Praxian herd economics

From: richardc_at_sypte.co.uk
Date: Thur, 12 Sep 1996 0:04:32 +0100


Further to my plan to run an Ostrich Rider group, I note that according to Glorantha:Genertela Crucible of the Hero Wars (G:G) that Praxians "prefer to kill and eat others' animals rather than their own". Presumably it is possible for a group of Sable Riders, say, to capture some live Zebra. Or would they never do this for reasons of "tribal purity"? Do they just hunt and kill them and butcher them on site? This would only be an option for "wild" herds with no guarding herders. You can't start cutting up the animals if their former owners are just beyond the next bunch of skullbushes and closing fast. No, I suspect that for large scale consumption of the meat of other tribes' beasts there is going to have to be raiding - cut out part of the herd and dash off somewhere to perform Peaceful Cut rituals on them. I presume the previously mentioned "tribal purity" requirements (or special herding skills or whatever) would prevent the long-term holding of these "foreign" beasts. So what happens if, thanks to great good fortune or skillful hunting stratagems (chance for PCs to excell here I think), the tribe acquires more live beasts that it can handle immediately?
Prax is a hard environment. Such places tend to have great taboos about wasting resources. And yet I can't see a tribe wasting such effort by turning the beasts loose.
My guess is that they send a party of braves of to some market to sell them (in exchange for metal weapons and cooking vessels?). Perhaps this is the function of Barbarian Town or a secondary function (after the slave auctions) of Pimper's Block. I rather fancy a scenario involving a group of Ostrich braves travelling to new and exciting lands (i.e. Inner Prax) escorting some barely manageable beasts (Rhinos?).
Any Comments?
Richard Crawley
richardc_at_sypte.co.uk

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