David Scott

The basis for Joraz's actions are noted in Pavis: GtA: This was about power politics. Joraz was clearly a powerful magician and he sought to cement his power in the area. Looking at what he would of had to have done to create the Zebra tribe reveals his power. He sought to pair his human tribe with a herd beast tribe that had no human counterpart. We know there are zebra priestesses at the Paps, so all he has to do is convince the Zebra priestess to go back to the Green Age, and conceive a child there (with the blessing of the Mostrespected elder). There she is the protectress and once the child is born he is clearly the founder. To add to the magics she gives birth to twins - one a human, the other a zebra...

Looking at real world animism (and shamanism), the answer is quite broad. Using a house as an example, it may have an overall house spirit, and/or individual room spirits. There could be a spirit of all the furniture, or just Grandma's chair. The answer is variable. It also depends on what you are trying to contact in the house. If you are blessing the house, you may experience the house spirit. If you are blessing the room where a birth is going to take place you could meet the spirit of the room or the house or both. The bench could have a bench spirit, and/or wood and stone spirits or be part of a greater bench spirit that is all the benches in a park, or just the park spirit of which the bench is part of...

This is much more complicated when you consider cross tribal societies. Pol-Joni Storm Bulls on horses will be found with any other tribal Storm Bull united in their hatred of Chaos. Other cross tribal groups include Yelmalions, Humakti, Orlanth, etc. Look at the percentage cult membership in Cults of Prax. The Pol-Joni are a Praxian tribe that worships the Praxian Pantheon. All Praxian societies and cults are represented except the Seven Mothers. They have Waha Khans, Eiritha Priestesses, Storm Khans. All of these will be welcome at the Paps. There are a few Pol-Joni Priestesses at the Paps. They are a small tribe, but certainly have representation, Waha and Eiritha give them a place in the Wastes, but that means they have to do as the others do - Raid or be Raided. The horse hating depends on who you are, what you can get out of it, it's a holdover from the PHP invaders.

Very funny...

This is exactly how I imagine Egajia Chewer of Flesh (most respected elder at the Paps) being carted around (she's pretty old as well). No rails of course, and more herdmen. Ronance is a spirit of the Paps, and he does lend his chariot out sometimes. Why shouldn't the most powerful woman in the Wastes benefit. Clearly other Morokanth are emulating this, racing around with their Eirtha priestesses, trying to out do their neighbours. This is clearly the basis of a MOB MGF scenario.

Of course the Godtime has sequence, the Dara Happans know this and it's all dated: The Second Era starts in 1YS with Yelms enthronement. Then the God Emperor Ruled for 100,000 Years. ... The Tenth Era: 111,221 is the Start of History, when Yelm once again rises into the sky. by my maths it currently 111221+1621 = 112842. The whole history of the Godtime is in the Glorious ReAscent of Yelm.

Here's the counter and pic from Nomad Gods for reference. His snakes are Earth Spirits as he's an Earth God. IMO he looks very sky god too, so I'd suggest his parentage is Ernalda and a sky god. There are Morokanth with the Earth Rune (2% Male & 10% female) and Sky Rune (both 1%). So there could be a connection there. As for Lokarnos, well he's not one of the Invader deities of Prax. Although he could easily have been encountered during the First Age Praxian diaspora. There are Trader gods amongst the nomads, Issaries is rare (233) and Eyries non existent amongst the tribes, so Lokarnos is also nonexistent too. The Cult Compendium says Sun County says So the cult does exist, but there are no Yelmalion morokanth according to Cults of Prax.

Just to put this into perspective, there are 80000 Morokanth spread across the whole of the Wastelands split into about 150 clans. They are nomads just like the other tribes and spend their time travelling their ancestral migration paths across the Wastes, just as their ancestors did. Their traditional paths have been altered by the Lunar invaders, the armistice of Prax and the rise of settlers in the Zola Fel Valley, and they know how to tread new ones. Whether you have them as vegetarians or not, they still raid, herd and practice a nomadic lifestyle. The only real difference is that 50% are members of the Shadow People spirit society. This society is the home of the Praxian Darkness spirits. All tribes have access to these spirits, it's just the morokanth have a higher tendency to have the Darkness rune as their main element (85%). Nomad Gods tells us Ronance is a Spirit of the Earth and god of Fertility. His counter has a wheeled and winged chariot, and theres's a cool Gene Day picture of him as well with his chariot pulled by snakes. In in RQ2 Ronance is a subcult of Eiritha found only at the Paps, he teaches Find Fodder and the spell of Pathway that locates oases. You'd need to be a woman to access his magic. I don't think there's any link to Morokanth chariots and him. However in the Prax book, i've added that he does sometimes lend people his chariot. Given the physical problems with morokanth riding chariots and a brief mention in an old supplement. I'd say that this was a recent imported practice, likely from the Lunar Empire. Maybe practiced by Lunarised morokanth who have connections to the Seven Mothers (Cults of Prax says 8% of Morokanth are 7m initiates - 3200 people). Perhaps the chariots are imported or are gifts and modified to make them easier to ride and pull. Perhaps they are actually small carts and just called chariots to make it all the more exciting. I think it's localised as well, to somewhere a track is possible and so seasonal, as nomads move around. I'd also add that it's a minority sport. I can't see the clans carting these about.

I have all the details for the major tribes herds from the Herd Beast chapter, I'll post them later.

It will probably help this discussion if I outline the current thinking of the now vegetarian morokanth. Firstly the Covenant. It's definition has always been a bit vague. I've taken the view Eaters and Eaten is what the other tribes now say to show the morokanth cheated, so Morokanth raid just like everyone else, but use the meat to feed the omnivorous herd-men. The problem for the other tribes is that herd-men don't thrive on a vegetarian diet, they need meat. Of course the others aren't willing to feed it to them. Morokanth do eat meat, but only in sacred ceremonies. Outside they can only digest small amounts. Much like any herbivore, their diet isn't only plants, but includes the invertebrates that live on them. Egajia Chewer of Flesh is current Most Respected Elder at the Paps. She's a morokanth and her whole life is a sacred dance, hence her moniker.

