Re: Odaylan mountain men

From: gamartin_at_...
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2001 11:10:39 -0000

> If Odaylans are born in hunting camps and love solitude to the
extent that
> they spend entire seasons off by themselves, and rarely marry, what
exactly
> are the pleasures of civilisation that stead life that offer them?

A market. For the way these hunters appear to operate (as mentioned), I bet they mostly value steads as places to offload surplus product. Its unlikelt a solitary hunter can keep meat long enough to consume a whole deer or boar or whatever, but if you know a circile of steads who are happy, most of the time, to take your surplus off your hands for a few mod cons, well thats great. This brings them into fairly regular contact with a number of steads, I would expect, although probably not spending more than a night or two indoors. Of course, there must be a fine line dividing a forestdwelling  hunter and a bandit, so these relationships would probably have to be built up.

2p

> Agriculture is back-breaking work from dawn to dusk, while hunters

Not if Other People are doing it.

> come is the same reason as probably first convinced semi-nomadic
hunting
> bands to settle permanently - a steady supply of good beer!

Indeed.

> stead dweller. Odaylans have no concern for material possessions.
They
> always travel light, and carry everything they need on their backs.

Alternative interpretation: they are very conscious of material possessions, but not acqisitive. A good, reliable knife is priceless. If you can't carry it, you should not need it.

> Odaylan, the best place to carry a tool is in your head. They would
only
> rarely engage in the cattle gifting pursued so relentlessly by their
> stead-dwelling cousins.

Agree with that idea.

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