There are three kinds of lands in the tula: herding land, hunting land, and farming land.
For the hunting land, the ritual negotiators would essentially seek to placate animal tribes and/or land guardians (which could be a lot of different things: a talking animal, a wild hsunchen totem, an ancient result of EWF experimentation, a dryad servant of the Land Goddesses, etc.) who, if successfully placated, allows hunting in certain areas and/or at certain times of year. (see John Hughes' email)
For farming land, a land goddess or her representative must be contacted. She might be a dryad or oread, a stone circle spirit, etc. Typical placations would include seasonal or yearly sacrifices, small ritual obligations, etc. (see Bryan Thexton's email)
For farming land, apparently the land spirits must be placated and reminded of the ritual contract; thus the use of boundary stones and the like. It begins to become clear how important the boundary stones are. (Who knows what penalty clauses might come into effect -- better talk to the godi or lawspeaker first! On the other hand, moving or removing an enemy's boundary stones, now...)
What form of yearly obligation would there be? John mentioned the Beast Circle, but that only covers deals with the animal tribes. What sort of things would other land spirits require?
Roland
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