>>The queens' biography in KoS (p.227) doesn't give any dates, but in
>>Tarkalor's case we know that his queen was at Grizzly Peak. Grazer sources
>>aren't too clear whether she really died there.
She can't have lived (or reigned) all that much longer; her successor, Splendid Among the Proud, is apparently well established by the sack of Boldhome in 1602. It's even possible that her reign is already over by then (p228 just says her daughters got booty from the conquest). Splendid Among the Proud can't reign much past 1602, or Moirades is KoDP for only a couple of years (considering the application process takes two or three years). Unless, of course, he remains KoDP until the mid-1620s.
>>The reign of Moirades' FHQ seems to have ended by 1614, when the Grazers
>>start a campain of summer raids into Tarsh culminating in two massive but
>>mostly futile reprisals in 1615.
The FHQ seems to have only limited control over the Grazers. There's also the question of whether the death of the FHQ "dethrones" the reigning King and whether it's immediate or the power fades without a partner for the rituals.
>>It is unclear whether
>>subsequent Great Marriages between FHQs and Kings of Dragon Pass repeated
>>the two-year contests.
There must be some sort of contest or ritual. I suspect that the outcome of the various year contests determines who gets the most out of the marriage. Of course, it remains unclear exactly what the benefits of being KoDP are, or what the FHQ gets out of the deal. I have failed to find any Grazer candidates for KoDP; are they disqualified? Seems unfair for the first human resettlers, but maybe it counts as incest or something similar.
>>Likewise Moirades' two children by the FHQ cannot be Pharandros and Estal
>>Donge if her claims to be the daughter of a Sylilan noblewoman are correct.
Or Estal Donge was the mother of Pharandros, and there are two more of Moirades's kids out there. Or Estal Donge was lying about her origins, or she was raised in the Empire. KoS only says she was "from the city of Durnsa" (p147).
>>Is the Great Marriage exclusive, or could a previously married man become
>>King of Dragon Pass and retain his former marriage?
I don't think it is exclusive, except for the ritual needs of the participants. The FHQ can't marry more than one husband because the first failed to do so. (Although she's also wedded to the Sun (KoS, p113), but maybe that doesn't count.) Argrath seems willing to marry at least two women, and I can't imagine the Tarshites have religious problems with multiple-partner arragements (perhaps as long as most are ritual).
Andrew Larsen says
>> In my campaignb, I made him [Yelmalio] the child of Yelm and Dendara.
The poor
>>woman is goddess of the home and family, so she's got to have some children
The cults of Yelm and Dendara (or, more broadly, the men's and women's religions of Peloria) no doubt tell different stories. The Solar cults are going to stress the bodily purity of Yelm, while the Earth cults will focus on the fecundity of Dendara. They both probably see the other point of view as deluded.
Greg Stafford says to
Peter Metcalfe:
>>>they still require blood. HonEel's rites are a far less bloody
>>Far less? Nope. Way boody.
So what's the deal with maize? The other Grain Mothers seem happy enough without blood or (in Esrolia) a little high-quality blood. What does HonEel need buckets of the stuff for? It would also suggest that maize is a poor cash crop; the supply of expendible people isn't inexhaustible (especially with the Bat and other hungry dependents around).
Peter Larsen
Powered by hypermail