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One of the underlying themes of the Prax book is that Praxian animals are not Earth animals. They behave differently, eat differently, but look similar to their Earth counterparts. I do however need at starting point so that readers and players have some idea what I'm talking about: and then I came across this really cool site: http://prehistoric-fauna.com and more specifically http://prehistoric-fauna.com/Bison-priscus Are praxian bison an more ancient kind of bison like Bison priscus? The other bison form do exist in the Wastes certainly bison latifrons. Anyone out there interested in bison?

Some of you might be interested on the current work on the Prax book. I've been mainly working on the Praxian history section. You might think that we knew plenty about this kind of thing because of the Guide and the Pavis book, but it turns out that most of the history is Pavis / Zola Fel Valley-centric. Some areas are completely blank in the Praxian's history - Who and what was/is Jaldon, Sheng Seleris and his influence, the migrations into to the Wastelands and the Praxians interactions with their neighbours. Some of this will go into the book, the rest will provide a basis as to what is currently going on. I now really understand why Greg produced stuff like GRoY and his other unfinished works - they give insight into the current situation. Currently I'm looking at the expansion of the Praxians into the world starting at the Dawn. The basis of this are the Historical Maps done by Lawrence Keogh in the Guide and AAA, this is something we worked on together and so I am using the vector maps that were produced for it. The second source is the Wastelands section in the Guide which I fleshed out, this was the also used for the Historical maps. I've started by mapping the Covenant and the other groups that are present in the Wastelands at the Dawn: The Covenant was actually centred around the sacred ground of the Paps, but didn't contain the Ostrich clan who were discovered in the First Migrations by Fanzali (info in the Guide) in the Ostrict Grasslands. I decided that was also the case with the Bolo people who's Lizards I put in a nice warm spot by the coast with insects to eat as well as vegetation. The independents are located in appropriate places: Baboons at the Monkey ruins, Agimori, south of the Paps as Ernalda is important to them, Basmoli in their Lion's den, secluded to the North a small wooded area high up with good views for hunting and prey. Other groups don't exist yet - The Amazons/Unicorn tribe don't really coalesce until after 35 when the First Council missionaries arrive and Yelorna appears with them. The cannibal clan don't really coalesce until later when their spirits start to possess migrating nomads, about half way through the first age. The newtlings are in the Zola Fel, and the Pol-joni and Zebra tribes don't exist yet. The Actual numbers from the dawn are very small numbering 3000 (GtG) Dawn families septs Bison 500 20 2 High Llama 500 20 5 Sable 500 20 5 Morokanth 500 20 4 Impala 500 20 3 Bolo Lizards 175 7 0 Ostriches 175 7 0 Rhinoceroses 75 3 Nose-Horn 25 1 Plains Elk 25 1 Long-nose 25 1 The Rhino's nearly become extinct in the First Age (according to Sandy), and so this kind of info lets me fill in the history: The Nose-Horn, Plains Elk and Long-nose aren't so lucky: I'm also using real population growth formula to look at how the Praxian grew over time. The core of the five major tribes which numbered 2500 at the Dawn (see above) had grown to about 2800 when the First Council missionaries arrived at the Paps. If people are interested, i'll keep updating this post.

Rather than hijack Martin's (@M Helsdon) excellent thread I thought to start a new thread around this topic - Praxian swords. The first place to start is the Task of Waha most used for initiations and Khan making - Waha and Death (HeroQuest Glorantha page 170). The basic outline of the Task is: and the Task itself currently looks like this: Where do the swords they find in the marshes come from - mostly they are left there by Praxians themselves - offerings to Waha. This is one of the reasons that Praxians continue to steal / buy / acquire metal weapons from others, eventually they are given to the marshes. Initiates tend to find bone or horn weapons, Khans metal ones. Some that are found are actually part of Storm Bull - a horn or lost limb bone. Rarely an iron death sword is found. But none of this is rules so what is found should of course suit your story. As initiates do the task cooperatively, a range of weapon is often recovered. Oh and the weapons aren't usually just lying there. There are most often in the hand of a broo, scorpion man or other chaos horror...

