>I remember a reference to Heortling sons and daughters being taken as
>hostages and raised by Lunars and returning to their homelands, bringing
>Lunar ways. Of course, I cannot find where this is mentioned, but I have
>a few questions.
Dang, I wrote it, and I can't remember either. It's in the 'background colour' section of BA, or possibly OID. (Don't have books handy).
>Where would these people have likely been raised? At first I was
>thinking that Sylila or Aggar might be suitable, since these have some
>cultural similarities to the Heortling culture. But I could also believe
>that the Lunars would want the heortling children to be raised in a more
>"civilized" environment to inculcate them with a more pro-lunar outlook.
Well, in the mayhem immediately after the invasion, I'm sure they could
have ended up almost anywhere. *Ideally* as a Lunar commander you'd want
them raised in an environment with a barbarian culture, a worked-over
pro-Goddess or neutral pantheon and an unquestioning loyalty to the Empire.
You'd prefer a military family used to the subtleties of propaganda,
proselytization and intrigue. It would be nice if the hosting family could
exploit the fictive kinship obligations that the Heortlings recognise in
fostering.
But then again, its 1602, the entire land has fallen much more swiftly than expected, your baggage train is still camped at some love-temple on the far side of Furthest, there are thunder rebels playing hell with your troops on every bend on the (admittedly rather nice) highway, the Seven Mothers are setting up town and city governments in direct opposition to your own, and not one of these blue-faced flea-bitten kiltwearers will even carry on a conversation in Tradetalk when it doesn't suit them. In other words, the kids get chucked on the first empty wagon heading north, and most of them get lost forever. Some, I'm sure, never made it past the thrall markets at Alda Chur. A substantial number would end up in the Far Place or Tarsh, as little better than thralls. Those that made it to Furthest would have some chance of being fostered to Loyalist military clans. A few would have made it further - fostered in barbarian kingdoms like Saird and Holay. A few would have made it to Glamour, and their fates would be the best and worst of all.
Of course, as things settled down in the following years, the system may have improved a little. But this is the Lunars, remember. Death by a thousand proclamations and inter-office memos, most of which get lost in the post.
I lked your character. Some of these fosterlings would be agents of Imperial aggression. Some would be lost in the wasteland between their two cultures, and a few, like Aski, would have retained their birth loyalties, perhaps through the secret tutoring of an accompanying nurse or bodyservant.
Cheers
John
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