Ali the Helering

I am sooo looking forward to Tomiris. It looks superb!

YGWV

Now a horde of aluminum Mostali.... interesting....

Some do, since they feel that Lapp is an exonym imposed upon them

Whilst absolutely nothing to do with Bronze or, indeed, Iron Age, piracy is superbly done by Black Sails, and quite easily converted...

I wasn't talking about an object, but rather the spiritual being(s) it allegedly incorporates.

That most epic of epics, the Mahabharat, including the Gita but magnificent in its wider vision, especially the TV version by the Chopras. In film, also the magnificent Red Cliff. The Niebelunglied, the Eddas, the academic works of Oliver Dickinson (as opposed to Griselda!), Chadwick and Ventris' Mycenaean Texts in Translation and beyond anything else in print Pritchard's unrivalled Ancient Near Eastern Texts. (neither of the last two cheap, but now in paperback). Hrolf Kraki's Saga - the Norse version of Beowulf. Edit - Never forget the Kojiki and Nihongi, not least for a very powerful picture of shamanistic-style relationships.

Lovecraft was an enormous racist, as was Howard. That doesn't mean that their settings aren't interesting, but it does mean that I wouldn't praise either without qualification. They were 'men of their time', and prey to the heinous attitude of that time. Others rose far above it. The slaves need Conan to lead the rebellion, not being capable of successfully rising unless lead by a white man! Some blacks are depicted as 'grunting like apes' and 'bestial', while Asians are described as 'weak-willed'. It is also worth checking which Conan stories are written by Howard, and which by others, since not all the authors have the same prejudice.

and, of course, racist and misogynist, but who's counting?

As opposed to a Cambellian/Jrusteli Monomyth recidivist? Lightfore is a construct. So, of course, is the One Yelm, not least because his constituent parts were revealed at the first murder.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work in the RW either, where 'systems' of faith and belief are wildly unsystematic. The fun is in the plot holes.

If you can lay your hands on a copy of The Primal Order (1993) it contained an interesting approach to the relationship between mortals and the divine, if a bit clunky at times. IIRC there was a conversion for Runequest.

Dave specifically used the term 'the occult community', which is not the same as 'Satanists'. It seems to me that the crux of his point is that the occult community are neither monolithic nor idiots, but understand the flexibility of the symbols and language that they use. Satanists are a relatively small section of the 'occult community' - frequently vanishingly small. I remember an interesting cult worshipping Freddy Mercury as the 'Son of Satan', but they were never more than a handful!

I have always imagined that it empowered Loyal virtues and Lunar community guardians.

Loosely, along with onion, cucumber and hoi-sin sauce on a pancake

Hmmm.... is there a cult uniform of hooped shirt, beret and whitened face?

Mime. The horror, the horror....

Actually, no. Taberna refers to a shop in general, hence the three tabernae in your posting - shop, smith, refreshments. It was the caupona that provided hospitality as well as refreshments, the popinae that served food and drink without accomodation, and the thermopolium that (mentioned by Plautus alone) served hot drinks only. If you asked for the nearest taberna you might find yourself with pottery, armour or cabbages. The later use of the term to refer to accomodation plus boozer is via later Italian as Akhorakil and Kloster wrote.

Pfft 🍎

Absolutely. The Tres Tabernaem itself was a development from the mansio accompanying the last post station before Roma, at a junction place. As has been said, they are a precursor to motorway service stations.

Except that the Tres Tabernaem refers to three shops - a blacksmiths, a general store and a place of refreshment, not an inn in any form we would recognise. For Roman hostelries may I recommend Steven J R Ellis' "The Roman Retail Revolution, The Socio-Economic World of the Taberna". Not cheap, but then I didn't have to pay for it! (Christmas present from Tindalos and his sister😁)

A cradle?

It could cut either way, since it increases the chances of 'return matches'. (cue a rerun of The Duellists)

My work here is done... Happy Christmas!

Not really, I'm afraid. All of the area from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus Valley was literate to some degree by the Late Bronze (around 1300 BCE) The Achaemenid Empire was founded in 550 BCE, and while there are copious materials from across the Empire using a variety of scripts, there is no evidence of female literacy in the Iranian heartland. Cyrus banned slavery across the Iranian lands and introduced humanitarian laws to govern slavery across the rest of the Empire. For example, if your owner wanted to sell you, you had to give written consent to the authorities! A very, very different world....