>Out of curiosity, what does this HAte
>Sky spell do and where is it described. I've never heard of it before.
It snuffs fires within a certain radius. Higher strength spells can snuff out larger fires or magical ones. It's described in Lords of Terror on page 78.
>> What's up with Tada's High Tumulus?
>I cannot remember where I got this from, byt Tada's High Tumulus is a high
>solitary mountain, on the top of which live Wind Children. It may be
>impossible to reach the top by climbing, but of this I'm very uncertain.
>What I am certain of is that there live no nomads on the mountain.
It's a great mound and marks the burial place of Tada, a mythical hero who used to rule over Prax. I've no idea how high it is save that the old Cults of Prax map marks it as extremely large compared to Kerofin. I'm not aware of any association with wind children.
Cory Davis:
>Also in 1620, is there a Sartar Hero cult, is there a Boldhome city
>cult and what place or importance has the flame of Sartar. I mean
>why is the connection between Argrath and Sartar so important from
>a religous perspective unless Sartar has some religous importance
The Flame of Sartar is the Sartarite Hero Cult. Argrath needs to be descended from Sartar because so he can have a legitimate claimr to be Prince of Sartar. They don't give the title out to any joe hero in the street.
Nick Brooke:
Nick follows up to a post of mine about the Sun Dragon and postulates that the Old Sun Domers of Prax were draconic. This is more than likely IMO as the hierarchy of the EWF is described (in RQII book V) as being partly derived from the Solar Imperial Theocracy. Furthermore (for the benefit of the Dara Happan Inquisitor) according to Cults of Prax (dated 1610 ST), Dragonewts were allowed to join the cult of Yelmalio(!). Of course as of 1621 ST the current Yelmalio cult writeup says no such thing which implies that the Inquisitor has already visited! What gives with Belvani's 'newt servant anyhow?
Of course this does raise a vexed side issue about the origins of the EWF (skip to the next header (ie Joseph Troxell) if you don't like historical discussions). The Sun Dome Temple is apparently related to that founded in Holay in 562 ST. Their success against the Trolls makes the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass try harder until they throw off the Uz despotism in the Tax Slaughter of 578 ST. Since the EWF is partly derived from the SIT (which is supported by the late appearance of the cult of Orlanth Dragonfriend), this implies that the first centres of EWF power were the Sun Dome Temples. Yet the mere gap of less than sixteen years seems a bit too quick for the religion to have been transmitted from Holay to Dragon Pass and form a nucleus of a revolution.
OTOH I think I have a possible solution as why the Sun Dome Temple Cult is called Yelmalio after the elves yet appears not to have any elvish features. After the Templars under Arinsor Clearmind settled in the area, they would have participated in the religious life of Pavis. Since Pavis was an (*drum roll*) Elf-friend and there was a Garden of Elves in the City, it seems to me that when the Sun Domers participated in the Civic ceremonies, they took the place of the Sun Lord from the Garden and were addressed as 'Yelmalio' to avoid having to rewrite the ceremony. Since their own god's name by that time heavily draconized (ie only pronoucable correctly with a forked tongue), they accepted the monicker of Yelmalio when speaking to outsiders instead of the 'Sssssssun Dome Temple' ('Say it, don't hiss it!') that was previously used. But when 1042 ST came and people forgot how to speak Auld Wyrmish, the name 'Yelmalio' stuck and persists to this present day.
Joseph Troxell:
>1. There are 24 tribes. How many clans in a tribe, and how many people in
>a clan?
The number of clans within a tribe varies. The Colymar as of 1621 have about 12 clans with approximately 15 500 total. The average size of an Orlanthi clan is elsewhere stated to be 1200 in size. According to the Sartar Population statistics in Questlines, the Colymar are the largest tribe and most other tribes number between 2 000 and 10 000 in size.
>2. What ratio of "healthy working adults" to "those not fit to work (aged,
>infirm, young)" exists?
The Lunar Population Report in KoS indicates that Clearwine (Chief Town of the Colymar) has 650 adults and 900 young (as of 1601). This gives a tribal population of 15 500 which accords well with the recorded figures 18 000 for 1610 and 15 500 for 1621 given in Questlines. Of the adult males, 85% are estimated to be militarily fit. A similar ratio should exist for the women (although only 15% of them actually engage in military duties).
>3. How much acreage (or square mileage) does one person require to farm
>enough food to feed themselves for one year? From this, I can extrapolate
>out how much land a clan needs for farming.
An Orlanthi Carl (free farmer) generally has 80 acres to farm. There is a half-carl status (ca? rl?) in which one only has about 27 acres to farm. This does not seem to be used in Dragon Pass and most Orlanthi beneath the Carl status are Cottars who live from herding sheep and garden plots. Thus they would require more land than the Carl but it can be (and usually is) quite hilly.
Owen Jones:
Wrote a nice story.
>"Unfortunately, the division can not be so", replied the first of the
>three warriors. "We saught an augery before the raid, and were told the
>following by a spirit of Waha; 'You will each meet a single warrior.
>One of you will cut down your enemy with just 2 blows. To him will go
>one half of the beasts taken. The next will cut down his enemy in 3
>blows, and to him will go one third. The last will require 9 blows to
>fell his opponent, and to him will go only one ninth of the beasts.' We
>are loath to butcher the beasts unnecessarily, but whatever solution
>one of us suggests, the other two dispute."
It seems the Man who Counts knows his Dara Happan Lore very well for a similar solution to a similar problem was given by the First Emperor Murharzarm.
Which reminds me. I was reading a book on Taxation in 16th century Ming China. Far from being the usual catalog of harsh and oppressive taxes, the book gives an extremely interesting account of a bad tax regime can bugger the average tax payer up shit creek _without_ trying to milk him of everything that he had. For instance the land tax was paid in measures of grain based upon the size of the plot. This was usually given as a ratio per land unit that ran into fourteen decimal places ie if you owed 1 _mu_ of land, you had to pay something like .00187642874562 _piculs_ of rice. There were usually *fourteen* such taxes and surtaxes (which naturally had different ratios) that were payable on a plot of land. Go figure. (Did I mention that they didn't use decimal places but had to write these fractions out in full?). Naturally the tax assesors accepted bribes so to fudge the calculations.
All of which explains what the Mathematical Mandarin of Jaubon does for a day job.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #400
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