@Joerg's post Termites in the Wastes http://basicroleplaying.org/topic/4425-termites-in-the-wastes/ reminded me of the critter section for the upcoming Prax book. Initially I was a bit daunted that I would have to populate the Wastelands with creatures to possibly emulate a real ecology, so I ignored it for three years and came back to it. My realisation is that the Wastes don't have a rich "ecology". It has a limited damaged one maintained by a magical pact with the gods. I don't have to fill it. The main cycle is Earth -> Plant -> Herd beast -> humans/predators -> Earth. Any waste returns directly to the Earth to be reused. Fertility is finite, what was Genert's Garden has lost its fertility. There isn't much plant waste at all, most is eaten at some point. There are other creatures in the wastes, but not many. The encounter table sums it up in Pavis GtA, some birds not many species, perhaps only 6 or 7, predators 4 or 5, other small herbivores 4 or 5. Insects - some, flies, mosquitos on the coast, 1 species of ant, a beetle or two, but not the rich ecology of a chaparral. The richest places will be those adjacent to water. Oasis will have 1 or 2 other animal types. Rivers have fish etc. Plant wise, the Wastes probably only have 20 types including trees. It's not rich or varied by any means. Once Genert's fertility is restored, things will be different.

I've just started a new playtest for the Praxian book at my local gaming club. Some of you may be interested in what I'm doing, how stuff is progressing and what I do with my group. Some Background The first playtest was an all Bison rider group (Copper Bison clan) to look at how the magic, social structure and feel of setting would work. The second play was an all Morokanth group. This looked at the politics of the Praxians internally, how the Paps worked, how the Morokanth worked as vegetarians, more work on the magic background and clan generation with seasonal migration routes. In-between this playtest and the next, a large chunk of my text was taken and put in HeroQuest Glorantha - Spirit Magic section and the Cult of Waha. The third playtest was an all Sable group looking at the structure of the Sables, integration with the Lunars, and the divided nature of sable politics. The players in this game decided they would be from one of the pro-lunar phratries and the clan of Inire the Red, the corrupt tribal Khan of sables. The game itself was based around a foreshadowing of the Dragonrise, and involved Dragonewts , Dream Dragons (Krang), Draconic mysteries and Newtlings. The climax was the unintentional planting of the EWF dragon banner on the Moon instead of New Temple of the Reaching Moon. The players barely escaped with their lives as Tatius the Bright was not amused by the actions of his so called allies. Current Playtest This is my first mixed game, players can be from any of the major tribes and they are all members of the White Bull society - all of their mounts are slowly turning white. I've seven players, two from the previous playtest, the rest new to HeroQuest, although a few played RuneQuest 3. The first evening was spent generating characters and making up charms. I don't get everyone to do all five charms as that's time consuming although fun, so everyone had two to start with. The best part being that HeroQuest Glorantha is out and so I had a book to hand around rather than printouts. Here's their characters: Riyal the Sudden Hunter of Foundchild (Impala Tribe). Fire/Spirit/Harmony. Charms - (Harmony) Ghostly Tracker & (Harmony) Blend with Land. unnamed Enigmatic Spirit Talker of Jakaleel the Witch (Impala Tribe). Moon/Spirit/Illusion. Charms - (Illusion) Suggestive Words & (Spirit) Ghostly Embrace. Celestine the Divine Priest of Waha (Golden High Llama clan, High Llama tribe). Water/Death/Mastery. Charms - (Mastery) Loud Hail & (Water) Move as water flows. Lind the Spooky Warrior of the Seven Mothers (Black Bison clan, Bison tribe). Moon/Spirit/Death. Charms - (Death) Silent Blow & (illusion) Cause Doubt. Konunger the Majestic Warrior of Waha (Dark Morokanths clan, Morokanth tribe). Darkness/Spirit/Mastery. (Disorder) Befuddle & (Darkness) Hide Group. Sidekick - Darky the Great Troll. There are a few things to finish, but they can be done in-game next week (moon phases, names, more charms). The next two are from the previous Sable playtest, and have more development: Sagan Grokka the Honest Spirit Talker of the Skygazers (High Horns clan, Sable tribe). Sky/Harmony/Spirit. Charms - (Beast) - Become Sable, (Sky) Meteor Storm, (Sky) Whispers of Dragons, (Man) See the Hidden, (Man) Bone Collector, (Plant) Commune with Nature, (Water) Mumble with Water Beings, (Beast) Magic Bison Herding. Retainers - Three Newtlings. Rang the Innovative Stone Hard Protector (Warrior) of Daka Fal (High Horns clan, Sable tribe). Earth/Spirit/Death. Charms - (Man) Union of the Form, (Moon) Holy Fire, (Mastery) Convincing Voice. Sidekick - Tasselhof Helpful Hosar (Lightning Boy). If you'd like to see more detail, like their taboos, stats etc, let me know.