John raises some good points that show the limits of the "mountain men" analogy for Odayla followers. I agree with John that small bands of Odalyans are not likely to depopulate Prax of its herds or eliminate the gazzam from their traditional stomping grounds. However, I think the social and symbolic analogy of the "mountain men" still more or less works - as I said before "it's a good analogy - in part because there really weren't that many "mountain men" but their importance as symbols and myths were much more important than their numbers or economic relevance."
>My most recent brush with mountain men and frontier mythology has come via
>Tim Flannery's 'The Eternal Frontier' - an ecohistory of North America
Good book. When I wrote my post, I grabbed my office copy of the Oxford History of the American West. Reading that and Rimini's trilogy on Andrew Jackson actually were what got me thinking about drawing on the "mountain men" for the Heortlings. But I digress:). I'm going to digress further - when I first ran the Taming of Dragon Pass campaign, my inspiration for the campaign was having listened to my 90-something year old grandmother reminisce about the stories her father told her about the settlement of Oklahoma. For me, at least, the ToDP campaign was a cross between stories of the American Old West (both settlement and gunslingers) with MacBeth. But now I really digress.
>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?
I think you are overstating the point - it isn't the pleasures of civilization or stead life that bring the Odaylans back home, but rather the Odaylans are members of a largely farming community (again, like the "mountain men") and not autonomous semi-nomadic hunting bands. They may not prefer their stead-dwelling kinfolk, but those farmers are THEIR larger community. Whether they like it or not (similar conflicted opinions probably exist for most followers of "odd" gods like Humakt or whatever).
>Even so, we play the
>steads as having mainly novelty value to the hunters - they come to see kin
>and attend moots, and to meet marriagle folk from other clans, but aren't
>drawn much to the 'comforts' of the stead. In fact, the *main* reason they
>come is the same reason as probably first convinced semi-nomadic hunting
>bands to settle permanently - a steady supply of good beer!
Beer, sex and ritual. Yeah, that's basically what I meant.
>I've discussed this more fully elsewhere, but consider briefly the
>difference in world views between an Odaylan and more typical Heortling
>stead dweller. Odaylans have no concern for material possessions. They
>always travel light, and carry everything they need on their backs. For an
>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.
No, but they probably trade furs for *stuff*. I think you are overstating things when you say that Odaylans (in general) have "no concern for material possessions." I think they have little concern for herds and land, but some may well have ambitions of having a fine hall, a nimble horse, or nifty weapons. They just aren't that likely to ever collect enough furs to achieve those ambitions. Others may be in some sort of spiritual balance with nature. It just depends on the Odalyan, I would guess.
Jeff
Powered by hypermail