Pure Horse ____!

From: Bob Stancliff <stanclif_at_ufl.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 19:16:50 -0400

        As I demonstrated over the weekend, there are legends in KoS that claim Grazer decent from the centaurs. If we treat these as history, then the Grazers existed in Dragon Pass after the Dragonkill and before the Orlanthi incursion.

        The Grazers are attributed to having a special breed called the Goldeneyes, and a militant conservative faction called the Pure Horse People.

        When I paraphrased, and in some instances quoted, the Praxian version of the Battle of Alavan Argay in KoS, Peter jumped all over the details related in the book, such as the clearly stated date of 740 for the incursion of the Golden Horse Tribe of the Pure Horse Tribes of Pent, but I did relate what KoS said. It then calls the Golden Horse Tribe the Pure Horse People for the rest of the narration.

        The Praxian legend does not state that there were any horsemen in Prax before that. It also states that everyone from the horse tribe who fought at Alavan Argay died... none escaped. It is reasonable that the women and children who were left behind escaped into Dragon Pass... there is no mention.

        The date given for this battle is 1250 and the Colymar are said to have entered around 1300. This is enough for almost three generations to be born and grow to have their own children.

        There is a reference to a king of Tarsh having a cavalry of Golden horsemen which would almost certainly have been gained from the Grazers, not the Golden Horse Tribe defeated above, unless they came from the escaped descendents. I misquoted when I said that Argrath was given Goldeneye horses, the book called them Golden Horses, which would also imply decent from the Golden Horse Tribe.

        If you accept that KoS was written in Greg's 'don't tell the truth, tell the perception or myth' phase, then it is perfectly possible that the remnants of the Pure Horse Tribe moved to the Grazelands after the Battle of Alavan Argay, and created the myth of being created from the centaurs sometime during the next few centuries. This also explains the strong similarities in the sun pantheons of the Pentans and Grazers.

        The details that Peter takes exception to are probably Praxian errors to improve the story, and the sources from P & BR are probably much more accurate, having been written long enough ago, that Greg was in a more accurate phase. Since I have made my arguments from KoS, I have not had access to the details given in P & BR, but there are clear discrepancies between the sources, which I attribute to Greg intentionally mythifying history.

        Just for the record, the index of KoS does not mention Joraz Kyrem at all. He is a P & BR historical figure. I have no idea why this is so, when KoS gives so much history of Prax. I will probably come back to this topic in a couple of days when I have dug up P & BR. Bob Stancliff


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