Since the sorcery rules do not handle healing well, (no doubt because that type of magic is too far removed from the divine spark of life, or some other such metaphysical argument). So for sorcerous cultures, I envision surgeons armed with specialized spells to heal the slow and messy way.
Form set bone
Diminish Siz (for tumors)
Form set Flesh (for skin grafts, organ transplants, closing off
arteries, etc.)
This of course conjures up messy pictures of battlefield surgery tents, where surgeons hack away at soldiers, borrowing parts form those too far gone (or of very low status) to use in patients with better prospects. Sorcerous surgery would require lots of anatomical study and many skill rolls. Sounds like MGF to me... (though not for the patients).
Don't get hurt in the West. OtOH, it might be easier to have a limb reattached - if the surgeon has a good enough skill...
The small Galloway cattle Joerg refers to are stunted beasts from northern islands with poor fodder. Wild cattle are *big*: bison, cape buffalo, guar, aurochs, and water buffalo are normal sized cattle, and they are all big enough to ride.
>Ever wondered why it takes eight oxen to make up a plow team?
We of the Seattle Farmer's Collective were wondering this earlier this
week. The upshot of the discussion was that Heortlings:
a) use crude metal plows that don't cutthrough soil very efficiently
b) don't have horse or cow collars, so the animal has to pull by using a
rope around its neck
c) the land is rocky and continually invaded by treeroots
d) all the medieval source books say that's what was used, so that's
what we use.
Peaceful Cut
Why do only hunters use it? Don't shepherds care about their herds? Almost everything is daily Gloranthan life involves at least a small ritual. Surely Orlanthi cows are butchered with a prayer to Barntar, swine to Ernalda, chickens to, um.... Chikala! Chikala, the giant pecking horror that eats even giant bugs...
Seriously, I think that many cultures recognize animal butchery as a special occasion, and leave the event to folk who know the proper ritual or spells. To the Praxians, Peaceful Cut probably involves a kinship element, as they feel quite attached to their herds. In fact, If Praxian's _don't_ do Peaceful Cut, their herds might suffer directly. Praxians might not recognize similar rituals among herders or civilized folk, but I'm sure they are present to some extent.
Game applications:
Once there was an NPC who wanted to defile an altar, so he butchered an animal on it _without_ the proper rituals or spells. This lent an unclean aura of death and bad luck to the shrine. (I forget the campaign or specific deities involved...)
Khorvash is an Alkothi soldier from the Post DragonKill campaign described on David Dunham's website. At first he had trouble fitting into a pastoral life because he didn't know any of the rites to butcher animals or tend fields. He knew all about rituals for digging earthworks and killing humans, but he didn't know how to slaughter a sheep so that it would be ritually fit to eat. He also felt that his inexpert involvement would somehow be unfair to the sheep. He solved the delemna by learning the proper rituals.
Just my two cents...
Pam
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