<gamartin_at_...>
Re: Flower Wars
Thank you very much for the insights and the references. This inspired me some thoughts on Caladraland.
> I'm not sure I can find much in the way of virgin sacrifice per se:
> the top selection appears to be enemy (hell, even friendly sometimes)
> VIP's, enemy warriors, enemy noncombatants in that order. There must
> have been domestic sacrifice, one would think - certainly there was
> ritual blood-shed by nobles for various ceremonies.
Sacrificing blood to get closer with death and get magic power. The Caladrans would rather burn things, including people, for fertility.
> But the point very much seems to be to kinda steal an enemy cities
> essence by "chopping" their rulers, that being the rather sanguine
> term employed on stelae. New rulers were expected to go on a
> "coronation war" to capture some suitably important person to
> "chop" on their pyramid; Drew speculates that the great ruler 18
> Rabbit met his end on an expedition to find someone suitable to
> sacrifice during the dedication of a new ball-court (he was
> sacrificed by Cauac Sky, who had himself been enthroned by 18
> Rabbit 13 years previously as the ruler of a subject city-state).
> The socio-political structure is very much of warring city-states
> and a sort of almost feudalism - some cities would have their own
> ruler enthroned "under the auspices of" the ruler of another city,
> and regional rulers would sometimes attend inaugaural ceremeonies
> of other rulers. Visits might have been more common, but we only
> have evidence for the politico-ceremonial stuff. During the height
> of the classical period the scenario appears to have been a regional
> power struggle between Teotihauacan in the Mexican basin and two
> Yucatan cities, Tikal (Teotihauacans ally) and Calakmul, the
> "Empire of the Snake".
I like this. IMO the Caladran Flower Wars should have that propensity for sacrifices, except that it's restricted to fire season, and the rest of time, life is usually quiet. From the mythical perspective, the wars are rites for the Green Age deflowering of Asrelia which inaugurates the Gold Age. That's the best time for rulers and people in general to assert themselves in society, and additionally the priests are provided fresh meat to let Caladra assert himself as the most powerful volcano and ruler of the land.
The Caladrans may very well be "ritually feudal" in terms of clans they attack for sacrifices. In this pyramidal scheme, the clans from the top would come down to hunt and prey on the lower clans, because Caladra is above and Asrelia is below. This scheme naturally came from the top clans' closer proximity to the mouth of the volcanoes, and is especially visible around Caladra's Mouth. The lower clans may fight back, and the Flower War begins. Winner might take the loser's place on the slope to increase their magical power or such.
Around the smaller volcanoes to the west the structure is often looser, more Orlanthi-like, though local top-rulers are directly subordinated to the High King of Caladra, and must offer him victims as well as capturing some for themselves.
Clans with special powers can be local pyramid-toppers without any real volcano around. For instance, trader clans on the border, war clans who hire mercenaries, and so on. Weaker clans get victims in bordering regions, such as the Ditali or Porthomeka.
There is also a major variant at the Lower Temple, where the valley folk worship Caladra and Aurelion, a peacenik Godlearner construct coupling the volcano goddess and a sweetwater god from Jrustela. Instead of capturing people to throw them in the volcano, they organize great feasts in which they couple together men and women from different clans who "rescued each other" during the Flower Contests. The practices of the Volcano Twins cult have given rise to interesting rumours as to the kind of polygamy they practiced there. The ceremonies always take place on the site of geysers, the most famous of which is at the Low Temple, and erupts every two minutes.
Belintar gave a volcanic structure to the geyser system, becoming king at the Lower Temple as he was the pyramid-topper. From there he subdued the High King by surviving the Mouth of Caladra, marrying his daughter, and taking him as a vassal. Later in the Godking's reign this position went to a subordinate for mundane matters, though he didn't have Belintar's vigour. When the Pharaoh disappeared, the High King recovered his independence.
Because of the cult's popularity, it's not uncommon for strangers to come and try to ascend the volcano of Caladra and Aurelion. There is much trade, and the Lower Temple is full of marble and hot water pools and running hot water. The people here cherish jewels and think different jewels have different powers. They are sorry that their neighbours didn't take the opportunity to become civilized too.
> However, these were not centralised powers but city-states with a
> network of subordinate cities paying tribute; the later Aztecs
> were much more centralised than the the Maya cities. At this point
> the regional population is probably in the region of 10 million with
> cities of 10's to 100's of thousands of people. There are plenty
> of "emblem glyphs" naming cities that we have not found yet, too, in
> the monuments of the cities we have found. Cities which became
> subject to others were occasionally destroyed, or had their stelae
> thrown down and temples burned, and sometimes placed under a sort
> of "construction ban", it would appear, although thats reading into
> the evidence. Anyway, sometimes cities stop building for hundreds of
> years; another theory might be that the population has been
> transported off as captives. There is also evidence of "dead" cities
> being practically and ritually reborn with an elaborate ceremony to
> an ancient founder, invoking his authority and power to legitimise a
> new dynasty.
Damn fine stuff. I suppose there are many volcanoes in Caladraland but some get extinct sometimes, and at those times the local clans must become "vassals" of other clans, otherwise they can't worship properly. Then heroes come who re-awake the dormant volcano. In such occasions they declare a Flower War against their neighbours to reassert themselves as pyramid-toppers, and benefit from the increased magic. This can happen even if it's not fire season, and such flower wars are the bloodiest. They take place under the auspices of Tessele the True, a Silver Age Hero and the power Belintar summoned to re-erect Caladra & Aurelion's virtual volcano over Caladraland.
Jerome
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