From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Fri, 14 Oct 1994, part 3 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: Mike.Dickison@vuw.ac.nz Subject: Porthomeka/Karse/Mucho Esrolia; & Zaranistangi? Message-ID: <199410131220.AA05460@rata.vuw.ac.nz> Date: 14 Oct 94 13:18:45 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6584 #### Porthomeka #### For what it's worth, I've always considered Porthomeka to be Esrolian with a Caladrian aristocracy though conquest or marriage or something else (surely a good legend in there somewhere). I don't have any problems with there being folks with some Western blood from Arkat's army, and maybe backwater villages have debased western words in their vocabulary, but I think there are enough Malkionoids in the Holy Country already. Rhigos I think is completely Esrolian, just because it's so big and the Caladrians don't like cities particularly. Oh, and after MOB's snippet in Tales #9 I think that Porthomeka is where ducks get their cigars from. #### Karse #### David Hall gives me pause with his revelations. If (New) Karse was founded by Tarkalor Trollkiller it's only fifty years old. If it has a 6K population then the Carse supplement, with about 450 buildings, is a bit small. But heck, it's the best we've got. #### Esrolia #### Here are a few notes of mine on Esrolian culture. As far as I know, they don't contradict anything published (and I've no doubt I'll be notified by the Daily scholars if they do). Several people seem to have done a fair bit on Esrolia (you kow who you are) and their comments are particularly welcomed. There seem to be two different ways of running Esrolia. One way is to stress the Theyalan barbarian aspects, making Esrolia fairly similar to an urbanised Sartar but with women in the top political offices. Men are still the major players in society, and have weapons, property, literacy, and freedom to do what they like (see Alan LaVergne's story The Smell of a Rat, in the RQ Companion). Another way is to stress the matriarchal aspects of the society, making it a patriarchy-in-reverse, and giving men the political rights and social roles most ancient societies gave to women. I like the latter approach better. Note that the dearth of published material could support either interpretation. Neither is necessarily right. I chose the full-blown matriarchy mostly because I'd like to explore a society where men are second-class citizens. I think it makes players and GM confront their preconceptions, and it gives a subtle alien twist to the game. Because as far as I know there was never a true urbanised matriarchy in real life, I wanted to explore what it would be like through a fantasy game. I haven't read the Robert Graves stuff that David Hall suggested, but I think a matriarchy is neither a blissful utopia nor a mirror-image of a male-dominated society. What a visitor to Esrolia might notice: Architecture: Most of the public buildings are square, cubes half-above and half-below the ground. The cool cellars are bedrooms and guestrooms, where a visitor might recline on cushions and sip tea. The upper storey is hot in summer and draughty in winter, and houses slaves, men, kitchens and store rooms. Teams of slaves digging foundations are a common sight along the street. The excavated earth is used for brick and earthen berms, head-high embankments which surround towns and villages. Ramps, pits, and steps leading to shallow amphitheatres are frequently seen. Small temples and council chambers, often the same building, are two-storied. The upper story is wider than the lower, and supported by square carved columns at the corners. Doorways have a lintel stone rather than an arch, carved with a face that seems to scrutinise those entering. Running around the upper storey is a religious frieze. Larger buildings decrease in size with each storey, and resemble crude ziggurats. Clothes: Most men on the street wear a plain cotton kilt and a wide brimmed hat. Those working inside, or as part of an entourage, have a short robe and skullcap. The best dressed men have patterning or stripes on long robes, and a head wrapping of fine cloth with a long tail. All wear a knotted belt, notched leather for slaves, intricately beaded for most others. The pattern of notches or beads signifies their owners or wives, family, and profession if any. Women in contrast wear a wrapped skirt or kilt in fine dyed wool or silk, and a loose tunic and cape. Others wear light cloaks, patterned and embroidered. Jewellery at the neck, wrist and ankle is common. All but a few servants