Joerg

Considering a visit. How long into the night will the event be (i.e. how soon do we need to move on into one of the nearby pubs)?

I assume you mean Jrustela here?

Having separate spirits for separate food plants may seem attractive, and having special rites, sacrifices and possibly sewing, field preparation or fertilizing methods for these might be the case. Thunder Rebels had both the goddess of the fertile land whose womb would sprout all those beneficial plants, and the minor goddesses of the plants themselves. The Goddess of the Land is an intermediate phenomenon. In a way, she is the genius loci, a greater oread or limoniad, or mother of these, the goddess you seek out for the Great Marriage to the land. She will have her favourite grain offering, which may be different from the culturally preferred crop. The Goddess of the Land may also be completely unrelated to any harvest - see Kero Fin, or her aspect Sorana Tor. Some regions have almost a monoculture, especially where perennial plants like wine or apple are cultivated. Usually this is done for cash crops that benefit from local conditions and that can be transported to the markets. (In case of grain that means water transport, other crops like wine are processed locally and the processed goods are sold.) Usually, soil exhaustion puts a limit to the intensity of your crop permanence, unless you have events like the Nile flooding which replenish the fertility. There are known cases where such intensive land use has led to emigration and near-total depopulation of that land, like in 4th century Anglia (Cimbric peninsula, not Britain). I seem to remember that the mesolithic grain gatherers of the northern Fertile Crescent had about 40 types of edible seeds to pick. A similar case of multiple grain (or pseudograin) cultivation or gathering was found in the stomach of the Tollund Man, an ancestor of the Jutes. His last meal was a porridge primarily of barley and flax/linseed (from cultivation), false flax and knotgrass (in all likelihood gathered from wild plants). Numerous other seeds were found in small amounts, too, possibly weed seeds mixed into the harvest or gathering. http://www.tollundman.dk/sidste-maaltid.asp We have numerous types of edible grains represented in the Perfect Sky, giving a fair impression of important crops in Dara Happa. The Heortlings are known to grow more than just barley, too - and more than the grain "subcult" daughters of Esrola in Thunder Rebels suggest, too. The EWF core lands grew Velt and Kreet, two grains dependent on the Dragon Dream, and Silver Age Heortlings survived among other things on Thingrass, a very fine-grained seed that had died out by the beginning of the Second Age but which was part of the customary Kitori tribute. Given the ubiquity of linothorax as the medium armor type, we can assume that the Heortlings grow flax, too, and probably will use linseed or linseed oil in their food. (Not necessarily, since the production of linen requires stems from unripe plants.)

I think that the magic should just affect the blade. That would preclude an update from bronze to iron once the Humakti makes it to rune level, unless there is a way to make composite blades of both iron and bronze. There might by ways to upgrade an existing blade. Would iron inlays have an effect on the damage to Elder Races, or silver inlays vs discorporate foes or werewolves? No bonus in the AP for this, though.

On a more serious note, something like the Syndic's Ban might be tried. While Snodal was troubled about the threat of the White Bear Empire, his motivation to go and kill the God of the Silver Feet was a map of Fronela made by or attributed to Zzabur showing the future Fronela under the flood. Dormal's journey may very well have Thawed the Ban too soon. If you look at the future catastrophes in King of Sartar, like Illiteracy, these could be side effects of someone (the Harshax?) in the south fragmenting reality like that.

The water might be cold, too...

