Evilroddy

Some of the non-standard spells in my campaign are: Banish Pests - removes fleas, ticks, mites, aphids, etc. from one targeted life form. One point spell. Purge Internal Parasites - purges mundane but not magical internal parasites and their eggs, etc. It also induces immediate and uncomfortable defecation for five minutes and can on occasion induce vomitting as well. The target must resist the spell even if they wish to be purged. Three point, ritual spell. Ears of the Fox - Variable point spell which improves hearing skills by 5% per point or halves the perceived distance of the heard sound by 50% per point of the spell. Spirit Chanting - Variable point spell which gives +5% per point of spell to spirit speech and can be used to give a temporary spirit speech ability to one who does not understand it. Limited Invisibility - Variable point spell, concentration spell, Targeted at one target to make the caster invisible by distraction to that target. It can also be used to make invisible one other single person (instead of the caster) of the caster's choice, who the caster is touching during the casting of the spell. It's a variable point spell but the initial cost is two intelligence points with an additional point per level above; extra levels add more targets to the spell but not more recipients of its veil. It replaces the invisibility spell which is very rare and highly controlled in my game. Clean Fabric - for removing stains and messes. Tickle - Variable point spell, concentration spell, a favourite spell for tricksters and the like. If the target's power is overcome it loses 5% off all skill checks per point of the spell. On a special success the penalties are doubled and on a critical success the target is disabled with laughter and squirming. It lasts for one minute before the sensation subsides enough to not impede the target. The discomfort lasts for five minutes. Stumble Tongue - Variable point spell which reduces the target's ability to use any communication skill by -5% per point of the spell if the caster overcomes the target. Special success doubles the penalty and a critical success makes the target incomprehensible except for non-verbal sign language or miming. Dream Scaping - targeted at a sleeping being in direct sight (dark vision counts) the caster can share a dream experience with the target and can influence dreams if the target's power is overcome. Regular success means minor images or alterations which might be remembered (caster's power X 1); special success is a more major alteration which will be remembered upon waking at caster's power X 3. Critical success means the ability to fully orchestrate and control the dream with the caster's power X 5 to fully remember the whole dream vividly. If the caster fails to overcome the target's power then the target will awaken on a power X 1 roll using the target's power. A fumbled attempt to overcome the target's power immediately awakens the target with the strong sense that something is wrong. This is a four point, concentration spell and is tightly controlled by both benign and malign groups who know of it. Naughty Nimble Fingers - Variable point spell, concentration spell which improves manipulation based skills by +5% per point of spell and reduces the chance of observes from detecting the manipulation by 5% per point too. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Please pardon my God Learner tendencies and curiosity, but could you HeroQuest to just before the dawn of time, wait about a bit and then after the start of time HeroQuest forward in time back to the present? If so, could you map this and use it to circumvent the Covenant of Time? Would Arachne Solara personally spank you for even suggesting such an approach? Well I have to live up to my moniker now and then, don't I, so don't roll your eyes at me like that! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