go bareheaded, and some women are bare breasted or next to naked. Status is conveyed by entourage, jewellery, and embroidered patterns on the edge of a cloak. Animals: Pigs and donkeys seem to be the only common livestock in cities, though occasionally a chariot thunders past pulled by four rugged ponies. Most houses have a resident snake that keeps mice and rats away from the granary, and tortoises are common pets. Holy women will wear a small lizard in their hair or on their clothes like a living jewel, and sailors favour malevolent iguanas that perch on their shoulders. Birds are uncommon, and regarded as a pest to be exterminated with egg-eating snakes. Art and Music: Pottery, although functional, is beautifully crafted from the fine clay common in Esrolia. The best types are Northern Greenware, Jorsh Blue, and Sylthian. Most artists paint vases and bowls or sculpt building friezes and pillars. Secular or abstract designs are frowned upon, as the purpose of art is to glorify the Earth. Music is demarcated by sex. Low music is practised by men, playing flutes and reed instruments of a range of sizes as dance or background music. Musicians form travelling bands, travelling from one wealthy residence to another. A recent fashion is the singer with a lyre, performing western ballads and wearing colourful malkioni clothing, but although popular amongst men and the lower orders such minstrels are frowned upon by the holy. Women participate in high music. This is group singing as an adjunct to religious ceremonies, although hymns have become popular in their own right. Choral festivals are common in the main centres, and always attract large crowds from out of town. Choral composers are part of most noble households, specialising in different forms, such as the pantheony (hymns of praise in six movements) or the contraphony, where song accompanies spoken texts. Roads: Fine smooth roads link almost all cities and towns. These are mostly used for donkeys laden with grain, but were built to convey women of importance swiftly between cities. Large partly-enclosed chariots are used, splendidly decorated and ornamented with tassels and painted shields. A noblewoman travelling with all her husbands and slaves may need fifty or more. Because the roads are dusty, bath houses are to be found in every town. These are for women only, and act as places to meet, relax and do business. Slaves: Esrolia practices a form of debt slavery. In times of bad harvest, a family can indenture a son to the local ruler in return for tax relief or grain. Slaves are freed after ten years, though terms vary between places and individuals. They are usually used as agricultural workers or builders of houses and roads, though moderately bright ones can do clerical work or learn a trade. Some are employed by their former owner after being freed, and a few even marry them! Most return to their families, while some enter a brotherhood. Woman are not enslaved, except as a criminal sentence or for prisoners of war. Male prisoners of war are considered beyond redemption, and sacrificed to the Earth or ransomed. Only those of noble birth can own slaves, and only a woman can purchase an indenture. Thus, the husbands of nobles are often given or loaned a slave or two by their wives. Home Life: The house centres on the hearth, literally. A square firepit with central oven, it contains a family spirit or ancestor, or an earth spirit that was already living on the site. The cooking fire burns animal dung (men spread the human waste on the fields), as the cutting of firewood is strictly controlled by local rulers. The oven is used for baking oatcakes and clay. Most day-to-day writing is scratched onto small clay tablets in a shorthand called White Lies (Latin scholars wills see the roots here), and conveyed from house to house by children. White Lies are village dialects, though old temple records are written on parchment in a similar style. Esrolia has a number of remnants of former languages, scripts, coinages and even governments that survive only in odd corners like this. Brotherhoods: These religious guilds exist primarily to educate young men in a social role that will make them good husbands. They are one of the few avenues of social advancement for intelligent men of good family, who are usually enrolled by their mothers at puberty and stay until married off. A few remain bachelors with male lovers and rise to become administrators or priests within the brotherhoods. Each brotherhood has as a patron deity one of Ernalda's husbands, though worshipped in