Goating

From: Mikael Raaterova <amr_at_swipnet.se>
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 15:01:53 +0200


Jeff, answering me:

>>I don't want to resurrect that painful old thread, but i still think the
>>Pan-Heortling No-Goat, No-Dog Theory is silly.
>
>Interestingly enough, this came up during the course of a discussion on the
>First Age that I had with Greg, Harald and Steve. The conclusions:

Since both you and Steve are firmly in the No-Dog, No-Goat camp, i'm not very surprised that you came to these conclusions.

>1) The Heortling Orlanthi view goats as big rats and associate them as a
>symbol of Ragnaglar. Eating goat-meat is a sign of wretched poverty on the
>level of eating directly out of a dumpster bin.
>2) Alynxes can herd sheep.

  1. Yes, i know; you said something similar last time around. I still find it very hard to believe that _all_ heortlings would have an absolute taboo on goats, over 1 000 years later. And i don't think _all_ 1st age heortlings had it either.
  2. I've never doubted that alynxes _can_ herd sheep (cf "Yinkin the Shepherd" though). I just don't think that _all_ heortlings would insult Yinkin by taming the noble alynx and forcing it to do demeaning tasks like herding sheep.

You may strait-jacket heortling culture as you please in your own game, but saying that one can't find dogs or goats anywhere in any heortling land is plain silly. Heortling culture isn't a homogenous entity. If the cults and worship of Orlanth vary from region to region, then i fail to see why the attitudes towards goats and alynxes don't.

I'm _not_ saying that _all_ heortling clans keep goats or use dogs for sheep-herding. I'm saying that some do and some don't.

And that's all i have to say about that.

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