>...nicely pointing out the great axis
>of heortling culture: tradition vs innovation, Umath's firstlaw
>vs "There is always another way".
when I was actually just trying to stick my thumb in the eye of the Orlanthi who seem to religiously delude themselves about several aspects of their own culture before sitting down to a hearty breakfast, but thank you for the kind words. :)
More on Famine: For the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass there is Food and there is food. Food being mainly the 3 "B's" of Beer, Bread and Beef, with a grudging nod to Mutton. Your table may be groaning with game, pork and poultry, your barns bulging with wheat and rice, your root vegetables may win prizes and you can hardly close the cellar doors for the hogheads of #1 Apple Lane Scrumpy and Clearwine Brandy in the oak but if a man can't serve his family a proper meal of Dark Beer, Brown Bread and Boiled Beef he can hardly look them, or the neighbors, in the eye and clearly starvation is in the offing. Everyone *knows* that children up in Far Point slump hollow-eyed beside the roads begging passing travellers for a crust of honest rye bread or a bowl of thin gruel, while wicked Lunars weaken their Moral Fiber tempting them with Foreign Vittles, etc, etc...
I guess my point is that since we already have a place to act out dramas of living on the margin of survival (Prax and the Wastes) I'm not sure why the Culbrea need to live one bad harvest from Famine. Now certainly an individual stead or tula can be cursed for proper mythic reasons (and provide scenario hooks as a result) so that the crops don't come in, but I think the baseline for Dragon Pass food production is, due to the availability of magical assistance, significantly higher than a RW equivalent. Makes it more resistant to the stesses that the Hero Wars will put on it, too.
Gary R Switzer
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