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Significant numbers for various cultures


Nevermet

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Basically what it says on the tin: what are some meaningful numbers for various societies?

 

Then we've also got...

  • 4 Malkioni castes (5 if one counts Men-of-All)
  • 5 or 6 elements depending if one counts Moon
  • 6 form runes
  • 7 Lightbringers / Mothers
  • 8 power runes

Any others worth noting?

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54 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

The Dara Happans really like the number 10

Yes, 10 Tests, 10 Servants, 10 Cities.

10 dwarf castes in the Decamony.

8 Mostali in the Octamony.

Usually 4 or 7 Hells.

4 Camps in the Golden Age.

4 Schools of Magic (spirit, divine, sorcerous, mystic)

3 or 6 Earth Goddesses (and also the Six Sisters, another Earth goddess division)

 

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Seventeen is a sacred number in Pamaltela, both for the Doraddi (including Arbennans, Tarien agimori) and the Fonritians.

Zero, one and two figure in Malkioni numerology as well - the One World, and in Devolution.

Twelve and Twenty are rather under-represented compared to their roles in counting (and even number words) in our world. The Sartar High Council has 12 or 12 +1 seats.

"Hundred" is attested e.g. in the Humakt cult, which has centuries of Humakti, but that could also be lean hundred (80), or big hundred (120) depending on context.

294 is the number of days (or nights) in a year. Like most other celestial periods, this is a multiple of seven.

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Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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Three:

  • three strings of harmony (harp, trichord)
  • three balls of illusion (juggling)
  • three arms of truth (Y = why?, truth as a crutch)
  • three sides of law (and of every story?, a more fixed (rigid) form of truth?)
  • three leaves of plant
  • three legs of movement (triskelion)
  • three points of mastery (crown)
  • three stones of luck (trilithon — presumably rather strait)
  • three facets of beast (dragonscale)

Some of those doubtless more strained than others, but at least it gives three × three × three. 😉

The holy trinity of Arkat, Gbaji, and Nysalor?

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NOTORIOUS VØID CULTIST

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18 hours ago, Nevermet said:

8 power runes

We also have the luck–fate (RQ2) and cosmos–chaos (HQ:RiG) polarities, so maybe across time and geography, powers might be 8, 10, or 12 depending on who you ask. Some kind of cultural marker. And some cultures will not see the members of the pair as poles (HQG seems to have 9 power runes). Historical and cultural variation is more fun than retrospective continuity?

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NOTORIOUS VØID CULTIST

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