Music is the Weapon

From: Keith <keith.nellist_at_e4o9UvVs_yGVWJgLeq-8RZZbBoLnBu8q1eiLzzNc4Q2SuBaZVlt1y1iAXhba_n>
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:19:34 -0000

I have been thinking about a Garangordos the Cruel game, where players take on the roles of the Garangordites who flee Forest folk oppresion in Banamba and end up conquering Fonrit and being worshipped as gods. My main stumbling block has been getting a good image into my head of how the setting looks and feels - a bit of inspiration was needed. Shaka Zulu was my first thought, but I see Gargangordos as a bit different from Shaka even though they both seem to have had powerful mothers, and perhaps Garangordos also sought a magical elixer to cure baldness, but I don't get the sense that the Garangordites re-organised their military forces in a radical way that allowed them to conquer others, but more in a magical way.

In the past I've used musical genres as a source of ideas - sixties motown for Prax for example: Try a Little Tenderness became Try a Big Rhinoceros, Heard It Through the Grape Vine became Herded though the Long Dry, Can't Get Next to You became Can't Kill all the Broo.

For dwarves more of a funk James Brown vibe - Sex Machine became World Machine, Please,Please, Please ....don't Grow, etc.

For Harrek and the Hero Wars, the Wiggles provide the obvious choice - Get Ready to Yggle, Here Come a Bear, Scary Scary Bear, Argrath's Magic Buttons, Sog City, Yummy Yummy, and so on.

Fela Kuti has been the answer to my Garangordos problem - Music is the Weapon become Darleester is the Weapon. The band would start in Laskal, pass through the coastal towns of Goan and Bogani, enter the wilderlands of Mondoro, find Barueli and encounter the Temple fo the Hungry godess, then go to the Gargos valley, learn about Ompalam, Tentacule and Darleester at the Temple in Garguna and using the Noose gain control of the valley, then expand to the rest of Fonrilt. it would go along these lines, taking cues from Fela song titles:

Expensive Shit - the taxes required by the Forest Folk are expensive! Trouble Sleep Yanga Am - prophetic mushroom drunks drunk at Goan. Teacher Dont' Teach me Nonsense - learning from the mad elves of Bogani He Miss Road - one of the brothers leaves the band, heading south Water No Get Enemy - crossing the Baruling river at Dumanaba Open and Close - describing the movement of rafts-house in Dumanaba Sorrow Tears and Blood - toguh times in Mondoro Look and Laugh - funny and unusual landscapes in the highlands of what was once Bandaku - bad mountain, where Bolongo lived. Chop and Quench - some hack and slash in the wilderness. Underground System - the Priests of the Hungry Goddess, have their own underground system. Zombie - some Gark the Calm cultists in the Gargos River Valley Colonial Mentality - the Gargangordites take over Garguna the gain control of Darleester the Noose Original Sufferhead - slavery
International Thief Thief - the Lamsabi organisation. Powershow - taking over the rest of Fonrit Army Arrangement - slave armies used to conquer the entire land. Coffin for Head of State - murder of Garangordos (the head of state) Confusion Break Bone - Fonrit split into feuding city states.

Also considered BB King, but more for the puns on Blues - I Got the Blues, How Blue Can you get? etc etc.