This has been a very informative thread. Thanks Jeff, for offering these clarifications. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Well said, an intriguing future lies ahead for our PC's/hapless would-be heroes as the maelstrom churns faster and faster in the sea of humanity ( and others)! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Loskalmi head-hunting Knights? Yikes, that's an image I had never envisioned before! Does Loskalm have sorcery/necromancy that can compel the dead to speak? If the Syndics Ban is powerful enough to temporally displace some of the exiled of Loskalm forward in time, could it also be powerful enough to rarely (maybe just once?) break the Covenant of Time and throw an exile backwards in time? Say, a maverick and powerful knight of mixed human and aldryami lineage whose accidental illumination created an all-consuming hatred for Nysalor, which unbalanced him and made him so driven and thus dangerous to Loskalmi order and good governance to have caused his exile? Perhaps he did return only to be cast back to his origins! Prophesy fulfilled and thwarted simultaneously. Hmmm, I'm feeling like I'm channeling a Mel Gibson role somehow. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Darius West: Fair enough. I can see some women taking the path that you outline but I also see some mechanisms which would tend to limit such behaviours' chances for success. If a criminal uses diplomacy, seduction, subterfuge and even murder to propel themselves to power, there is going to be a trail of evidence to indicate that they are doing this. If they are clever enough, disciplined enough and shrewd enough to cover such a trail up then they are pretty capable folk. If they are clever, capable, disciplined and shrewd enough to succeed criminally then they are also likely to succeed legally by methods deemed acceptable by Loskalmi society. So why risk a criminal career to success when a legal one is available, unless you are an anti-social thrill seeker who seeks the high of breaking the rules for its own sake? The second mechanism is that talented, clever, disciplined and shrewd men might be initially attracted to an ambitious woman but would soon realise her ambition and drive to be destructive to their own self interests and to the wider Loskalmi ethos. Thus they would separate/divorce themselves from such women quickly in order to limit the damage. In a meritocracy the men with power will be capable and perceptive, not gullible emotionally stunted marks who inherited their wealth and are easy prey for a pretty face or a fascinating but toxic mind. And unlike in Aurthurian legend the most powerful are also the least propertied if Loskalm truely follows a Platonic model. The guardians, mages and nobles are managers and caretakers but do they themselves own the things they administer in trust? Only the producers need access to the means of production and thus to capital/property in order to produce. The higher castes don't need property. What materials they need are given to them. Their wealth is in authority/power and not in material possessions. When a woman assumes the caste of her husband, does she also assume his authority/power? No, not unless she is capable of exercising that power properly. When you marry a judge or magistrate your social standing may increase but you yourself do not become a judge or magistrate, even upon the death of your spouse unless you have the credentials to fill the role (and then there is only a chance of such an appointment). So, yes, your femme fatale could be an excellent villain but I think she would be a rare exception rather than a part of a significant societal trend. The Morgans and the Guiniveres are in charge of their own fates in Loskalm and not being shackled and suppressed by a patriarchy which needs to be circumvented and out-manoeuvred in order for women to have success. Nimue was a demon/faerie and so is beyond the scope of this discussion. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

This discussion is proceeding in unexpected directions. It was initially about the how Hrestoli Idealism could co-exist with flawed human beings as a component part of its societal expression. Perhaps we should return to that topic rather than endulging in fictional finger-pointing at non-existent groups within Loskalm. It seems to me that capable women would likely rise on their own merits in Loskalmi society rather than tying themselves to a male patron. Less capable women might follow a cooperative strategy by finding a husband to carry them along but a talented and rising husband would likely see through such a stratagem once the honeymoon was over and take corrective steps. Only incapable women with a very strong ability to control men would constitute a real threat and I imagine that such women would be a rare occurrence rather than the norm. So I don't see women as a secret force operating from behind the curtains of the bed chambers of Loskalm, promoting their own selfish interests at the expense of the Hrestoli whole. Yes, aberrations will occur but they would not be mainstream currents in society. Is marriage permanent in Loskalmi culture or is divorce permitted? My problem is what to do with the significant numbers of people who for whatever reason don't buy into the Loskalmi state project of Idealism. They must be a significant number and it seems that a Utopia has little engineering tolerance for managing determined defiance or opposition, especially if that opposition is willing to use tactics and strategies which the state is unwilling or unable to use itself. If one's philosophy clashes with the received philosophy, how can that Loskalmi-wide orthodoxy be maintained without resort to exclusion, coercision or for a lack of a better term, 're-education'? Cheers. Rod Robertson.

