>A mythically important fact is that the Doraddi are descended from a
>pure hunter culture.
Debatable.
>Their mythology has the plants descended from the
>first humans who died, indicating a purely carnivorous mythical
>existance before Death came.
Except that in the Doraddi mythology, Bolongo's murder of Earthmaker precedes the creation of humanity. In addition Aleshmara is cited as growing plants to feed creatures in the Long Version of the Naming (Revealed Mythologies p32).
The earliest village of Um has women's huts made of grass while the men's huts were made from tree limbs or animal hides (RM p32).
The list of the Fiwan, who have been around ever since Pamalt awoke, contains several creatures which are herbivores, such as the Milk Antelope.
That was for the Creation Period. Now comes the Old People period.
There is the Tree War in which Pamalt fights the Jungle and then comes the Agi.
>The Men-and-a-Half of Prax still have a
>diet mainly consisting of meat, with plants only an afterthought.
Which is primarily an adaptation to the place where they live rather than being an ancestral diet unchanged since mythic times, one thinks.
>This gets us to the question how the Doraddi cities worked. IMO the
>Doraddi attitude to cities is similar to that of the Orlanthi - while
>far from intrinsic to their way of life, cities are possible when the
>circumstances are right and slight changes to that way of life are made.
Except that the Doraddi live in Kothar and have a tradition of settled life (stemming from the ancient land of Tishamto). Using the attitudes of the Agimori of Jolar - the Arbennan - as a guide for cities is like using the Hrestoli as a guide for the Rokari.
>The
>great capital city of the Doraddi was situated on the shore of the
>Nargan Sea, on a major river mouth.
I don't see where the river comes from and calling it a capital presumes a government organization over the whole of Tishamto that we have no evidence for. After all Tishamto may have grown its food within its city borders.
>It appears to have functioned only
>by taking tribute from the hinterland, a situation similar to the
>non-Kresh Doraddi of Kothar nowadays.
I don't see the evidence for either. The Doraddi settlements don't take tribute from their nomadic counterparts - they trade.
>Perhaps the Kresh reanimated part of the culture of that ancient city?
The Kresh are nomads.
>The Pamaltelan veldt may be lush compared to Prax and the Wastes, but
>presumably the plants worth cultivation require more than nature is
>willing to offer them to thrive.
There are patches of wild grasses in Turkey that don't require cultivation yet can be harnessed to provide grain. All that requires for transplantation in glorantha is growing magic.
>Zamokil's Sweet Grass sounds very
>much like sugarcane to me.
I've placed sugar in modern Fonrit (because of sugar's historical linkage with the development of commercial slavery in the Carribean) but that it was a mythic import from Zamokil adds a nice detail.
>The "best plants" of the Veldt are those that grow on the graves of
>the ancestors.
AFAIK these plants are for medicinal and religious purposes rather than food crops.
--Peter Metcalfe
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