Grandfather and Grandmother Mortal got made by the Celestial Court/personified the Man Rune, deep in Creation Era myth. All the peoples who claim that their ancestors migrated down from the Spike (e.g. the Orlanthi and Praxian Beast Riders) can easily claim them as their ancestors, including aldryami elves and uz (who arguably migrated up rather down). For the Malkioni, it may very well be Malkion the Sacrifice who became/acts as Daka Fal, Judge of the Dead. Vogmaradan is the male principle rather than the ancestor of all, much like Majadan/Iste in Vithelan myth (there one of the High Gods or Avanparloth) but also Ebe the Wild Man in Kralorelan myth who fathered all humanoid races on whatever, e.g. the Babadi (dwarves) on stone, and all the Hsunchen on their various animals, before meeting Yothenara. The stories are similar. Neither of them are involved in being the first to experience mortality. For the Agimori/Doraddi, the Agitor(an)(i) are the First Men, the entire batch made through cooperation of Pamalt, Balumbasta, Noruma, Kendamalar and Nyanka (Revealed Mythologies p.45). The majority of them became mortal Agimori by drinking, and Dorad was the first of the Agimori to die and leave a lineage plant on his grave, taking that aspect of Grandfather Mortal. I don't think that Dorad gets identified with the judge of the Dead, though. The other races of Made humans, like in Dara Happan myth which is quite similar to Pamaltelan myth except it doesn't admit to any earlier semi-successful creations, don't really provide a single pair of ancestors, either. The Thinobutans for instance recognize four pairs of ancestors of different tones of clay who then went and coupled with all counterparts, creating a variety of skin tones and temperaments. The Artmali might have inherited Death through Cathora, the woman chosen by Artmal as his wife and ancestress of his offspring. The Fiwan (Pamaltelan hsunchen) ancestors are mythically present already as witnesses at the creation of the world by Langamul/Earth Maker, in the shape of four fours of creatures (running, swimming, flying and water), RM p.40. (A God Learner monomyth-builder might want to associate that event with the emergence of Ga from the Waters.) The western Genertelan Hykimi (Hsunchen) story appears to be similar, as related by the Serpent Broterhood at the Dawn, and found fragmentary in the Ancient Beasts Society of Safelster. I am not entirely clear where, how and when Death entered their myths, but the Hsunchen know that Telmor ate the sun, causing the Darkness. I wonder what the Telmori make of that story. The Hsunchen view on the God Time is badly under-explored, but with their different varieties so disparate that they don't even share a language between non-related animals we can expect vast differences in the details of their myths. Probably more than the God Learners could stomach, but then by the time they came to the picture, the Hykimi had already been altered by the Kachisti in Godtime and the Theyalans after the Dawn, or conquered and assimilated by their ancestors. In Pamaltela and Eest they had more interesting stuff to study. Most of the Elder Races possessing the Man Rune don't appear to share the Daka Fal archetype. Uz are re-united with Kyger Litor, I suppose, their surface existence being a consequence of Death invading Wonderhome. Aldryami enter the forest song. Brown elves are residents of the Underworld every winter. Green Elves with their nightly sleep cycles and Yellow Elves who don't sleep at all might need some form of judge or similar, or maybe just a spirit catcher (which would be the forest). Mortal merfolk entered the world in the Late -Golden Age, after the Birth of Umath and the invasion of the waters. They don't claim an afterlife, and probably just dissolve in the All Waters. The beaked folk (Durulz and Keets) appear to share the human experience. Giants are caught somewhere between the Immortal World of the Elder Giants which they seem to have lost, or sharing the human experience. There has been no great exploration of their afterlife. Only three individuals - the lesser giants of Gonn Orta's Castle - have ever given any insight to their thoughts in publications, with Boshbisil's origin unclear but having adopted the Issaries Cult rules, Sa Mita tracing descent from one of the dormant Elder Giants of the Eastern Rockwoods and troubled about trolls inhabiting caves there, and Hen Cik too full of adolescence to spend any thoughts on this.

Playing pre-adolescent Orlanthi is a bit of a bummer when it comes to magic. Children (up to 18 years for boys when they get unlucky in the availability of initiation groups) don't have any business wielding magic. There are exceptions, children who sacridice their childhood, gaining great magical benefits from that, like Harsaltar and his sisters and playmates when they formed the Household of Death to defend the kingdom of Sartar against the Lunar invasion, or like the magical child kings of the Illaro dynasty. But playing something like this wouldn't be age-appropriate for the player. There might be a way around this while obeying Heortling culture - you could give the magic to a guardian spirit that watches over the child, and place that guardian in the favorite pet or doll of that child character. The guardian could be an ancestor or a genius loci fulfilling an obligation or trying to bring a prophecy along. What exactly doesn't really matter until the player or the character comes of age, or when the story can reach a meainingful point. Pretty much fairy godmother stuff in alynx (or pony) packaging. Disney could produce something like this.

Baboons have been strong in magic ever since their first appearance in Nomad Gods. They are supposed to be more magical.