Yelm's Light: Fair enough, I am operating from 'ancient' memory so I can't be sure of myself will thus defer to your more informed position on this ... for now. When I can find the books and the time, I will redo my homework and if needed I will get back to you. Thanks for an interesting discussion and for the free educational! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Does Nabuzel Ninequills carry the book with him? This could be dangerous and risky but also opens up some doors to interesting adventures. Given that the Red Book is of God Learner or EWF/Draconic origin, perhaps it is cursed. Luckily, Nabuzel has a charm or talisman which protects him from attack by the spirits of the curse and makes the spirits blind to his existence, but should the book be lost or stolen those sent by Nabuzel to recover and return it would have some intriguing problems to deal with. Bad dreams, nightmares, night terrors, temporary possessions, and sinister spiritual attacks await the minions of Nabuzel. Having Lunar rivals and non-Lunar shadows as well could lend an element of paranoia to the characters unlucky enough to be taking his patronage. Perhaps a Jalmari knight and some fanatical Humakti muscle are on Nabuzel's tail. Have the underlings of Nabuzel learn that the Humakti are on their trail and let them panic as these relentless killers hunt them. Being Humakti, they are poor bounty hunters or trackers so an actual confrontation need not occur. Just the knowledge that they're out there, somewhere, hunting Nabuzel and his PC minions will be a source of tension and urgency driving forward the drama of the adventure. Perhaps their plans are overheard by a notorious trickster who gains a vague inkling into the value of the book or of Nabuzel himself. Theft, kidnapping, blackmail or con-artistry could be challenges the minion PCs have to deal with and overcome in their service to Nabuzel. Perhaps the Great Library of Glamour after conducting an exhaustive forensic investigation has pieced together enough of the story that they suspect they know what Nabuzel is up to. No details, just broad strokes. Not knowing about the imperial approval, the library sends agents to clean up the mess, recover or secure the book (if it exists) and bring back Nabuzel and his minions for interrogation. Not only have the Librarians of Glamour learned of Nabuzel. Within their ranks are informers who have leaked Nabuzel's name and a very vague description of the librarians' suspicions to agents of the Library of Heads. The greedy Thanatari/Atyari cannot pass up the opportunity to possess such knowledge and send out agents to track, verify and secure Nabuzel's book and head. Word has come to the ears of a powerful Stygian sorcerer from Arkat's Hold that there is a lunar scribe in possession of an ancient, powerful and very dangerous artefact. The sorcerer is unable to scry the details of this menace but feels concerned enough that he decides he must personally track down and confront the mysterious clerk. The Emperor, fearing that Nabuzel is vulnerable and the book is at risk decides to send a very capable but very small team of fixers and watchers to protect imperial interests. Realising that Nabuzel is a shrewd judge of character and slightly paranoid, the fixers must follow Nabuzel and his minions at a distance and cannot infiltrate his party. They are instrumental in cleaning up the messes that the party leaves in its wake. They can also swoop in and save the party if things get out of hand for the PCs. Those are just some ideas for such an interesting and flawed patron as Nabuzel to be entangled in. Give the whole Red Book arc a creepy hybrid Lovecraftian-Gloranthan vibe and you're set for a wild and spooky ride. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Yelm's Light: I'm not anywhere near my books right now. My recollection, which is now over 30 years old, is that it is both explicit (Book VIII?) and implicit throughout the "Republic" and augmented in the "Laws" and the Alcibiades and Laches dialogues. In the absence of my books, maybe this interesting article on the Platonic roots of the 'just war doctrine' will be of some assistance. http://www.diametros.iphils.uj.edu.pl/index.php/diametros/article/download/384/383 Sorry that I can't be of more help right now but those books are in storage 800 km from me at this time. Cheers and good gaming, Rod Robertson.

Yelm's Light: The Platonic concepts of the just state and the just soul are very different from what modern terrestrial notions of 'just' entail. A Platonic state is an extremely totalitarian state which controls every aspect of its subjects' lives from cradle to grave. Plato argued the visual arts, music, prose, and indeed all forms of expression be controlled and only expressions which supported the goals and ideals of the state be allowed. Plato set aside special vehemence for rooting out dissent by controlling poetry which he viewed as a dangerous art. Poets were to be watched and controlled and if they would not or could not conform to the proper expression of the state's ideals, they should be killed. Philosophy was likewise tightly controlled and was only permitted to the most just souls in their later years, about 50 years of age or older. People who would not or could not support the just ideals of the state were treated very harshly. On a first offence there would be five years of prison combined with vigorous re-education for the transgressors. For a second offence, death. The airing of the erroneous expression was deemed so dangerous that no open trial would be allowed and no opportunity to mount a defence would be afforded to the mistaken. They would be quietly condemned and disappeared to prison or to an early grave. In Plato's Republic strength of body was as important as strength of soul. Fitness of body was as important as fitness of mind. It was the duty of all to maintain peak fitness and to 'encourage' others to do likewise. Not just the Auxillaries (equivalents of the Loskalmi Guardians) and the Magistrates (Loskalmi Nobels) were to train in arms, so it was the responsibility of all to be prepared for war. The Platonic state was to be aggressive, not pacifistic. It was to aggressively conquer territories and resources for the good of the state. It had no use for unindoctrinated conquered peoples so their future fate was grim and short. Selective breeding and state rearing of children was to be the norm. Read the following passage from the fictional Socrates (Plato's mouth-piece) to see how far the state was to be willing to go to shape the young and deny/thwart human instinct: So the state was to practice covert eugenics in order not to trigger rebellion from the population. The Platonic State was to be neither pacifist nor isolationist. It was to be a well ordered and and organised engine of logistics and human capital devoted to promoting the power of the state and advancing its interests by 'moral' and military means. The tyrant was only bad because he placed his own debased desires before the needs of the state. The tyrant was bad, but defacto state-tyranny was standard operating procedure. That's why comparison of the Platonic state to fascism or National Socialism or Stalinism is flawed, as these served the needs and wants of only a part of the state. The Platonic state was to serve all, not just an elite, and force them by indoctrination to become 'willing' participants in a vast state project. The leaders and soldiers of the state were supposed to have no property as such would distract them from the full pursuit of their mandate in service of the state. Property was allowed only to the lower producer class of the state as control of the means of production was necessary to efficient and driven production. But the excessive accumulation of property or capital was forbidden. That is why a slightly capitalist flavour of Maoism is the best modern analogue to Plato's Republic. How then does this inform our understanding of Loskalmi Hrestoli Idealism? Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

