RE: Harmony and stasis ritual

From: ALISON PLACE <alison_place_at_...>
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 13:26:56 -0800 (PST)


Tentative conclusions:
A) The entity in the valley is an otherworld being with strong connections to the Harmony and Stasis runes.

B) The benefit that ritual perpetuates is still a problem.

C) The ritual itself requires the harmonious co-operation of the three clans involved and may involve a heroquest

The whole gathering needs to be the epitome of harmony and changelessness (tradition?).

Jane: "I start to wonder if perhaps this being is a tree? A very, very old tree, hence the emphasis on stasis. Apparently the oldest tree in the RW is a bristle-cone pine that's 4767 years old."

        The absolute classic is the olive tree, of course. Harmony is about the closest that the old set of runes came to a Peace Rune, and the olive symbolises peace. They're longlived, generally pretty tough, and take continuous care to yield well. However, they're not wellsuited to Sartar.

        Some incredibly tough old Storm Apple, dating back to whenever? There long before the clans came to Dragon Pass, maybe even Gods Age. Change the setting to having it sit a blocky bluff of stone, which the Stasis Rune also represents. That sort of setting naturally extends the life of many plants. It also avoids the problem (if you can call it that) of having an uninhabited valley which has to be accounted for. The Apple would be a natural bonsai, yet so old that it's still 10m high or so.

        Definitely add a Plant Rune to the first two, which creates a nice symmetry with the three groups idea. Have the clans trade aspects for each turn of the ritual. Stasis probably translates to the Defender aspect (mostly Orlanth), Harmony to the co-operation between the clans (Issaries?), and the Plant Rune to the agricultural benefits and the pact with the Apple
(Ernalda).

        This could also translate into having a Ring on which the clans trade the positions of these representatives every three years, as the aspect rotates through ritual. If these people are technically members of three different tribes, then this would have to be a local secret Ring, which might lead to some interesting conflicts between what their tribal Rings are busy doing, and what their local self-interest would dictate. They should really form their own tiny tribe, or clan, but maybe that's impossible for some other reason. Ancient tribal enemies, perhaps?

        As Jane says, re-enacting the initial contact would be a good one, though I'd extend it to add: a) the initial meeting and travelling to the site of the three groups, including
b) the harassing of the people by chaos and other dangers, forcing growing trust and co-operation, c) culminating in the discovery of the Storm Apple and its extension of protective benefits to the peoples living near it, in time for a climactic stand-off against all the inimical Chaos of the region, proving their fitness as wards/guardians of the sacred tree
(depending on how you look at it) and new settlers in
the valleys around.

        So the ritual is the traditional one of the peoples' history, yet complicated by having three initially unrelated groups band together. You could fiddle with this plenty for greater impact, of course. E.g., have the three groups initially from enemy tribes, competing to settle the new area first.

        Make one of the magical benefits great endurance for the defenders when attacked (tough like a rock!), plus the obvious ones of better-yielding orchards/fields and less strife between the clans.

        I'd say one of the disadvantages to this would be the increasingly high tendency to take wives only from the other two clans, leading to more and more trouble finding appropriately distantly-related spouses. The Apple, being quite happy to reproduce by granting twigs for grafting anyway, can't conceive of this as a problem. It *likes* the idea of its friends being all similar. It wants continuity and stability in genes as well as existence.

        Perhaps not appropriate to this ritual, but calling back ancestral spirits to the clan to be reborn might be something secret that the clans do. This would also tend to emphasise the strong traditional aspects of the clans.

        All this sort of stuff is going to lead to their neighbours thinking that they're rather queer over there, and you wouldn't want your daughter marrying in. "Oh, I know they sit on the Ring, but there's something not quite right about them folks. Somewhere a bit lost in the past, you might say, but by the winds, they're buggers in a fight, and their cider is the best in Sartar."

        Just my take; hope it sparks some useful thought.

Alison



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