Looks like I didn't find that easy to understand. That's true for any kind of jargon you inject when talking philosophy. There isn't much in print about the Sedalpists, even when taking a look at no longer canonical sources. They used to be a simple doctrine - don't harm any human, and give hell to any non-human that dares approach you. Sandy's special spells for Sedalpist sorcerers are intentionally cruel and gruesome, this contradiction was a characteristic of the Sedalpists as presented by him. The philosophy grew out of the mess that Elassi's Silencer movement and the Afadjanni occupation created in coastal Vralos. I think it would be useful to have an idea what their meditation is about - that was the original question, the state of Perfect Reason. Given the capitalisation, we are signalled that we are dealing with jargon here. That's why I went and explored the jargon Castes are about forbidding activities to members of other castes. Talars don't fight (or at least didn't before they usurped the Man-of-All privileges), don't cast spells, don't till the land or craft or even repair things. Non-Talars don't ride (horses), don't judge legal cases or lend money, don't wear yellow (or gold). I was questioning that earlier. But then I noticed a couple of formulations in the sources I consulted e.g. in the Guide that offered other, unexpected loopholes. The Sedalpists use non-Sedalpist mercenaries "regretfully" to take care of military conflicts. They will probably equip them with food, clothing, weaponry, intelligence, transport, orders, payment, and magic. A stance like this against non-human threats used to be the trademark of the Sedalpists. That contradiction was inherent in their believes, possibly tragically so. I don't know whether their (former?) willingness to use force against non-humans may be part of their "resisting the rise of Somalz" story arc in the Hero Wars, but I think it could be. We know that there are doctrinal difference e.g about the permission to eat fish, with the majority taking a less strict stance. The spectrum of such doctrines may extend further into gray zones. A core theme of the Hero Wars for human cultures is the role of taboos, and breaking or at least bending them. There's also the corrupting influence of the Vadeli in the region. With the Artmali revolt in neighboring Fonrit calling up old, better-forgotten Chaos allies and the Afadjanni following suit before 1631, the morality of the Vralans will be severely tested, and the Vadeli are all too iikely to point out possibiltiies to their neighbors. The Season Wars saw the liberation of the Sedalpist lands from the Afadjanni by Orlanthi tribes under the leadership of the Vralan aldryami. Tortrica managed to throw out the Afadjanni even without aldryami aid. How much do you trust peaceniks to achieve such a feat without testing the limits?

In that case, why bother with dykes if you can just lift the entire land above the waves, like Belintar did with Loon Island. Although I think that extending the Wonder Transfer (Guide p.254) effect would be a lot more cost efficient. Or quest for Kylerela and evacuate your population there.

It is possible to learn from application of Lore, too. If the skill us used with access to a body of knowledge, new bits of knowledge will be added to the skill. Such longer term research activity could be counted as time for training, at least.

Here's my impression (sorry for the distraction): RM presents the Actions as the stages of Devolution, from 1st Action Intellect/Mind through 2nd Action Thought/Law, 3rd Action Logic/Seer, 4th Action Reason/Founder and 5th Action Instinct/Sacrifice. To me, the Actions are connected to the spatial dimensions, substract one from the Action to get the dimension. Intellect is zero-dimensional, the mere existence of Mind. Thought is one-dimensional, a Though has a direction. Logic is two-dimensional, a plane of co-planar but not parallel Thoughts which can be chained. Reason then adds another dimension and puts Logics, these chains of Thought, into multiple applications. The Fifth Action added something beyond human comprehension, and to the understanding of Zzabur failed. Eventually, it did give birth to (non-cyclical) Time, however. But the Seven Steps deal with the mystical Absolute, not with the humanist world-view. FIrst of all, my approach removes all the need to search for some rules for mysticism by giving a humanist goal for the purpose of the meditation. It is not about reaching some undefinable Absolute, but it is to perceive the world in a way where Reason following Logic guides one's existence. Experiencing the Joy of perceiving the Invisible God, confirming them in living the good life. (I am writing this while "called away" from my response to the discussion of Malkionism in a new thread, where I try to present my understanding of Malkionism.) Basically, the meditation practices of the Sedalpists have the purpose of guiding their lives into a reasonable direction. Their sorcery is Malkioni sorcery as it should be. No need to devise new rules, but possibly a need to devise a list of appropriate spells, from the ones in RQG, and possibly a few developed following the guidelines of those rules. That's why I wondered about their stance towards non-humans. Should their sorcerers have spells harmful to non-human sentients? Because I do see a Soldier Caste, but no Men-of-All who might be the other group which might have access to Sorcery as personal magic. Because (Guide p.623) This suggests that not just the commoners, but all castes have sub-divisions. The (hereditary - why not?) sorcerer caste may be divided into different hereditary jobs. Enchanters, Blessers, ... A nice approach that I would like to see in RQG, too, but not consistent with my reading of the rules. I'll address this in the separate post. The Sedalpists are as likely to have military sorcerers as the Rokari, and like the Rokari, they cast the enhancing spells on those who they send into the fight. Their philosophy forbids the Sedalpists to directly harm another human, so a few of the sorcerer spells would be taboo to be cast on humans or in a way that their direct effect affects humans. Indirect harm (like trapping someone in fire on all sides, then waiting for the fire to approach and consume the victim) would not be taboo (though probably as spiritually poisoning as the use of "throwing crowns" or "bashing sceptres" by the Arolanit talars). If one accepts the model of the Seven Steps for the Sedalpists, which I don't. Using existing sorcery the way @Tindalos and @jajagappa proposed while I was typing this should do the job.