non-standard ways. (I've tried to give all the brotherhoods weird names like the fighting guilds in Geoff Ryman's _The Warrior Who Carried Life_; the Men Who Walk Like Spiders, the Men Who Have Been Baked etc; but I'd welcome better ones.) The Men Who Hoot Like Pied Crows: Court skalds, reciting ancient poems and sacred tales, usually very long and tedious, in a resonant and melodious voice not unlike a warbling pasture bird. Patron: Orlanth Longwinded. The Men who Jabber Outlandishly: Translators, town criers, and messengers. Those who deliver letters by pony express at night are called the Whisperers in Darkness. Patron: Argan Argar in his true human form. The Men of Ink and Reed: Scribes, accountants and record keepers, recording every immortal word of their wives. Cut river reeds as pens, the background rasping of which is the indicator of a wealthy house. Patron: Lhankor Mhy. The Men who Gyrate Unclothed: Ornamental dancers, who also demonstrate wrestling, athletics, discus and so on, for public and private entertainment. Patron: Yelm. The Men of Erotic Prowess: Concubines notorious for drinking and skiving off, frequently misunderstood by foreigners. Almost always both gay and butch, and sometimes eunuchs. Patron: Lodril. The Men who Prance Gleaming: Swordsmen and bodyguards, more decorative than functional. Gorgeously armoured, they will fight display duels on demand, using codified tactics and moves (anyone seen Strictly Ballroom :-). Patron: Humakt. And there are (Y)elmal(io), Zorak Zoran, Magasta, and Urox in similar veins. Barntar is a poor man's brotherhood, unstructured and widespread. Dormal doesn't fit the mould, and offers an escape for oppressed males; running away to sea. Lhankor Mhy and Issaries have more cosmopolitan aspect in the larger cities and will take males in reasonable numbers. So what do people think of all this? Corrections, extrapolations or just good ideas gratefully received. How does this fit with your personal vision of Esrolia? ### Zaranistangi ### I suspect Sandy is the one I'm asking here; in the Troll Gods write-up of Anilla, one group of human worshippers is the Loper People or Zaranistangi (cool name), who were whupped in 805 in Slontos by a Seshnelan king. I want to use the Zaranistangi in my campaign, at this stage having a player discover a flooded abandoned temple in the Wenelian Islands, only visible at dead low tide, still containing a hero spirit (a Firshala sort of setup). The player is a Jakaleel follower, and a sailor, so it all seems to fit wonderfully, BUT I'd like to know more about the Loper People. Are they the same as the Nose Lopers, as I recall an extinct tribe of Prax? What is a Loper anyway? Blue-skinned, stealthy, human sacrifice - what else do they do? And where's the best place to look for them these days? After seeing Sandy's Morokanth and Slarge notes, I'm hoping there's more info than the one tantalising paragraph in Troll Gods. Mike. ---- --------------------- From: CHEN190@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Peter Metcalfe, CAPE Canty) Subject: Vessel=Solace, Upside down pyramids and slarges Message-ID: <01HI8V5W9FVGA0URDR@csc.canterbury.ac.nz> Date: 14 Oct 94 12:44:21 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6585 Kevin Rose ========== >I keep hitting a wall when I consider the concept of the "Presence Vessel" >system. It mostly has to do with the concepts of Vampires and other >creatures that lack POW casting spells whose manipulation depends on the >previous expendature of permanent POW. So, the question I keep coming up >with is how does a creature that has no soul create the Vessel? Having just seen the 'vessel' for the first time (thanks a heap Brian!), I will posit the simple answer they don't. Sorcery does not really require the vessel to be cast. Simply put, vessels are at the very least a Malkioni magical technique based on their philosophy. They may be the best way to do sorcery but of course Malkioni always say that they are the best... IMO, the Malkioni (thiest) would not view the vessel as enslavement of the hidden self for they have none. My conception of the 'vessel' is that the Malkioni make a part of their soul die (remember death is the quickest and surest way to solace) and pass on to Solace. Your soul is still existing in both here and there and you gain magical power from being in contact with Solace. This also explains why self mortification practices have such a good effect on the Presence. This of course gives the God fearing Malkioni a good reason to believe in God and the Solace. They themselves already