Origins of the modern Hyalorings

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:34:22 +1200 (NZST)


Joerg Baumgartner:

Me>> As for the alleged implausibility of the Vendref/
>> Grazer mixing, IMO this is only one tribe of malcontents and not
>> representative of grazers in general.

>Well, there is a postcedent in the formation of the Pol Joni (about a
>century later), which seem to have included malcontents of the Grazers
>resisting the increasingly territorial life-style induced by the
>lordship over the Vendref. They returned to something resembling their
>old life-style, though, and not to a totally un-nomadic existence.

They lived on the plains of Prax which neccesitates a nomadic lifestyle whereas the hills of Dragon Pass are rich enough to enable one to a sedentary life-style IMO.

>> There are references to the
>> Wanderers who split off from the Grazers in the time of Josadarin the
>> Stallion (which is before the Vendref migrated into Dragon Pass).

>Wanderers, not dirt grubbers. Nomads.

Like the original grazers? But I brought up the existance of wanderers to demonstrate that there were some grazers who dissatisfied with their lifestyle and split up from their hometribe.

>Given the isolationist marriage arrangements such three-clan groups seem
>to make (ok, this is inferred from the Tree Triaty), ancestor worship of
>Kuschile and Hyalor might have survived later pressure, and would
>explain why the (it seems quite sedentary) triarchy would rather leave
>Heortland than change and adapt to the Pharaoh's new order and its
>Heortland incarnation of increasing western influences.

The Triaty is stated in the Report of the Orlanthi to be 'an old form [of tribe - phm] which disintegrates under social pressure' [KoS p254]. It is capable of being dissolved like any other tribal relationship. To suppose that a triatic relationship intact survived a thousand years of extreme social pressures (cue: wars from Arkat's time to the opening of Dragon Pass) is unsupportable when the triaty itself fell apart when as a result of the "Fish Marriage", a mere generation after it migrated into Dragon Pass!

Incidentally why were the Hyalorings forced into Dragon Pass by the Pharaoh's ascension when the Pharaoh is remembered for being a champion of Light who overthrewing the despotic dark rule of the Only Old One?

>> This is quite an achievement!

>Right. Not impossible, though. I'd find the Vendref who manage to
>convince their Grazer lords to adapt to a fully sedentary life-style at
>least as difficult to achieve, and more difficult to envision.

Like the RW goths, frex? But if the Pol Joni are partly composed of Grazers who abjured their Solar religion to worship Orlanth then why is it difficult to imagine that a group of dissident grazers dissatisfied with their rigid lifestyle should encounter a couple of immigrant clans from Heortland and intermix with them?

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