Discrete tulas

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 06:31:04 -0700

>I think there are probably more, mixed clan, not-quite-a-tula villages in
>Sartar than the published sources give credit for. Nothing in the 'real'
>world is ever as pure or unmixed as our conceptual models suggest, whether
>its notions of kinship or where and how people live. And most rpgs, for
>very good reasons, can only provide short 'template' type summaries of what

>will in reality be very complex situations. For most of our storytelling of

>course, this can be quite safely ignored. But there's something very C20
>Western about a notion of interlocked, discretely bounded tulas and pure
>unmixed clans.

 For what it is worth, I've been "diffusing" the tula boundaries and mixing up the clans somewhat in the Nymie Vale. For example, my little group of players are all from the same bloodline of the Orlmarthing clan. Some live at the main family stead, others have built a stead up on the Starfire Ridge in lands disputed by the Greydogs, others live in the main Orlmarthing village, still others live in Clearwine Fort and finally another lives in Ernaldori lands. All the characters live within 5-10 miles of each other, but their settlement patterns illustrate the overlap of tulas - at least in the Nymie vale. I'm pretty sure it is the same around Runegate and in the Swan vale.
 Jeff

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