Jane:
> It also doesn't help in the slightest with the real
> question of how you fit this new idea into an
existing
> campaign that was using the existing (quite
detailed)
> history of the area.
Too true. If we ever play this out, we'll start some of the events somewhere late in the 1620's, I think. We were already past 1621 before any of the new stuff came out.
> Still, your ideas about why it didn't get documented
> are well worth pursuing. They probably won't help
with
> the real problem, but it's fun nonetheless.
Thanks. More have occurred!
> Or we go through each individual chronicle that we
> might have expected to include it, and come up with
an
> individual reason as to why it got missed.
Yes. However, I tend to go for more parsimonious one-time explanations than piecemeal ones. So 3-5 seem more likely to me, even though less fun to speculate about. But in keeping with the effort to come up with explanations that run on directly from the FW, I'll play.
> The Saga can be ignored for this: it's not a primary
reference.
> If the sources it had to hand didn't mention it, nor
will it.
Okay. So Doranda may get an out on this one. Though this wasn't the only thing she would have copied and distributed, if she was as important as the KoS compiler makes her out to be. So she still may be a key figure in the 'Where is FW?' mystery. There were also other scribes around (Zin, etc.), so they have to be considered, too.
> > 1. It could be that this particular Death of
> > Orlanth was treated as a taboo subject,
> OK, that's certainly an idea. It won't be something
> Orlanthi like to talk about, even though they
eventually won.
And the Ernaldans have their problems, too. Do they want to admit that all their magic went with Orlanth's? Seems to me that Ernaldans are fairly comfy with the idea that other guys will do as stand-ins. Of course, I realise that the Lunars attacked Ernalda as well, but that's not nice to talk about, either.
> > Problem with that being that the whole
> > Lunar Empire knew that Whitewall fell,
> and celebrated it.
> "1621 was declared to be the Extra Full Moon Year.
Etc."
> Yes, I think they noticed the fall of Whitewall. But
> how many knew that the Fimbulwinter would follow?
I don't think that they (Lunar College of Magicians) did know that the Fimbulwinter would follow. Some might have vaguely theorised that it could (rather like a nuclear winter), but killing a major god, even locally, was bound to have unforeseen side effects.
> > and many
> > undoubtedly knew that the Fimbulwinter happened
afterwards.
> Well, those who experienced it would know. It seems
> possible to me that it got down-graded in reports
back
> to the central Empire.
Well, perhaps in reports, but on the whole, I disagree. I think that the fact that Fimbulwinter was happening/did happen would filter out. There would be emergency caravans of grain and livestock sent to loyalists, troops would spread the word when invalided or transferred back, etc. Graphic stories of the cold would be very likely to make the rounds of all the beer parlours returning soldiers stopped in. They may have bragged about it, they may have displayed their frostbitten stubs of fingers, but it would be a (pardon the pun) hot topic of conversation. And troops from all over the Lunar Empire were there for the final Fall of Whitewall.
There would be the inevitable ponderings on the subject by the Lunar College of Magicians. You could probably slap an 'Official Secrets' seal on the mess for them, but not on the above-mentioned drunken soldiers.
> > Prax would undoubtedly have seen one hell of a lot
of refugees.
> And in Pavis, too. They'd have noticed. Tricky.
> How about Tarsh? Close enough to have been hit by
the
> side effects, and supplying troops to the area.
Another obvious place to look for records, yes.
Vague idea forming here. The FW, Orlanth's Death, Ernalda's Sleep, these are terrible events for the survivors. To feel the magic leached from the air you breathe, the land you till, the body you inhabit, in a world pervaded with magic, would be horrible beyond true recounting. Could there have been a collective flinching away from documenting the FW? Could it have been considered taboo to talk about it, and given initiate cult secret status? In that case, everyone may well know that it happened once they reach the right age, but there is a residual ban on writing about it. You don't want children to know this stuff.
Doesn't get around the Lunars gloating over their success in poetry and prose, I grant you. If the documents (or portions thereof) that Doranda and the others choose to copy are only those not detrimental to the memories of their hero Argrath, and furthermore, do not contain cult secrets, then we're fine.
> > 2. Everyone forgot?
> Minarian Memory removal. How that works, who came up
with it, and why they'd use it on this, are currently
beyond me, but there's a start.
I don't know anything about this technique. Must be damned powerful if a whole people would forget, but it would have to be, wouldn't it?
So, that would answer how, but not why. Hmm. Joint efforts by Chalana Arroy and Lhankor Mhy followers to heal the trauma by removing the memories altogether? Considering that destroying knowledge would be a humongous no-no for LM, it might explain the Illiteracy Era as an accidental result. Somewhat delayed (decades?), but magical effects can happen rather later than you'd expect. I've wondered what caused that since KoS came out.
> > 3. Did Doranda the Quill edit her sources so as
to
> > omit any mention of Fimbulwinter in the
Argrathsaga?
> The Saga, quite possibly, but CHDP?
Well, what they've got in the Enexender Library is only a copy. So, if Doranda (or a similarly minded scribe) altered it while copying, no probs. Why? No clue. Belongs to a faction that didn't believe the FW ever happened? Decided that quietly excising the references would win the day for her position?
> > 5. Last possibility that I can think of is that
> > Harshax forbade the mention of Fimbulwinter.
> And may have used MMR to enforce it?
Not necessary, by any means. Just the threat of burning at the stake, or similar punishment for heresy. Perhaps the ancestor of the Dynasty did something particularly heinous during Fimbulwinter. Family memories carry the story down. When the Harshaxes come to power, they don't want any nasty stories about the disgusting things their (perhaps recently deified) ancestor did. If FW didn't happen, neither did the act in question. Fimbulwinter fiat non.
> > We know nothing whatsoever of the
> > post-Illiteracy times except what the Author of
KoS
> > accidentally includes. No-one's playing that era,
> > and it seems unlikely that anyone will.
> hmm... was that a dare? No, I don't have time.
I am curious about Ardalae's New Ashes, and also stalitizing the zur. Some analogy with the Flame of Sartar? C'mon, Jane, you can do it!
Alison
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