Michael asks
>Here's another small problem I see cropping up... why does such a small
>stead hold two ring members?
I wondered that too, but then I figured "Everyone's got to live somewhere!" The Clan ring is not like a modern democracy, with the ring members divided equitably between the members of the clan
>There are 1,100 other members of our clan,
>and surely Orlanth and Barntar are more important in clan life than
>Heler and Poverri (which are important to Swensstead, sure, but
>probably do not matter all that much to Geo Carl at the moot).
The Fishermen will tell you that is why it is so important that they are represented on the inner ring, to ensure their voice is heard, since the greater number of farmers will always drown them out in open debate - yet they too provide a valuable food source to the clan, as well as keeping the river available as a route through clan lands for people or goods
>Uralda is more important,
>as Cow Mother, and so is Vingkot Victorious, as warrior against minions
>of the Evil Emperor.
Well we have an Uraldan Ring Member (Lyzal Unbending) - however we only have 9 full time warriors (Weaponthanes), and as a clan have a tendency to peace and caution, so VV is probably even more of a minority than Poverri or Heler!
It is undoubtedly true that the ring is under-representing the more militant faction of the clan, this is to some extent deliberate on my part at least. A non-militant ring can accommodate players from appeasers through to active resistance with out to much difficulty (although full time rebels may need to be outlawed to protect the clan) while a more aggressive clan may force the players into a particular type of campaign.
Also since we "know" that the Hero Wars are coming, it is easier to start with a ring that the PC's can try to influence into being more proactive in a "political" style campaign rather than to have them try and stop the fight...
> A cottar's god, as I imagine most clanfolk see
>Heler, is not as important as any of the other clan gods... although it
>does set Swensstead apart from the average small stead.
Iskalli represents the healing and life-giving powers of Heler as Yuhorol, so while he (Heler) is not as "mainstream" as the Provider gods who are invoked every day, I think there are few who would openly look down on him or question his right to worship and representation.
One thing I think we should learn from this process, especially when building up a clan/stead/whatever as a group is that we should have started with the questionnaire, and only gone on to look at creating the rest of the information once the results of that had given us a common starting point. When you are working on your own it doesn't much matter if you first come up with a cool idea for a person/place/cult/wyter/myth let/plot hook and then "fix" the clan history to allow it, or generate the history first and allow it to dictate the rest (or some synthesis of the two). With a larger group, however the danger is everyone can come up with a cool idea that assumes some particular piece of background that ends up incompatible with the overall view... (I may be biased, but I think the ring we have is not wholly incompatible with the clan background - If on the other hand we had turned out to be a Thrall taking War clan, whose main source of income was the tribute it demanded from it's neighbours, and whose main god was Elmal, we'd have been completely screwed!)
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