You're all quite mad. I Approve! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Pentallion: No, not the destruction of Loskalm. I was speculating that the Brithini might not want the destruction of Loskalm but rather the weaponising of it. Using it, first as bulwark and then as a weapon against the Lunar Empire/Nysalor/Gbaji complex. Forge and sharpen it in the ban, temper, quench and harden it in the blood of the Kingdom of War and then use it in earnest against the corruption of illumination from the Lunar Way. A grand crusade up the Janube, across Carmania and Penlanda and into the heart of the Empire while dragons and heroes of the West and East rend the moon and bleed it white before toppling it completely. Immortal Brithini, like long-lived mistress race trolls, take the long view. As to Snodal, did he see the Atlas of Zzabur while exiled in and beyond the Valind wastes and thus had foreknowledge of the threat from Sedenya and a resurgent Nysalor/Gbaji? Could such a glimpse have been orchestrated by the Brithini or Zzabur himself? (I've just realised that I'm not sure if Zzabur is necessarily male. I've just always assumed that 'he' was.) Could Snodal unknowingly have been given subtle guidance by the Brithini and mistook that for divine inspiration in the bringing of the Ban? Is there a secret history which lies hidden below the one told in the two volumes of canonical and received wisdom in the G2G? Are Greg, Jeff and Sandy hoodwinking us as false prophets and agents of Brithini deception? Do we need a Gloranthan Procopius to come along and tear away the veil by writing a Secret History? Could that be the hidden Volume III of the G2G which lies beside the Atlas of Zzabur secreted with the Altinae, beyond Valind's Glacier? Enquiring minds want to know! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Brilliant analysis Pentallion! Machiavellian metaphysics and mysticism in the service of radical social engineering, but to what end.? Defence of Loskalm or something much bigger? A two-track scheme worthy of the most arcane Brithini zzaburi! I like it, hell, I love it. I'm stealing it! Thank you. Spring boarding off your amazing insight, do you think it possible that the infinitely patient Brithini could have been behind it, subtly influencing Snodal and Siglat from afar and operating below the Hrestoli's radar? Have they been orchestrating this all along to force a second confrontation with Nysalor/Gbaji after Arkat stumbled and failed to eliminate this catalyst of cataclysms? This is definitely cool speculation! I'm all jazzed up now! Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy.

Well, I'm lost and confused! I have to do some serious reading before I can follow the more esoteric strands in this thread. Erasanchula? Gotta look that one up! I should learn how to spell Siglat's name too! I guess I'm just too firmly rooted in Makan-materialism to fully comprehend the merit-based majesty of magically Maoist Loskalm. I can't help imagining RKO Films-style towers radiating harmony waves over all of Loskalm while an Orlanthi incarnation of Winston Smith looks on in pallid-faced horror. I'm actually considering rooting for the Kingdom of War right now! Yikes! I guess it's Treason Island for me! Maybe I can put the trees back in Treason! Is Danmalastan near Uzbekistan? Cheers and good gaming. A bewildered Evilroddy.

Jon L. You make very good points. I can see the Hrestoli-idealists being able to manage the great majority of people, but I still can't get my head around how they manage a very small but intractable minority of people who will just not fit in. All populations have dissident or deviant groups who will not or cannot conform to societal norms. Those who commit crimes or defy authority for the thrill of it, the dangerous-lazy who prefer to commit easy crimes rather than toiling at less rewarding and hard work, the insane, the possessed and the subversive. There's just something off, something sinister about such a perfect society and I want to peer behind the curtain to see the monsters behind the serene and smiling faces. My Orlanthi soul bridles at such harmony and self/ego/id-extinction. Something's rotten in the state of Loskalm! And with the Ban preventing them from exiling the unassimilatable. Where did they go? Cheers and thanks for your insights. Evilroddy.

