Alright, I'm Praxian. I'm riding around, enjoying the great open prairie,
Bison-tasty grass underneath, when suddenly I sense something out of place,
an outlander.
If the outlander greets me somewhat properly, and if he speaks Praxian, then
I might not decide right away to kill or humiliate him. If he behaved
unpleasantly I would probably fight him, and if he didn't die in the fight I
might kill him or take him captive, depending on how well he acquitted
himself in combat. If he simply gave up and told me to bind him, or tried to
run away, I'd kill him and leave the body. If he died bravely enuf I would
take trophies from his body, and go home to tell of the powerful warrior I
killed. If I captured him after a manly fight I'd take him back to my people
to tell of the powerful warrior I captured, and we'd spend a pleasant
evening discussing what further tests of manhood to inflict upon him. Any
shaman in the group could suggest useful activities to use the outlander
for, but he's mine, so I decide. If I thot the shaman or khan in our camp
might take him from me, I'd kill the outlander before going home, or go to
another camp where I could decide, or just sell him as a slave.
One thing I would probably not do is bind him, as he's already been defeated
and can't run away from me without a mount. If he tried to run away, see
above - such cowards are not worthy of further bother.
I might keep the outlander as a slave or guest, depending on how he behaved.
If I thot an outlander had committed blasphemy, he'd be a dead outlander.
But what is blasphemy? An outlander is by definition not a proper person and
so doesn't fall under the laws of proper behaviour. Outlanders aren't to be
taken seriously, so whatever they do which isn't correct is unlikely to be
seriously offensive. In order for someone to commit an improper act one
would have to be recognized as human, or more so than animal. You wouldn't
punish your Riding Beast for peeing on a holy site. Same with outlanders.
You could punish them, but why would you care about them enuf to take that
much interest.
Now, if I were a young man, riding about with no elders when I caught an
outlander, then I'd probably take him to someone older than myself to
decide. Or I'd simply kill him and take his stuff and show the trophies to
my people to prove what a good warrior I am. It would also depend on how
authoritarian my elders are - whether I'm used to deciding things on my own
or asking the elders first.
Praxians do not accuse others of crimes and then take them to the
authorities to be tried. They are not modern police officers. An outlander
could hardly be deemed innocent, but whether he is dangerous or not is
relevant. There are no law books with lists of crimes and punishments. There
are customs but those apply to members of the family/clan/tribe, not to some
non-human outlanders.
What is your evidence of a "blasphemy committed by an outlander" which we
might further investigate? If an outlander were hanging around an overturned
holy shrine we'd simply kill him, or take him to be tortured, although that
would be more likely with someone we thot of as manly enuf to deserve
torture. How could he prove his innocence? We wouldn't bother to hear about
it. There'd be no trial.
If my neighbour takes something of mine and I wanted it back, I'd take it
back. If he didn't let me we'd fight over it, simple as that. Elders could
decide on payment of Herd Beasts in the case of an injury to a member of our
group. Any such decisions have to do with maintaining the prosperity of the
group. Outlanders have no place within the group, so there's little reason
to judge them. Giving them a fair hearing serves no purpose. Setting a
punishment for them has no purpose. Releasing them also serves no purpose.
Bothering with them at all serves little purpose other than to use them as
slaves or objects of amusement.
Then again, if an outlander were to communicate to us that we should tie him
up, we might assume him to be insane - touched by the gods - and we should
be careful with him.
We don't have to show honor to outlanders, but we could if we wished to. It
would depend on whether the outlander seemed to deserve being treated as
somewhat human.
In short, it's mostly about how the outlander conducts himself and how we
feel at the moment.
Daniel
[mailto:WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com] Im Auftrag von frogspawner
Sort of. The situation I'm wondering about is if a non-Praxian allows
himself to be bound, supposedly to be taken for a kind of trial before
the tribal shamen (e.g. for blasphemy). Would that just be a valid
trick to enslave the outlander or would the Praxian captor be on
his 'honour' to release them later if found innocent?