Re: Music is the Weapon

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_iWbKWERD-3trgc8doNdc7iRcaWryX9vyLb8_lpJeLRfrqXin_OeEHA_PL0suRsUpiLn>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:59:21 +1300


On 10/22/2011 2:11 AM, jorganos wrote:
> Not quite sure about that - coastal Pamaltela remained in the occasional grip of the antigods for some time, until they were overcome by the Fisherman hero of the southwestern East Isles.

Fozeranto is in extreme east of coastal Pamaltela and the hero who destroyed it was not Finzalvo the Fisherman but Jesolo of the Golden Fleet. While you could make an argument that Fozeranto also controlled Kimos, their lack of penetration into the Elf Jungles places a rather large constraint on the size of their grip.

> The Outrigger Peoples hid out while the apdara came raiding, except for the Kimotans who took the Gorger apdara more or less head on, or rather monument on.

I don't think this is correct. There's no humans in Maslo for the first century after the Dawn (save Elamle-ata) according to Elder Secrets. Then there's a migration which surprises the elves. Since Jesolo destroys Fozeranto early in the dawn, I assume this human migration is human slaves fleeing the sinking of Fozeranto.

> Admittedly, the Thinokans form only a minority in Fonrit. The vast majority in the Dawn Age would have been survivors of the Artmali downfall, possibly with a few remnants of the storm people (Vadrudi?) who were too slow to catch up with the migration into the Veldt before their destruction.

The Thinokosans don't reach Fonrit until the same time as Garangordos does. Before then they were in Ulrana which is probably in Laskal.

> Somehow, the Agimori of the Veldt felt the reverberations of the Gbaji Wars and mounted a great migratory expedition to set things right, the Pithdarans. These folk migrated into Fonrit, aquired boat building technology from the natives and set sail (or paddle) on the ocean, only to be trapped in a strange time distortion - possibly some Waertagi magics, since they were released when the Waertagi primacy on the western seas was broken.

I don't think the Pithdarans ever went to Fonrit. They built the boats on the Veldt and used magic to travel to the otherside so they could reach the Bad God from there. This makes their lateness a tad more plausible to me.

> We have no records or dates for the Pithdaran arrival in the lands of Oabil, the traditional source for slaves for the Vadeli. From 4th action records, we know that the Vadeli took both Artmali and Agimori slaves in the region, but we don't know how far inland their slave-taking expeditions or trading went. There are some indications that the Artmali won a hold over the region some time in the Storm Age and terrorized the homelands of the Outrigger people.

Oabil is Umathela. The Vadeli took their slaves from Poto which corresponds to Tarien and Jolar. When the Pithdarans travelled northwards (whether by magical or mundane means), Oabil was a vanished land occupied only by Aldryami and Lascerdans.

The Artmali lived in Coboranda which is described in Revealed Mythologies as being in Bandaku (Fonrit). I think Coboranda was settled directly from the Blue Moon and not from Kungatu or Tenel. As for terrorizing the lands of the outrigger people, the interactions with the Artmali in that particular section of Revealed Mythologies is rather clunky and one-sided. I prefer to look at the example of the Zaranistangi who moved northward to Teshnos as being more representative of relations between the Artmali and other humans at that time.

> Enslavement is what the history of [Fonrit] is about. Whoever wanted
> to hold on that land used enslavement to further their goals.

While enslavement is a large part of Fonrit society, to speak of using enslavement to further their goals runs perilously close to modern cynical motivations that I was grumbling against before. Garangordos isn't enforcing chattel slavery to make himself more powerful (Many Fonritans might do that today). He enforced slavery because it was the correct way of maintaining harmony with the cosmos. He enslaves the rebels and renegades to return the world to a proper relationship with Ompalam.

> As a side issue, what exactly does "ownership" (whether of slaves or
> other possessions) entail in Fonrit? The concept might differ from our
> modern concept.

The way I see it, everything should be the property of Ompalam. Serving another as a slave is a worthy act while having many slaves is better than having one. A constraint on the system (but by no means a foolproof one) is that Masters should be ideal slaves of Ompalam and thus behave virtuously. In terms of social order, a Fonritan might consider his clan as being the fellow slaves of his master.

> >Secondly Seventeen is too big and unwieldy number and I would have chosen Five.
> Seventeen is a holy number of the Pamaltelan Veldt,
It isn't. The Pamaltelan naming ritual only has thirteen people in it.

--Peter Metcalfe            

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