When I look at this with the RQG character sheet in mind, I get the impression that this “Perfect Reason” might be projected on the Man-Beast duality in the character traits. It is basing your everyday as well as your fundamental decisions on Reason rather than Instinct. Please skip the rest of this post if you don’t want to follow me through weird discussion of history and shreds of Malkioni philosphy from the apocrypha. Reason is the Malkioni state of mind of the Fourth Action. Revealed Mythologies p.8 offers a few qualifiers for Reason: The Fifth Action then talks about limited Reasoning (p.13): As mystic goals go, Perfect Reason doesn't seem to aim that high. I wonder whether there is a parallel to the distinction between Nenduren's Stillness which had the achievement of the Ultimate in the shape of Atrilith at its end and the Perfect Stillness of Enrono which only achieved living right and the Blessing of Atrilith. Anyway, we have three capital letter qualifiers for Reason: Pure - the power of Malkion the Seer, Applied - the power of sorcery (also compare Martalak, the Eastern sorcerer, being given the power of Reasoning), and Perfect, the goal of the Sedalpists. Perfect Reason is obviously superior to the limited Reasoning that led to the catastrophic Fifth Action. After the backlash against the God Learners, their ways may very well have been equated with the limited reasoning that ended the Fourth Action, so the spiritual goal of the Sedalpists might be to avoid falling into those traps. Austere meditation isn't necessarily the self-mutilation or torture on demand like some "accelerated meditation techniques" (e.g. Sheng's) appear to use. At its original meaning, it is asceticism, as in the monastic or hermit life-style. Flagellants or self-mutilators like Elassi the Stifler usually "get it wrong" when they try to outdo methods like exposure (fasting, meditation under waterfalls, out in the snow, carrying massive weights or similar). In Glorantha, there is magic and possibly insight to be had from suffering - that's the way of Gerra, and of Danfive Xaron, but IMO that is a form of Sacrifice (i.e. Theism) rather than Mysticism. (Let's not go down the route from Ernst Jünger to fictional villains like Firefly's Niska here...) Elassi appears to be another case where the method of meditation was elevated above the goal behind the meditation. The Path to Silence communicated by the Wordless Prophet was a means to achieve a greater clarity, but the practices of Elassi just enforced silence. I see parallels here to other meditative practices which only focus on the trappings of a deeper mystic practice, like the short cut forms of the EWF which focused on attaining draconic shape rather than draconic insight (Immanent Mastery, Right Left-Hand Path). The text block on the Sedalpists (p.623) mentions esotericism of post-God Learner Malkionism in Umathela. The Path to Silence may have started as a counter-movement to the silliness of such "we learned our lesson, and now we're taking that folly to a height that will make it right" sects, before being turned into another one of these. Austerities probably came through the conquest of the Lands of Silence at the hands of the Fonritians, evidently of the Bolgaddi persuasion as the Tsanyano movement started only after the Jann of Sarro had taken over the Enklosan coastal states. Sedalpism is opposed to the oppressive brutality of the Fonritian philosophy, so I see no point in giving their austerities any shade of bolgaddi harshness to oneself. Sedalpist sorcery will be strictly limited to the Sedalpist zzaburi over-caste. The other castes will be recipients, but not practitioners of this sorcery. I see the meditative practice as common to all Sedalpists. It might constitute a major part of their “Worship (Invisible God)” activities,, when overseen by their zzabur caste sorcerers, but it would also be part of their private routine.