Diet aside, I'm with @Iskallor on the chariot idea. Morokanth are big. "Morokanth on all fours are about 6 foot long, stand about 3 feet high at the shoulder, and weigh about 550 lbs". Herd-men - "Height can range from 5 to just over 6 feet, with cows being slightly smaller. Bulls weigh on average 175lbs and cows around 130lbs." I'm no expert on Bronze age chariots (perhaps @M Helsdon can help here), but I've seen the pictures with the two horses and the driver and spear user standing on the small chariot at the back. Looking through the info and formula, it wouldn't be unreasonable to say 3 humans = 1 horse for this case, and a morokanth is about three humans in weight. In my mind that means a single morokanth charioteer needs 9 herd-men to pull it. That seems a bit too complicated, given materials and harnessing etc. Also the wheels would damage an already fragile growing environment. Another "against" point would be that morokanth tend to move about on all fours. They are going to be more stable on a chariot on all fours than two. Reins in one hand, spear in the other. I can't see it. I have similar problems with palanquin. It would be okay with a small morokanth and maybe 6 carriers. But over long distances I think the morokanth would be too heavy.

The reason they are vegetarian is very simple - it's what Greg told me he wanted.

In the scheme of things, most of the major and minor tribes will have a founder and a protectress/mother. Whether they are still around is another matter. The Bolo Lizards clearly have Eiritha as their mother, and so a protectress, Pavis GtA page 50. Their founder at this point is unknown, but unlikely to be Storm Bull. Yelmalio and Daka Fal are their most popular cults (30%) after Eiritha (80%), so likely some kind of sky spirit/god was their progenitor and Daka Fal points to the fact that they may be dead.

Yes. Brother Dog is not quite the same in Prax as in Balazar. Brother Dog is actually Waha's Brother, who was turned into a dog. From Greg's notes: He also told me that the Praxians don't use dogs for hunting and the Morokanth don't use Hyenas either (in case you were wondering). Helpwoman has access to Brother Dog's spirit magic: (beast) Brother Dog. Sometimes claimed to be the first of man's friends. Brother Dog has always been noted for his loyalty. This spirit provides charms that relate to dogs. The taboo of these charms is never harm a dog. Brother Dog's rune is actually the Dog rune - a subset of the Beast Rune.

I've updated the graphic and included some more info. Hopefully it should make things a bit clearer.

The Three feathered Rivals are each part of different societies in the Many Friends - they are rivals. Their overall myth tells their collective story.

There are many Humakt initiates amongst the tribes, not organised into a single unit. Humakt is a useful cult in this harsh land of raiding and chaos. The actual number of initiates is 6480, using the 1% magic leader rule gives us 64/65 devotees. Most initiates will be members of spirit societies too. In the Wastes, there are few who are just humakti, most are mixed in. Some will form small brotherhoods within their own tribe, some will be intertribal.

Pavis: GtA p11 in the Zebra Rider religion section: The Yelmalio cult amongst the tribes is very different from the Sun Dome temple setup. They have only Light Khans, and no priests or temples. It's very slimmed down. That is still the case 25% of men and women. Pavis is not part of the Praxian tradition, but part of the Pavic tradition. No, it's all of them. Using our standard clan make up rule of thumb - half are children. So it's 1200/2 = 600. Roughly 2 clans. The population numbers are unchanged from all previous sources.

Those are amongst the 5 major and 12 minor Praxian tribes only. So doesn't include the hungry plateau sables in the Twinstars society or the Jakaleel lunar cultists for example. It's my reference doc so doesn't need a key:-) however red is the Lunar Way, green are those with shaman paths. Uncoloured no shaman paths. The Paps societies should be green. The titles come from Waha's Tasks, so the Great three are of course Waha, his father and his mother/wife. They are the basis of Praxian society. The Old Friends or First friends are those he first met in the Wastes, they form the secondary basis of Praxian society. The truth is that Daka Fal is the largest cult in the wastes. But doesn't wield as much power as the Great Three - this from Cults of Prax. Thanks

Oops, yes Aldrya should only have the Plant rune. Ill fix it tomorrow.

@Joerg, The Zebra tribe is included and is basically Yelmalio and Eiritha. The Issaries counted are those amongst the tribes. The Zebra tribe is very small, 600 adults, with 1 or 2 Issaries cultists at most, YGWV.

Chris Klug over on G+ asked for a list of Praxian gods with their runes. This prompted me to update my work-in-progress structure of the Praxian Tradition that I'm using for the Prax book. Some of the societies are mentioned in HeroQuest Glorantha, and this PNG puts them into the structure I'm using.

The runes can vary depending on the nature of the cult. The best example we have (at the moment) is with Mallia. MAllia has the runes of Darkness and Death, but when worshipped by the Broos, she also has Chaos. Flammel is the source of the Plant rune, hence the Plant, Plant bit, however I can see other runes such as Harmony (in HQG) and may be others depending on his mythology in the region/culture. Maybe Life where Aldrya is isn't well know, even change in fast moving jungle environment.

The Mostali as Moties is an excellent comparison. If you haven't read The Mote in God's Eye and the Gripping Hand by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, I'd recommend them. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mote-Gods-Eye-Book-ebook/dp/B004YDL2CY?ie=UTF8&btkr=1&ref_=dp-kindle-redirect (I haven't read the third one Outies, so can't comment on that)

Thanks for that Martin, I'd forgotten about Missing Lands.