Re: Best hillbillies : tarsh exiles or alda-churi ?

From: Jeff <richaje_at_LqAjt64A4-do2KAxTcio7E9-OcNpr9VwaxNd6oUwRN_mm3FGw49lj1dfu2MGDKTj29rh>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:23:47 -0000

> > Your description makes me think of the Ulster Protestants. A strange tribe
> > of people who practice strange rituals and funny dress codes which are
> > clearly based on something familiar, but have gone off in their own
> > direction. Fanatically loyal to something that no longer really exists.
> > Honouring events and battles that the rest of us have more of less forgotten
> > as though they're the most important things in the history of Europe.
> > Continuing feuds against a neighbouring tribe who look more or less
> > identical to outsiders.

I think we have a different images of hillbillies! I was imagining a family group distantly removed from any town or settlement of size; hunters who may never have seen an outsider enter their lands. Folk whose own local history barely touches the great conflicts of the time, without grand kings or high politics.

The Tarsh Exiles are not that. They are a violent, suspicious warrior culture but their own local history is grand - they are the people of Arim who once ruled all Dragon Pass and in their grandfathers' time they ruled Tarsh. They know the Lunars, for they have war with them for many generations and suffered terribly for it. They know the Sartarites, who once were their allies but now have submitted to the Red Moon. They seek vengeance, and a return to their lawful rule.

To me the Tarsh Exiles are not inbred hillbillies living in ignorance of the outside world. They are Jacobites that were never conquered by the English, revanchist Magyars in the Transylvania wild seeking an independant Hungary, or exiled Norwegians in Russia seeking to reclaim a usurped throne. They are dangerous fanatics, driven by vengeance and hate, hardened and cruel. But they are not hillbillies. :)

Jeff