I do wonder a bit what happened to Sandy's old presentation of the Sedalpists as a pacifist sect with the irony of having (and endorsing) strong magics to deal with non-humans, like e.g. here. But then, Malkionism apparently has been revised quite a bit more than used to think it had. Taking the "church" out of Malkionism almost appears to have taken the Malkioni magic away from the vast majority of the Malkioni, leaving them with Spirit Magic and Rune Magic just like any Theyalan. I hope to be wrong about that statement, though.

Then there are the likes of Ezkankekko, the Only Old One, who can take the shape of a human, a troll, or a dehori. True beings of Darkness, but no longer either of these shapes, even if they had been born to one of those shapes. They are also known as Kitori.

This is Glorantha. There are few things which aren't inherently magical. Tradetalk is the expression of Issaries' communication rune. Other languages like Earthtongue, Storm Speech or Fire Speech are the combination of the Communication Rune with the respective Element Runes, but Issaries applies pure Communication. Speech Speech, or Exchange Speech. So to keep it generic, let's have a generic "translate" magic? It is the language introduced by the Speaking God, designed for enabling contact with people whose language you don't know. It will have a pantomime routine that will enable trades, and adding spoken components to start somewhat more meaningful exchanges like "We come in peace" or "Bring me to your leader". In HeroQuest, it would be a breakout skill of the communication rune. In RQG, the harmony rune will have to serve half-heartedly. Sure, we can provide a special magic for any old situation to let all challenges disappear. First contact has a history of providing amusing or tragic misunderstandings. If you want to breeze over such scenario elements, fine, use a spell, or just tell them that once more the magic of Tradetalk has established communication where there has none before, and be done with it. Dealing with languages and linguistics can be interesting, but possibly less so if you come from a monolingual background. On a few occasions, Hollywood gives it a go, but usually everyone speaks English with a slight fake accent, and that's it. If that creates an expectation that instant communication can be reached, traveling to countries with other languages or with a great reluctance to use English might be an experience.

I was working with 2 km tall and 1 km to the sides, some part of it below ground (which is elevated about 300 m), so about 2 km above sea level, minus 1 km for the flood, resulting in a 1k cube above the water. If it is but 800 m to each side and 1600 m tall, then it would have to be only 100 m below the plateau to remain as a 800 m cube above the water. Either way, what remains above the water approximates a cube, give or take 100 m. And though my feet are about one foot long, I prefer to measure distances and heights in steps, which are about 1 m or a bit more than a yard for me, and from there on Dara Happan measures in powers of ten (the one thing Plentonius got right). I wonder whose feet were used when the unit was fixed...

Looking at SF games, here are a few suggestions of mine: Egosoft's original X universe would make for a slightly goofy rpg background, too. The five species and their adversaries (terraforming fleet gone rogue and genocidal arthropodic hive drones) and their internal politics are hinted at in the game, but the sub-factions get only minor traction in the game. Another such "space pilot" series which has enough background for roleplaying would be the Wing Commander setting with the Kilrathi conflict and the internal problems that drove some iterations of the game and its "Privateer" offshoot. Microsoft's Freelancer was more or less the successor of the Wing Commander games, but used a different, humans-only background. Usable for roleplaying, too. All settings use topological space maps with connections via fixed jump points and/or gates, keeping mapping the universe manageable. Anything that attracts readable fan-fiction can serve as rpg-background. For a weirder, dark SF background, Stephen Donaldson's "The Real Story" and subsequent novels could make an interesting dystopian setting with an almighty mining corporation dictating humanity's space faring and a really alien external threat, the Amnion. No cosmic horror, but plenty of body horror. I don't think C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union or Chanur universe ever received the rpg coverage the setting deserves, but by now that IP doesn't really warrant much of paying a license any more. The series has a limited amount of Unobtainium to put into rules - the space jump mechanisms make sense as story elements but might be hard to press into rules. It might be easier to provide game values for each possible jump route modified by ship capabilities.

