I think two of the Issaries sons/predicates were Garzeen and Middleman. I
am mixing up stories a little bit here, but one is known as the desert
tracker and the other one of them has to try to put Genert back together in
order to win a bride (I think I have this in the right order). I usually
translate this into my game as follows:
1. Garzeen the Wanderer was a follower of Genert. He went all
throughout the Garden talking to Genert's people. Everyone liked him. He'd
be Genert's holder of the "equal exchange" rune.
2. When Genert died, Garzeen swore to put him back together and restore
the Green Age. Some of the Garden's inhabitants took up his oath. He
became Garzeen the Desert Tracker. They became the desert trackers. They
totally missed out on Waha's construction of Praxian society and the
Survival Covenant.
3. The Issaries we all know and love is a God Learner concoction. They
inserted Garzeen's desire to put Genert back together into a story about the
westerner Middleman seeking to marry King Froalar's daughter and being given
an impossible task to perform. (I think the actual task was "impossible"
because it has to do with money and breaks western caste
boundaries--something like "buy a kingdom"--but I don't know enough about
the west to say.)
4. Today, Garzeen's followers are people who do not fit in with the
major role laid out by Waha's laws. They go from clan to clan and tribe to
tribe, engaging in the trading of small, valuable items (e.g. metal weapons)
and of information. They are dissociated from the family and tribe. (I
suspect many of them may be Oasis People, who would have a closer mythic
connection to Garzeen than Waha worshippers would.) Waha owes them no
protection or support. Hence they need mercenary protection if they
accumulate much wealth. This protection is often provided by Storm Bull
worshippers, who have a mythic connection with desert trackers, since both
their gods served Genert. Likewise, they must use mules or walk, since
their own tribe's animals will not obey them. Eiritha worshippers
(especially those at the Paps) may give them some assistance in finding
edible plants (also due to the Genert connection), but not in herding
Praxian beasts. Unlike other Praxians, they do not need to stick to known
paths. If they discover new paths, they may sell this information by acting
as guides to Praxian clans needing a different way in the wastes.
Generally, prosperous desert trackers are found only in and near the borders
of Prax and the Wastes, where they can use mule trains to transport
commercially viable quantities of goods.
5. I suspect that Garzeen worshippers may engage in misapplied theistic
worship of Garzeen, Storm Bull, and Eiritha (and perhaps some of the losers
left over from the destruction of the garden, like Seolinthur, Ronance,
etc.). This would be odd because most Garzeen worshippers would be
disaffected Praxians, but it might make sense if you think of them as a
secret society. It also just feels right that desert trackers (as described
above) would engage in some form of worship that is so antiquated that it is
less effective than that of Praxian tribesmen.
So that's my take on the Garzeen of the Genert Pantheon. If Pavis did anything with these particular weirdoes, I'd think he tried to introduce ideas that led to identify Issaries with Garzeen, thus creating ties to markets and cities. Perhaps he was partly at fault for the confusion of Middleman with Garzeen.
Almost all speculative.
Chris Lemens
Powered by hypermail