HI Jeff: Two questions occur to me. Pre-lifting of the Ban, how did the Hrestoli Idealists deal with those who lacked 'merit' and thus could not rise to even the first rung of the meritocracy? These are the incompetent, the indifferent, the sick, the insane or the predatory. Was magic used to cure or to re-educate those who did not fit in? The second question concerns the state of the meritocracy post-lifting of the Ban. How far has Makan-materialism permeated into the Kingdom of Loskalm proper by 1621 ST? Does the kingdom allow foreigners within its frontiers or is it xenophobic in attempt to limit the permeation of Makan-materialism's corruption? Noyalings were incorporated into the population of Easval in the mid-1400's according to the G2G and I presume that if this process happened in the north it might have happened in the south. But I guess I'm wrong. I don't have the Guide at hand right now, but I'll put in a page reference later. Thanks for your guidance above. It is most appreciated. Cheers. Evilroddy. The Noyaling reference is from the description of Kintaem on p. 208 of Vol. 1 of the G2G.

To the wise Magi of Glorantha: I am wondering just how perfect or imperfect Hrestoli Idealism has made Loskaim. How close to utopia are they really? Are there lazy, disinterested, disengaged, criminal, pereverted, greedy, power-crazed or dissenting groups who challenge the primacy and the legitimacy of the Hrestoli Idealistic way? What about chaotic cult penetration? Are there thieves and thieves guilds in Loskalm? Is there smuggling and black marketing there? Do brigands and highway men haunt the roads and trails of Loskalm? Are there rogue wizards and underground networks of magic? Can pagan populations and creeds coexist with Hrestoli Idealism along the frontiers of Loskalm? Are there people who simply do not want to participate in any of the four castes of Loskalmi society? Is there a Loskalmi underclass? Are there any dissident movements against the principles and tenets of the Hrestoli Way? I am not talking about differences within the Hrestoli Creed such as the tensions between the old guard of Snodal's and Siglath's days and the Young Turks who have arisen since the Ban lifted. I'm talking about people who just don't buy into any of it. Like the Noyaling people of the north or the folks like the Orlanthi Oranori pagans of the south who happen to live within the frontiers of Loskalm? Is there a Loskalmi underground? Some sub rosa subcultures? And no, I don't mean a subway system! Any insights, whimsical musings, prognostications or ironclad canonical doctrine will be appreciated. Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy

To boldly Glo where no one has Gloran before?

And yet these illuminates continue to play; to grind and refine the powder to make for a more violent burn and then some light the fuse! Self-aware nihilists can still be self-absorbed nihilists. They serve themselves and enhance the void, but nature abhors the void and reacts with cataclysms and destruction by turning illuminated heroes into monsters and agents of destruction. Cheers. Rod Robertson.

Every villain is a hero in his/her own mind's narrative. Daruda pre-existed time, so delaying enlightenment for the good of Kaorela's stability and cohesion is not a good argument. Cause and effect are irrelevant in a pre-temporal context. Is the Path of Immanent Mastery a tool for social cohesion or a tool for controlling the Kralorelan polity and marshaling their spiritual essence for the service of the Dragon Emperors. A pyramid scheme for the apotheosis of the few at the expense of the many. I smell the taint of the God Learners and the EWF in this philosophy. Cheers. Evilroddy.

ChildOfEnu: The question is does that 'check' constrain illuminates? I am inclined to believe not. To me illumination is severance from the personal responsibility to a Gloranthan 'Natural Order', whatever particular order that might be. It is the triumph of ego-centric self-preoccupation over the very real social, spiritual and magical ties which bind and constrain Gloranthans into some sort of a community; a lesser-compromise which binds all to the web of society. It is an existential acceptance of the primacy of the void and the attendant liberation that goes with it. After all, it is hard to imagine how one can submit to and serve the void thus opening the door to unbridled service of the self. Instead of submission to some external order, be it social, religious, philisophical or magical, illumination severs the individual from the behavioural webs of Glorantha and turns the illuminate into the philisophical equivalent of Humakti; who are so potent because they have decoupled themselves from life and have focused upon serving death. Illuminates have likewise severed themselves from the web of ties which constrain their actions and their ambitions. Unrestrained, they become philisophical swords capable of chopping up established orders if doing so serves their goals, ambitions and desires. In a sense they too wield death but on a much grander scale than Humakti. For illuminates are capable of philisophically killing societies and the ties that bind multitudes of mortals to those societies. Who is more destructive? A temporal war-lord who kills tens of thousands or a Dragon Emperor who philosophically cancels an entire society in order to personally apotheosize to a higher plane of existence? One comits multiple murders. The other cancels the value of a web which binds millions and casts that web aside for personal reasons. That is sociopathic narcissism on the grandest scale. That is the 'you(s) fought, I won' occlusion which tears social orders apart and leads to the philisophical, spiritual and religious Balkanization and subsequent magical fragmentation which shreds societies and indeed Gloranthan nature/reality itself. Thus illumination is a catalyst for the void and thus is profoundly dangerous in all of its forms. Cheers. Evilroddy.