But do we have much written in dwarven lingo? This Jrustela introductory bit is the only source outside of the Elder Secrets/Guide general introduction for the Mostali which deals with these events. There is way too much well-defined Gray and Dawn Age infrastructure in this region for the amount of destruction of the two main Chaos forces diminishing one another happening here. The other great extinction would have been Zzabur's destruction of the Vadeli Empire, but most of that happened way closer to Jrustela/Magnetic Mountain than Old Seshnela. But then, the Magnetic Mountain population was destroyed by the fragments of the Spike. And the site of Malkion's Fifth Action is supposed to be way further east, too. Nice to find an idea that we can agree upon from the outset. The only off-the cuff idea I have right now are the pieces of tubing used to transmit and re-direct microwave radiation, e.g. in radar or spectroscopy (the latter is where I encountered this). That's still electro-magnetism, but the only form that doesn't require electricity in the Real World. The Star Trek plasma relays imitate that, too, but like steam, this is the realm of heat rather than Earth. Real World copper not being ferro-magnetic shouldn't bother us much, here. As long as we can avoid anything associated with sky (heat, visible light, lightning/electricity), we're fine. There appears no feasible way in the real world to create microwaves just using rotating permanent magnets, but some analogy might work for Glorantha. Let's gather what facts we have on Gloranthan magnetism. The Guide has almost a paragraph dedicated to this: (p.89) It exists, as an attractive force. Its properties were lost, quite likely due to Zzabur's Great Blast/the Implosion of the Spike. Guide p.502 Guide pp.693f Magnetic Mountain was the epitome of Stasis. Not moving, not even rotating. Its magnetism affected the entire world, not just a certain type of metal, but all matter in general. It appears to have spent itself largely in drawing the world together, but the "energy" the dwarves are handling in their Making may be residual amounts of this, or newly Made ones from transforming the Force or Momentum that is Storm or the Malkioni term for Energy. Creating an Attraction between pieces of machinery at some physical distance from one another would happily play into the magical principle of contagion. I see no reason why the mostali shouldn't do this via copper tubing. The tubes ought to be empty of the disruptive medium of Storm, something which may be achieved by filling them with oil (finally a sensible use for "Earthblood", or some other liquid) and then pumping it out.

Yes, as a cube. It is missing from the map because it has no contour lines.

In light of the (admittedly extreme) interpretation of the Quran and additional rules by the Taliban and by at least some of the Ayatollahs, I had my doubts for a strict theocracy in a desert environment. Dancing is anathema to certain branches of extreme christianity, too, or there would have been no movie like Footloose. That branch at least is singing hymns, though. The Ernaldan rites will include dancing, whether in Sun County or places where openly ecstatic rites are celebrated. But there is this impression that Yelmalian males get to refrain from participating in female activities, at least in Praxian Sun County, like the illustration of black bearded, bleached hair count Solanthos. If the Dance skill also covers marching in step and lining up in a formation or weapon katas and shadow boxing, it is greatly underused in the game.

Sure? We have two examples of super-heroic trench digging, the Good Canal in Prax and the New River between the Dammed Marsh and the Lyksos river. The amount of soil moved in these projects would have yielded a dyke maybe 100 ft at the crown. Of course, there is always another way. Belintar showed us when he lifted Loon Island from the Choralinthor Sea, and again when he erected the Building Wall. @jajagappa/Harald's Nochet campaign has a similar event in its back-story when the river dyke on the Lyksos was erected as the northwestern quarters of modern Nochet were developed. But the last time a bulwark of this size was pulled up was the formation of the Lead Hills blocking the Creek Stream River, before that either the Mostali raising Nida in the middle of the Kachisti lands or Larnste sowing the Rockwood Montains or stamping up the Storm Mountains. That said, the Wall of Westeros only was supposed to hold back the White Walkers, and despite standing there for millennia, it served that purpose for about a quarter of an hour between the arrival of the army of the dead and their marching across its debris. It wouldn't have held back a flood a third that high. Esrolia has ancient history in water management. South Esrolia is dominated by the twin rivers joining the Mirrorsea bay at Rhigos, and flood regulation is part of the annual cycle there. So are dyke maintenance and repair. At Korovaka/the Necropolis, there is an artificial dam (erected by Vogarth Strong Man) which maintains the lake that prevents the dead of Necropolis from swarming all over Esrolia. Breaching dams to hinder or stop invasions is a proven method, and probably was practiced by Darjiinians over and over again to slow down Alkothi hordes. Minaryth Purple destroyed the Lunar expedition to the Hill of Orlanth Victorious this way at the onset of the Starbrow Rebellion. Argrath used this against Sheng. I would expect this method to have been ineffective in Fire Season raids into Esrolia, however.

