Re: Re: King Bee (and real comments)

From: Peter Larsen <plarsen_at_dJmMQJin1Lx0H2YtVwiJ1WXX5l7brptmCtzV3ZAOkZCuyeBYJs2LvmnAH3Vi54OC5oCm>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 10:09:47 -0600

At 10:30 AM -0500 2/22/02, KYER, JEFFREY wrote:
><uses evil Thanatari Transfer Hangover magics on Peter>
>
>Possibly. Possibly. But considering I sacrificed all my relatives to the
>dark gods of Rock & Roll along with most of my brain cells at a concert
>last night, I'm a bit rocking on staying In Genre with my idom.

        I sacrificed to Minlister last night (and a pleasant sacrifice it was, too, after a hard week), so you can keep your hangover. Besides, eventually, all the hangovers you transfer will come back to you three-fold. So there.

        In an attempt to do something productive:

1. I kind of like the honey thing, but I understand that we don't want an oddball stead. Can we say that the clan as a whole are a little honey-mad? They have a shrine to Elmal King Bee, that other King Bee, and the Bee Mother, but that's off at the Chief's Stead. This won't have much direct effect on the stead except:
   1. They have more hives than is normal for a Heortling stead
   2. They might have an extra Elmal initiate
   3. If there's a shaman around he/she knows bee spirits
   4. The hunters have some honey finding magics
   5. Aska Bee-Gyrda comes to the stead a couple times a year to bless the bees, hives, and honey (and collect the clan's share of the produce). She might need to be escorted to/from nearby steads.
   6. Little boys and girls do "Bee Dances" as part of the Voriof and Voria parts of ceremonies

So this bee and honey thing is a characteristic of the clan that can add flavor but not the dominant character to any stead in the clan.

2. What kind of magical resources are available to a smallish stead like this? I find it hard to believe that there are even a couple of shrines close by, and godar are not thick on the ground. Is there a "Shrine to the Storm Tribe" with statues or other images of Orlanth and Ernalda and maybe little clay statues of other important gods? Are there separate altars for really imporatnt gods? Is there no shrine at all, and everyone goes to the God's Hill and worships at Grandfather Oak for most purposes. Really important ceremonies must require a trip to the Clan's shrines, but how often is that done? Are there godar who travel with portable altars to the various steads? Is there a local godi at all, or are the ceremonies carried out by the Patriarch and Matriarch of the stead?

        We might want to decide this relatively early -- say Uncle Frekor is a godi of Orlanth Allfather, and he leads pretty much all the male rites. There is no Ernaldan gyda, but there are magically powerful women who lead the necessary woman's rites as required. Old Wind-Eye is a crazy old Kolati living off in the hills; the hunters can usually find him when a spirit-talker is needed. Maybe there is a devotee or two for specialist gods, and so on. Other formal religious activity requires trips to the Chief's Stead (or specialist Steads, if there are any) or waiting for the travelling godar (I always liked those ox-drawn carts for Storm Voices).

3. What sort of resources are we assuming? We can have the Four Providers, which is good, and honey seems like a given, but what other resources are available for use and/or trade? Obviously, the stead weaves cloth and makes pottery, baskets, clothing, and wooden goods for its own use, but do we want to identify any of these as specialities of the stead? Sure they're "average," but do they export really nice cloth in exchange for nice pots ("It just hasn't been the same since Aunie Brega died; she was like Pella's own daughter.")? Or is there really good clay along the riverbanks that feed the lake? (If there is, the stead may have extra Pella initiates and special rituals or even a shrine.) And so on.

Peter Larsen