worship him in the sources; I think he's very much part of the pantheon.
Note that Honor is the first of the Six Social Virtues. It's true you only have to be honorable towards Orlanthi, but I think a truly honorable person would extend at least some honor to foreigners.
> Does an ambush count as secret murder? Some of the NPC ambushers told
> stories and songs about the deed, but increased the number of Lunar foes
> from one (in the first instance) to ten. Made a better story that way.
Secret murder is when you kill somebody and don't announce it. From what I know about Icelandic law, you could get away with announcing the killing obliquely: "The Red Moon-wanderer is sleeping in the path." If they completely lie about it ("We slew ten Scimitars of Yanafal Tarnils") then they might well be acting illegally.
> Has anyone explained how Orlanthi could survive under Lunar occupation
> when they're required to challenge Lunars in a way that makes their
> practice of a banned religion obvious? What would stop the Lunars from
> carting an obvious krajalki around in a cage through every Orlanthi
> village to flush out all the leaders?
Probably because most Lunars aren't stupid enough to deal with chaos. And because most Orlanthi don't consider Lunar humans to be chaotic.
And remember, the Lunars are an empire. Empires work by coopting local rule (i.e. Temertain). They don't try to kill everyone, or rule with a bronze fist. As long as an empire can get a local ruler to collect the taxes, they're happy.
(In one of the local campaigns, "taxes" is always rendered as "shameful tribute," which I don't think is right. It's tribute, and nobody likes it, but it's really no different than the tribute the tribal kings exact.)
> The Lunars had already tried the teaching way in the village. The
> results were catastrophic: when a boy was brought back to life by Lunar
> magic his father killed him. A nice touch.
Quite plausible -- a reaction which someone might even have to a Chalana Arroy resurrection.
David Dunham Pensee Corporation dunham_at_pensee.com Voice/Fax: 206 783 7404 http://www.pensee.com/dunham/ NO ZUKES! Stop zucchini proliferation.
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