Prax is very small, it only takes a week or two to travel from the forests around Leaping Place to the coastal swamps with their palms and cypress. There are plenty of trees in the river bogs and all along the bordering mountain ranges. The same is true of Pent... it is easy to raid for lumber into the foothills of the Rockwoods or into the Elder Wilds. The hardest part is stealing woodworking tools from the barbarians, since no metal is mined in Pent, Prax or the Wastes. At least the Mongols could make their own metal weapons and tools.
> Which might lead to expeditions, raiding, trading, treaties, and all
sorts
> of social intercourse between the cultures.
Absolutely, and most groups will not attack a large, armed party that
just comes in to steal a few trees and drag them away.
> ------------------------------
> I've already noted how the Sun Domers make perilous expeditions to the
> Leaping Place Lake to get their wood
The main threat is trolls, and most of them live much farther west.
Leaping Place is sparsely populated by anything. There is a threat, but
it is moderate unless the trolls are raiding (dark season).
> ------------------------------
> Still haven't quit sussed what this "Greater Prax" refers to.
> I doubt that the Selerans can take over the whole of the
> Wastelands but they certainly didn't take over Prax
It doesn't say that they took the Wastes, only that they successfully
raided into it. Greater Prax should be the Wastes, especially the parts
north of the Statue Plateau.
> ------------------------------
> Subject: Re : Combining Magical Practices
> >The Orlanth cult teaches only selected spirit magic
> >to it's worshipers, but there's nothing to stop them
> >learning almost any other spirit magic from a shaman
> >or from a friendly cult.
If we are to enforce the 'incompatibility of magic types', then a shaman shouldn't teach any spells to a deist without extreme reason. Having gone to the effort of justifying it, I have no problem with getting a special spell or two, but not several.
> If it's an Orlanthi shaman, such as a Kolating, then that's acceptable.
If
> it isn't, then the Orlanthi is (IMO) either going to be ostracised for
> heresy, or pressured to give up the magical secrets of these foreigners
> whose magic he has stolen, so that it can be weakened or stolen in a
> heroquest.
I refuse to accept that the knowledge of a spell could be used against the shaman that summoned the spell spirit. This isn't the same as two cults stealing powers from each other.
The worst he could do is gain the spell spirit's true name and summon it
later for someone else.
> ------------------------------
> Subject: Joraz Kyrem and the Pure Zebra People
> >> (P&BR p.61 refers to Joraz Kyrem's mercenaries, not to the
> >> Pure Horse People who arrived at Necklace Horse in the 620s).
>
> > When Pavis was in Dragon Pass, he met Joraz Kyrem "Khan of the Pure
> > Horse People, who was anxious to re-establish his family in Prax"
> > (P&BR p56) and the Horses used in the breeding were "mares and
> > stallions with shining golden eyes" (P&BR p61). The Pure Horse
> > People had apparently fled Prax after Paragua trashed Robcradle.
> > So to label Joraz's folk mercenaries and to deny that they were pure
> > horse people is a bit much.
My memory is slipping... what is P&BR.
> But the Pure Horse People, who arrived in Prax c.620 ST, somehow
survived
> the two and a half centuries prior to Joraz Kyrem's return without
> zebrafying their steeds. This casts doubt on your apparent assertion
that
> horses can only survive in Prax by cross-breeding with zebras.
The Pure Horse People were Pentan outcasts because they refused to start herding cattle. They were invited to inhabit the Good Place as a buffer between Prax and Dragon Pass. (620s)
They did OK for a while but the constant raids wore them down so most of them moved to the Grazelands to raise their Goldeneyes and other horses.
The remnant were defeated, captured, put into a tent, and most of them disappeared; probably through the hero plane. (KoS)
When Pavis met Joraz during the EWF, there were no horses in Prax. Joraz was a Grazelander. Pavis or Joraz proved that they could be bred with Zebra, so Pavis hired some of them as mercs in exchange for land in the new city. This is the start of the Zebra riders. The other Grazelanders stayed behind.
The Grazelanders existed during the Dragonkill, but were far enough away to be spared.
The Pol Joni were created in the third age to buffer Sartar from the
nomads. They are a bastard mix of cattle herding barbarian horsemen and
outcast nomads who want a new home. The nomads ride captured Praxian
animals or zebra unless they have completely turned away from Waha's laws,
in which case they might ride a horse.
> ------------------------------
Bob Stancliff
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