Only if necessary for MGF or a particular scenario. I believe that for most Hsunchen, including the Basmoli, cultural practices are a mix of the animal & human -- thus, all Hsunchen (in common with the remainder of humanity) engage in some form of marriage, though this might be looser in some Hsunchen types, especially during holy times. However, obvious bits of the animal practice should have impact -- perhaps when a Basmoli remarries, his or her step-children must move to the "bachelor huts", or live with an unwed aunt, or get traded away as slaves, or, sometimes, are murdered.
The problem, of course, is that many animal practices are incompatible with humanity -- it's hard to imagine a human society modeled after that of a fur seal or a tiger -- such humans would be so alien as to no longer really be "human" (and so they might as well be non-humans). The purpose of Hsunchen, IMO, is to present us with humans that show clearly, or in an exaggerated way, the animal side of our nature. Not to provide us with an additional set of non-humans.
Peter Metcalfe
>I tend to be extremely sceptical about claims for Kralorela's cultural
conservatism.
But Peter, _everyone_ in Kralorela KNOWS that they have exactly the same culture as in the golden age of Yelm (aka Yung Ti). *snicker* [sarcasm alert] How can you possibly think that their culture would have been altered by minor happenstances such as Shang-Hsa's Burning of the Books, the arrival of Nysalor & Illumination, the False Dragon Ring's re-structure of society and myth, the re-conquest by mandarins who had spent several centuries dwelling in Ignorance, Sheng Seleris's brief but thorough reign, or the years of the Closing?
Seriously, it's quite obvious that Kralorela has been affected as much if not more than any other Gloranthan cultures by the currents of history. This is what makes Kralorela so interesting -- it is a totally reactionary, conservative culture opposed to any type of change which yet undergoes constant flux. And of course since they're so ridden by the weight of history (they really do have more ancient writings and survivals from primitive times than anyone else), they cannot help but be aware of the vast gulf that separates them from the good old days. Hence they cling ever more desperately to those threads of their culture which _do_ seem to be genuinely old.
>And how many of the other cultures in the world make the same claim?
The Dara Happans, the Malkioni, the Brithini, the
>Elves, the Mostali and the Teshnans. Even the Lunars claim to have
restored lost Golden Age customs.
Well, actually the Malkioni don't make that claim, and I'm not sure the Teshnans do. In any case, "restoring" the Golden Age is not the same as having an unbroken continuity leading back to that time. Technically the Elves have changed a LOT since the Golden Age, too. For one thing, there _weren't_ any Elves in the Golden Age (they are a product of the Gods War). Ditto for the Mostali, unless you're counting the extremely rare true Mostali as a "culture".
Nils Weinander
>Wouldn't it be more interesting if there _was_ one exception, one
nation where tradition really _is_ unbroken?
You bet. And we have several such nations: Brithini, Vadeli, Trolls, maybe some Mostali. Hmm. It's kind of interesting that all the survivals of the "real" Golden Age seem to be unpleasant, no? Makes you wonder.
Stephen Martin
>OK, again I was being imprecise, and again I apologize. This is a VERY
LATE First Age, and early Second Age, situation, .
>In other words, the 200-300 >or so years before the God Learners came.
Why do you think the God Learners were able to
>take over so easily? There was no Dragon Emperor, and fuck-all of
Exarchs around to coordinate the defense of the land.
Peter M
>Given that Yanoor is considered by the Kralori to have been a dragon
emperor, I find this unlikely.
Yanoor is known to have been a weak emperor. The Empire was under considerable stress at this time, and we know that the Hsunchen & Ignorance overrun most of it. Remember also that the modern Kralori are very eager to have a continued chain of emperor-ship, so even if all Yanoor ruled was a tiny central plot of ground (rather like the Renaissance Popes), he would qualify as the Emperor of all Kralorela. Personally, I am of the belief that after Yanoor's Accession, the Beasts & Trolls recognized him as Emperor and he made them satraps & governors, thus officially recognizing their status and bringing them technically under imperial domination.
>Trollpak refers to the Kralori defeating a combined army of dwarves and
trolls at the Battle of Warring Ford in 560 ST.
>Which would be unusual for an empire in retreat.
I think it's pretty obvious that this is a civil war between Ignorance & the Beasts, in which the Kralori sided with the Hsunchen.
>The concept that Kralorela suffered a setback after the Sunstop is well
taken and this is why I disagree with Sandy's Theory >when he says that
Shang-Hsa became Yanoor after the Sunstop.
You can disagree with me all you like (though my theory seems to be ever more widely accepted among Gloranthologists), but the fact that Shang-Hsa became Yanoor doesn't conflict with the occupation of most of Kralorela by foreigners after the Sunstop.
Peter
>Every nation here and in glorantha thinks their land is the best in the
world and the others are not so good.
Actually this is quite not true, and Peter knows it.
>Thus the Kralori do have an afterlife. How to reconcile this with the
Palace of Excellent Reward mentioned in GoG (and the >mass suicide
following Yanoor's flight) is interesting but I won't pursue it in this
post.
To elucidate. The Kralori afterlife is as follows (for most Kralori -- there are exceptions, of course): upon death, the soul goes to Vithela, the Land of Dawn, where it awaits the Emperor's Passing On. When the Emperor dies, all the souls who died during his reign move ahead with him to the next stage of existence. This "next stage" was equated with the Malkioni Solace by the God-Learners. The Kralori do _not_ believe that this is the end, though -- they say that eventually everyone passes on to yet _another_ stage of existence past that, and then another, and so forth, an eternal progression. This is why there was the mass suicide at Yanoor's Passing -- it looked like there would never be another emperor, and so if you died, you'd be stuck in Vithela for always, unable to advance and progress. So they killed themselves in hopes that their souls would "catch the last train" to heaven, so to speak.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #379
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