To paraphrase a famous british secret agent My name is Durupt, Jean Durupt.
I feel better when I am called Jean or Jean Durupt than when I am called jd1196.
+Mermen metallurgy
Sandy made a point with the use of sacred metals by humans.
I still disagree with him on the ammount of non-aluminium metal used by the mermen.
Let us take as an example the Sun County in Prax.
The people hold sacred gold and copper, and very valuable
iron.
As Sandy said, they use gold coins, and every peasant
family wants to have copper pots.
A poor peasant family will use almost no metal at all.
They use wooden or clay bowls, wooden spoon to eat.
Maybe they have bronze knives, and almost certainly they
have bronze needles.
Their farming tools including their plow are made from
wood.
A richer peasant family will use more metal. Their farming tools are bronze tipped, the plowshare is in bronze.
All the iron they have is used in weapons and armors, and only the elite has the right to use iron weapons. The average soldier uses bronze for his weapons and his armor.
The count eat in a golden plate with a golden spoon, a golden
knife and maybe a golden fork.
The plow he uses for the first plowing of the year has a golden
or copper plowshare.
BTW I think it would be an insult to Ernalda to use another plow
for the ritual and would be a dire omen for the harvest.
Now about the mermen.
I think that gloranthan aluminium has approximatively the same
density as water.
So if a merman drops an aluminium object, it will stay near
him whatever his depth.
Any other material either sinks or goes toward the surface.
An aluminium armor is very interesting for a merman,
with one he swimms nearly as easily as if he did not have it.
A merman chietain uses his aluminium harpoon for the first hunt of the year or Triolina would be insulted.
All the metallic armors are made in aluminium. The best underwater mobile homes are made in aluminium, since it is easy to make them waterproof. And with the aluminium affinity with water, it is easy to control their depth. (no Pelorian would think of building his house in gold)
For the average merman, surface metals are interesting when he cannot have aluminium. It is so because metal bends when stone or bone break.
IMO a bronze needle will last at least a year, if it not exposed to both
air and water. Maybe a chemist or someone
who studied archaelogy could settle this matter. It is true that nets are
mended with wooden "needles".
But to make gloves or sharkskin armor you need a true needle. The race
(if you don't have aluminium needles) is between the number of bone
needles you break in the time a metallic one becomes unusable because
it is too rusted.
Fishing hooks are traps akin to mousetrap or a rabbit snare. A merman
hunter places them where they are useful.
Maybe I say "TOMAHTO" and Sandy says "TOMHAYTO", when we speak of the use of metals by the mermen.
+Shamans
I believe that the wise women in Seshnela are shamans.
While I am at it, I think that the Horned God is the god of natural shamans.
Some people are predisposed to become shamans, in a culture that accept
this way of doing magic they find easily a mundane master (another shaman)
and an otherworld master (White Flower, Telmor, ...).
If such a person lives where shamans are shunned, the otherworld guide to
shamanism is the Horned God.
The shamans the Jrustreli studied were almost certainly Seshnelan shamans.
All of them had the Horned God as spiritual guide, the God Learners concluded
that every shaman had the Horned God as spiritual guide.
+Malkioni
Do the Galvosti worship saints (ie give POW tohave access to the blessing)?
If, as I think, they don't, do they have access to the saints' blessings?
Peace Jean ------------------------------
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