Darran wrote:
>I think this is an another Hoertling *all* (85%). Certainly
establishments like Geos would be considered Inns of some sort, and
popular towns will have Inn a public houses. Pavis does I am sure!
It would give Minlister brewers some places to export the wares to.
I suspect that the inn despite being a great role-playing idea is
being deprececiated for a number of reasons.
- In a kinship based society people travelling around their own
tula stay with their kin. Staying with strangers in an inn would
seem strange and unpleasant, an implication that you were without
kin to support you, and poor.
- Hospitality customs help to foster the availability of places to
stay when you visit. "You want to stay with strangers, when your
Aunt Jenesta would love to see you. Sometime you make my want to cry
with shame young Harmast, you really do." Generosity to guests and
the chance to show it are important to Heortlings.
- How will you pay in a barter based economy "Two meads, three
ales, a glass of clearwine for the lady, and a packet of pork
scratchings. That will be three chickens Jonrik, please. Change for
a piglet, just let me check..." The social centre is the mead hall,
not the inn. It is used on feast days, holy days, the clan moot and
other important gatherings. The clan provides the food and drink
(perhaps from the generosity of a thane wishing to impress the clan
with his/her generosity in the hope of future election).
- Lack of traffic. Most people do not travel off the tula, visitors
to the tula see the chief, whose job it is to deal with outsiders.
The chief will likely provide hospitality in return for news and a
gift, or pass you on to a family who will be honoured to welcome you
as suggested in BA. There is a lack of traffic on most tulas to
support a full-time inn. We still have this situation in our world,
some holiday companies send you to locations where there are no
hotels and put you up with local families who pull out the stops to
show you their hospitality.
- Sartar's towns have tribal or clan lodgings for those arriving
from the hinterlands on official business, who have no kin within. I
suspect some have evolved into inn like establishments over time,
offering hospitality in return for consideration. The arrival of the
Lunars will have created increased demand for inns, for they have no
kin to stay with. THe Heortlings may find such establishments alien
places.
If we want to explain the inns like Apple Lane and the cult of Geo's
we still can. It is after all your Glorantha, if you want some inns
here are some suggestions. Remember that Geo's is really a widely
dispersed clan, whose tula is the collection of their
establishments, the bouncer their clan wyter, and "membership of
Geo's" a form of kinship with your kaylings so you are just staying
with kin. Not that different to the situation in BA, just a special
case of it, created by Sartar to bend customs to his need. Sartar
may also have founded some non-Geo's roadside inns to help encourage
trade. Perhaps the Tin Inn is a royal way station, protected by the
Sheriff. We probably need to assume some form of subsidy to keep
them going - perhaps related to the earlier thread on road taxes or
tolls. With the Lunars around such subsidies may not longer be
needed, but the inn will be filled with Lunar merchants and not the
best lace for heroes plotting sedition. I assume they are the
exception, not the rule (we are just trying to explain away fantasy
game inn anachronisms).
Ian Cooper