Sure. As much as they hate to admit it the Loskalmi are still human. So in some backwater baronies there is bound to be cases where people buy their investiture (got to keep the watchdog council occupied you know :). But that is not a problem with the idealist state as such, rather it is a problem with human character.
What would be much more troubling for the idealist state is if the caste system favors children (particularly sons) of the powerful. That would be a flaw in the idealist state since the idealism would serve to cover up a real problem. Deluding people with the notion that they are liberated when they in fact are not, would be a more refined form of oppression. A serious flaw.
The question remains, does this happen? I think it does, to a degree (at least in my Loskalm it does), but there are also people that oppose the perpetuation of a privileged class. I thnik this is a struggle that Loskalm is fighting every day, and has done since day one.
> << 2) And women? Do they get to participate in the tournaments?>>
Knights can participate in tournaments, and women can be knights. But I think there a huge majority of male knights in Loskalm. So a woman participant in a tournament could be quite rare (In my campaign a PC female knight entered the tournament held during the 7th ecclesiastical meeting as a 'dark knight' knight to make a point about the worth of female knights. And in my campaign she won too due to the fact that she had quested for the Lance of Talor. She sure got her point through :)
> << 3) How do you like a Telmori war party from the KoW which rides chariots
> pulled by wolves?>>
What a wonderful idea! I'm going to use it right away, the very next time my players happen to cross blades with the KoW. Although, as someone pointed out, they wouldn't be telmori as we know them from other areas. In my campaign the KoW could worship the wolf spirit as the Bone Gnawer, the eater of the Battle Dead or something.
Trotsky replied to the question of the telmori charioteers:
> Well, regular Telmori certainly wouldn't do it IMO since it would be
> enslaving their totem as a beast of burden, which isn't allowed in hsunchen
> religion. While the KoW are not regular Telmori, I'd personally still imagine
> that they'd have to follow their god's normal restrictions to that extent, so
> I don't really see this as a possibility, I'm afraid. Not that there mightn't
> be someone in the KoW who does do this, of course, just that I don't think
> that they'd be Telmori.
I don't agree. I don't see the soldiers of the KoW worshiping in the normal sense. They are conquerors in religion as in combat; I think their religions would more resemble demonology where you force entities to serve you. The Cult of the Wolf would see their spirit as just another weapon, or more precicely just another conquest in The War.
Frank Rafaelsen
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