experience it. Of course they are still tied to the material world and know that they do not fully experience Solace. But they know that when they die they will. Some philosopher speculate that you could make other essenses of your body die (such as STR, CON, INT etc). This may be true but if such practices are psooible their effects are Secret. The Athiests and the Sorcerers (maladjusted wizards in Malkioni Society) treat would IMO treat the Vessel as a tool, a technique, a magical discipline to remake the world. Just as one diciplines the mind to comprehend the words of a foreign language so one disciplines the soul. Holy vows do not work although they may have other techniques. Rumours of other paths to a vessel exist. The most common is the Zorian Heresy. Just as the Wizard makes his soul die to gain Presence, the Zorians exalt part of their soul into an estascy which they claim reaches Solace. To enhance such a Presence supposedly requires regular sexual intercourse, drug experimentation and other sordid vices. This of course may be the rationalization of nocturnal emissions of Juvenile Acolythists. I shall not describe the peversities the Lunar Empire supposedly practices. >Greg's answer to how vampires cast spirit magic was that they cannot. As >they have no permanant power they cannot cast spirit magic. As the fetch >is a part of their soul/POW, a vampire or other creature without permanent >POW cannot have one. So how can they cast sorcery? Strictly speaking one only needs INT and MP to cast sorcery. The Vampires may be able to create a Vessel using a spell that allows others to involunatrily donate their soul. They may rely on some other means. >I haven't heard an answer that didn't seem to be a rules hack. Rules >hacks are fine, but if the claim is that the precensce vessel system is a >GUTM (grand unified theory of magic) it doesn't make sense for there to >be major execptions. Just remeber. The Vessel may be the GUTM. The Malkioni claim it is. The Kralori IMO practice something else (they may tie it to their draconic philosophy). The Fonritians (based on Brians comments about Sandy using the Vessel system and Sandy's comments about the Fonritian Sorcerers) do not use the Vessel but rely on an inferior system (RQ3 sorcery skills?). Instead they make up for it with the magics of Ompalam which more than compensate ie Slavery enchantments etc. >I also have some other problems involving attitudes towards magic by >dwarves and many other sorcery users that doesn't really fit Paul's system. Of course a good answer may be that there is no royal road to sorcery. Perhaps dwarves do not use the vessel as such but make use of little implants in their brain. Well not actually implants (as we don't want Cyperpunk RQ) but little wee vaccuum tubes. Of course the size of this is such that they have to excise little pieces of useless grey matter that is found in the head. ie their int goes down for every brain implant. And of course vaccuum tubes have the problem in that they explode. If a dwarf fumbles while casting sorcery, he takes 1d6 damage to the head. Now apparently brain damaged dwarves are not that common so they must have made a technical innovation. Using data from Humcti vivisectionists, all implants nowadays seem to have a crystal attached. This we believe acts as an arcane focus (hooks them up into the machine is the dwarf phrase) for some mighty machine which appears to serve as a similar function as the vessel. Attempts to duplicate the effect of this machine has alas failed. It is believed that the iron dwarves are arbitarily assigned an vessel size (captured dwarves called it an account) based on how old the dwarf is. If a dwarf turns individualist, he will be disconnected. David Dunham: ============= >BTW, how do the proposed inverted pyramids of the Kingdom of Ignorance >stand up? Even regular pyramids are tricky (there's a pyramid in Egypt >which was under construction when another pyramid collapsed; the architects >accepted a change order, and the slope of the pyramid changes to make the >whole structure a little lighter). I always understood the Ignorant architects to hollow a pyramid size hole in the ground and then build a hollow step pyramid. Of course the bottom may be flattened to produce a rink. The sides are supported by the ground. very stable. Sandy ===== >As originator of the damn slarges, it is clearly my duty to do some >description here. Wow! Thanks a heap! Of course with the Anit-healing, Padding and Cycle spells and the Slarge metal, I'm staying away from the place! --Peter Metcalfe