Well... One of my players is getting up to speed with her new
caracter. Yina Yinkinsdottir of Winter Rock (clan), from Heortland. The
Winter Rock clan is a splinter of the Shadow Cat or Alynx clan that is
best known known for Harmast Barefoot.
Winter Rock has inherited and continued a rich tradition of Hero
questing, thou they are a small clan of less than 600 people, living in
the northern border of Heortland, high in the mountains. The clan has a
strong Yinkinian tradition that is unusually shamanistic, and having
actual Hsunchen characteristics.
Yina's mother was a famous heroquester and wonderer Theya Dawnfire
(latter obvious epiteth given by malkionists and refers to her deep red
hair). Theya was convinced that her people had once been closer to Shadow
Cats, and could be again (she had experiences with true hsunchen).
Theya got her clan to support her, and wooed, and mated with, Yinkin in
godtime. Next sacred time she birthed a mixed litter in godtime... four
kits, one that appeared human and was born his blue kitten eyes
open... one that was fuzzy and had a tail, and true strong Shadow Cat
kittens.
Theya was killed soon after defending her children from kidnappers from
an enemy clan (odaylan hunters, who wanted to raise one of the litter as
their own).
Yina is the one that was born fuzzy, but has shed most of the catlike appearance as she grew up. His human brother is a powerful shaman. Yina and his brother cat (called silver, until I can find out the word for silver in old norse) is a huge silver tabby shadow cat.
This is gonna be fun to GM :)
---
Oh... the hunting. I think the Shadow Cat's are smart enough to cooperate with each other in hunting. Since the cat's and orlanthi resemble each other, I deduce that the cat's are somewhat more sosial, clannish infact, than lynxes. Watch RW housecats form... hmm. smugs in RL (as opposed to pride ;D )
So... I think they can cooperate with the human hunters. Sometimes the cat can notice a bird for the human to shoot down. Sometimes the human can scare a pray animal to move close enough to the cat for the cat to pounce on it.
I think both the human and the cat bring down pray, and that they indeed often travel in small, loose groups. If nothing else the cat's _really_ sharp senses and subtle, _silent_ communication can help the yinkinian or odaylan hunter find pray that would othervice have eluded him.
At the players request one of the secrets of the Winter Rock clan is the making of bird call whistles :) Something the young kids and the cats can have fun with, and bring home small but tasty prey.
Sorry to be so verbouse.
-Adept
"thinker, dreamer and adventurer"
> Cats are solitary - are Orlanthi? Quite the opposite, they
> are gregarious, kin- and community-minded. Even the odd
> lone hunter (a pretty unusual case) is generally out on a
> hunt for his/her family and then heading back home.
Hey! Not all cat's are solitary. Infact even our own Shadow Cats (the housecat) is a surprisingly clannish creature. And I think the shadow cat's engage in rather subtle, and sometimes stormy and violent powerplays. I think they are very much like the orlanthi. And you are forgetting the most important. Cat's always appear very proud. Definitely a trait the orlanthi admire.
> In other words, sorry Henrix, I think Orlanthi *are* pack
> animals! And, Mikko, I don't see dogs as naturally
> servile, just happiest in a community and prepared to defer
> to the pack-leader.
Ah, but the comparison is this.
A tame dog will be miserable if his/her owner won't give it enough attention. A cat will go and do it's own cat stuff. The human has to wait for the cat to give the human attention... :)
> One of our dogs is a ten-and-a-half
> stone bull mastiff, and "no one can *make* him do anything"
> - - instead my wife and I have to show him that we are higher
> up the pack hierarchy.
This does not really work with a cat. You may force the cat to do something but it won't be happy with it, where as a dog will find the situation quite natural once it has been established.
> Wits and opposable thumbs make our
> strength more effective in most circumstances (just like
> the elder's experience and tactics make up for the
> disparity with the rowdy young warriors' sheer brawn),
> while we are also able to provide and look after them (like
> the hunter, or the healer). Orlanthi have feral instincts -
> but what makes them worthy of Orlanth is their ability to
> tame themselves for the good of the community. Jeff, your
> (excellent) article in Enclosure does, I think, a good job
> of explaining not only why Orlanth and Yinkin get on, but
> also how different they became as Orlanth grew but his
> half-brother, killed in the Storm Age, did not.
Ah... indeed one can see that Yinkin resembles Orlanth Adventurous (Warrior, Young orlanth) much more than the later stages. That's ok. The Yinkinian clan I'm concentrating on certainly isn't very civilized.
> But they are doing themselves a disservice to suggest they
> are truly "wild, free and careless"!
I think the orlanthi admire the Shadow Cat partially because it's so carefree and wild, while they know that won't really work for themselves. The Shadow Cat embodies just one facet of an adult orlanthis existance.
> Ah well, cat- and Orlanthi-fans no doubt alienated all in
> one post, I think I'd better quit while I'm…not too far
> behind. Given that the Balazarings - bless 'em - never
> really did a lot for me, I'm off to read up on the
> Sairdites (thanks David & Trotsky!)…
>
> Woof,
>
> Mark (Running Dog Revisionist)
>
> PS, to Trotsky (you've no idea how weird typing that feels
> to a Russian historian!), wholehearted agreement regarding goats -
> probably my favourite Herbivores With Attitude.
*ouch* You're sick man! The goat is the most effiscient way to turn a lush forest into a desert. Nature's own eco-catastrophe.
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