The archaic triaty formation which had three clans taking their wives from one of the other clans and giving their daughters to the other was the solution for the more isolated populations, offering a stable set of rules that avoided too much inbreeding. On the other hand, these same rules prevented the clans from taking in new blood, and when one of the clans would break with that tradition, another clan would have a surplus of daughters or a shortfall of wives. It is interesting that the Colymar clan managed to get by without any marriages outside of their kinship group for half a generation. It probably helped that the newly formed clan had drawn folk from several Heortland clans, making them more like a guild than a clan. Their split into five clans, three of which had children of Colymar, may very well have been an implicit plan when they left. That split might have come naturally with the different steads that were populated outside of the central settlement of Clearwine. Colymar history also shows cases when reconstructions of failed clans like the Karandoli or the Runegate triaty clan that was replaced by the Taralings received descendants of Colymar as their chiefs. Such adoptions to the top appear to be a common practices, and Argrath claiming his Colymar membership not through his birth clan (the Orlmarth/Starfires/Woodpeckers) but through the disappeared Karandoli clan through which he traced his descent from Onelisin Cat-witch and the House of Sartar as well as to the lineage of the disappeared Karandoli king of the Colymar, Ortossi, who had refused Sartar to build a city in Colymar lands appears to be a similar case. I am not entirely clear how his ancestors with this secret lineage and royal lineage ended up as low status members of the Orlmarth. Possibly at some point by adoption after the dissolution (or disappearance) of the clan, but the sources are silent about that. It may all have been polite fiction confirmed by heroquesting. Onelisin's status when she occupied her house in the forest is a bit of a mystery, too. While she was sister to two kings, she seems to have headed a solitary stead, possibly associated to a shrine or temple to Yinkin in the wilds. Her encounter with Ostling Four-Wolf doesn't really offer a hint to the location of that place, since Ostling would have been a companion to the prince on many occasions. There is also the possibility that Onelisin wouldn't spend all of her time there. Her daughters don't appear to have been brought up at the royal palace in Boldhome, though, but Onelisin may have been in strong disagreement on whether Jarolar should have become prince and not her. King of Sartar only tells us that there were stories about their alynx woman endeavours, and no details. When people leave their clans for other reasons than marriage, the issue of property becomes interesting, in the sense of problematic. People leaving to enter the retinue of an external leader (like a tribal king, a largely independent temple, a mercenary band, or someone even more prominent) will receive good clothing, basic weapons and probably no steed (that would be provided by the new patron, just like superior equipment, housing and food). This kind of emigration is usually temporary (although death in service has a sigificantly non-zero chance), and the individual will be a contact with that leader or organisation, and often return after some time with wealth and connections, but certainly with experience. The individual will also leave the legal umbrella of the clan for the duration of this new allegiance, but usually with an open-ended option to return to the clan just like someone married out. People going to the nearest city to join a guild are pretty much the same case, although in that case it wouldn't be unusual to take along wife and children. (But then, it would be more typical to join a guild before becoming part of a contractual marriage, and then to marry from inside the guild. Clan property is like corporate property, with clan members being shareholders, but the corporation also holding part of the clan wealth sort of independent from the shareholders. Property is measured in land (which cannot be traded normally) and housing, herds, and non-living movable property. When a clan splits, or even only a portion of the clan packs up and leaves, the emigrants give up on their share of the lands claimed by the clan. They will receive a portion of the communal herds according to their status in the clan, the movable tools of their trades, and their share of food and seed material. They might have a claim on portions of the clan regalia/treasures, which is where things can get difficult. In my scenario Norinevra's Homecoming the deceased Asrelian had joined the clan of her husband only after the demise of her father-in-law. Her husband had been a thane of Duke Dorasar, and prior to that of Sarotar, which is how they had met. The couple had married in Pavis, and when they returned to Sartar, they brought a number of artefacts collected in the Rubble. When her husband became chief, these artefacts were used by the clan as treasures, and after his demise they remained in use by the clan, and by his widow who remained as a leading earth priestess with her children and grandchildren. By the time of her death, few clansfolk remembered a time when she had not been a leading earth priestess, and the treasures were commonly perceived as belonging to the clan. Even so, it was within her rights to demand some of these as grave goods, and so she did, and after her death so did her matrilineal offspring (with the legal weight of their clans by marriage behind them). But in case of a major rift in the clan (or a few generations ago with the exodus of many Elmali households to flock to Monrogh), treasures will be split, too. These kinds of inheritance disputes are the stuff for drama like the Icelandic sagas.

Where does it say that Issaries has the ability to speak any language? Tradetalk is the lingua franca, the magic is already inherent. Teaching Tradetalk is making that magic work. Making first contact free from any misunderstandings is a little too easy.