Pentallion: Oops! I really do need glasses! OK, back to the drawing board it is. Thanks for the correction, he said rather sheepishly! Jeff: Thanks for the ideas. Your choice of words for the start of your second paragraph has me wondering again if the caravan or parts of it travel around the Kingdom of Ignorance? You say that, "Once the caravan arrives in the Kingdom of Ignorance, the journey has not stopped." This would seem to imply there is continuing travel (journey) within the K of Ignorance. Am I misunderstanding your intent here? Cheers and good gaming. Evilroddy the Blind.

Good discussion to date. Thanks for all the feed back. By my reckoning, counting hexes along the route from Palbar to Jangi-Shar in the AA Altlas, the journey is about 275 hexes or about 1400 Km. A caravan with wagons traveling at 5 Km/hr. for six hours a day covers 30 Km/day and could complete such a journey in 50-55 days. If a caravan with just pack animals can travel 5 Km/hr. for eight hours a day, it will cover the distance in 35-40 days. Allowing for extra time due to trading stops along the way and fording rivers, etc. a pack-animal-only caravan is too fast for the biennial caravan constraint. Such caravans could make it to the Kingdom of Ignorance and back in two seasons. Thus I added wagons and carts to slow things down in order to extend the travel time to match the requirement of a two-year trip. While not wanting to ignore the cultural and religious merits of using wagons in Glorantha, there is plenty of evidence for extensive wagon use without roads/tracks by nomadic peoples and colonists in terrestrial Eurasia and America. So I am not convinced that wagons and carts could not make such a journey. Steppe land is not treeless by any stretch of the imagination. In my game Pentlanders make extensive use of carts and even some wagons to carry yurts and religious paraphernalia as mobile shrines. I disagree with the argument about no wood being available in the steppes of Pent. Trees will be found near rivers and streams and where the topography of the land allows for the accumulation of rare water in the aquifer near the surface. Now trees would definitely be a limited resource and thus Pentans might be pretty put out if lunar caravans took trees for their own use, but I do not think that no trees would be available to the caravan. With a supply of spare wheels and dried wood, plus time to dry and cure Pentan wood, a caravan with wagons and carts could make the journey in good form. Even if they had to cannibalize a wagon or two for spare wood. Something which I neglected to mention in my earlier posts was that about 15% of the wagons used are actually flat-bottomed boats filled with cargo and carried on wheeled frames. These boats are used by the caravan for crossing rivers and ferrying cargo and dismantled wagon/carts across major water obstacles. Without such boats transiting the rivers of Pent would be nearly impossible as fords could not be counted upon to be passable on a regular basis. Many of the carts are wood-framed wicker carts like those of terrestrial Ancient Elam and thus easily transportable across a river. The non-boat wagons are more robust affairs but are designed to be easily dismantled and reassembled much like terrestrial Assurian wagons and heavy chariots were. So if the argument is a cultural or religious argument against wagons/carts and draught animals, I'm all ears. But arguments based on the impossibility of using wagons/carts are less persuasive in my mind since 'human' ingenuity is a powerful force in the Lunar gestalt apparently. 'Human' is used to connote all sentient races in Genertela, not just humans. I am now in the process of re-engineering the caravan. I will scale it up to a degree as per suggestions above. But, in order to slow the caravan down to conform to the minimal biennial constraint I think wagons will have to be part of the equation, or the caravan could easily complete a round trip in two seasons and thus one year. If someone can demonstrate a sound cultural or religious reason for excluding them then fine; I will be convinced. But then I will have to find another anchor to slow the caravans down. Any suggestions on such alternative inhibitors to fast movement would be greatly appreciated. Cheers and thank you for your guidance. Evilroddy.

Jajagappa: Thanks for your references and for your excellent source-based guidance. Roko Joko: Those are great ideas and suggestions which you have shared. Thank you so much! Thanks again to Metcalph, M Helsdon and the comical Iskallor for your insights and good humour. Cheers again. Evilroddy.