Prax and the thousand questions about the place.

[Erol of Backford]

I assume some "eastern" types were imported that would thrive along the rivers as well... thanks for the link as well.

[David Scott]

18 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

From another thread, are heardmen able to be taught to play simple musical interments?

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

[Qizilbashwoman]

48 minutes ago, David Scott said:

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

this i don't know, but if tiktok has taught me anything, it's that cows LOVE music

 

[mfbrandi]

39 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments?

Can herdhumans be taught to carry a palanquin?

I am not cheerleading for herdhuman musicians — or “musicians” … music boxes? — but there is the question of anatomy as well as “intelligence” or variety of “soul”.

Even an “awakened” cow would have trouble playing a drum, one imagines. And an ukulele is out of the question, surely.

And “animal” intelligence is not a simple matter: orcas, sea lions, parrots, & crows. (Doubtless there are more examples.) Herdhumans as “animals in the shape of people” and Morokanth as “people in the shape of animals” should make us stop and think, even if the conclusion we come to is that it is as OK to eat a herdhuman as a cow … or a monkey … or a chimpanzee … or a jay.

[David Scott]

36 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

Can herdhumans be taught to carry a palanquin?

Yes per the Bestiary 154.

Previous supplements also had them trainable to throw rocks.

[DrGoth]

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

Well, herdmen can throw rocks - which other herd animals cannot.  So the analogy doesn't really hold.

[David Scott]

24 minutes ago, DrGoth said:

Well, herdmen can throw rocks - which other herd animals cannot.  So the analogy doesn't really hold.

but they can also be trained as war mounts and to bite, kick, gore and trample.

It can never be an exact, match (opposable thumbs for example) hence analogy.

I'm suggesting that playing music for animals, (beyond circuses) is difficult, while some creatures are able to mimic music and sounds too, the average heard beast is more content grazing, surrounded by the sounds of nature. The occasional intelligent (not changed) animal may have an interest (as in Prax they often join the Eiritha cult), in ritual sounds.

 

 

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:57 AM, Erol of Backford said:

...... Also what vegetables are there in Prax that grow wild? I assume a larger variety along the Zol Fel banks, etc. but are there earthlike equivalents?

The same questions go for fruits as well...

That is the problem as far as the Praxians are concerned: there are not a lot of wild vegetabke foods that humans can eat.  Therefore the need for Waha's compact.

But we are told that Prax is based on the American Southwest. So IMG:

Edible plants will include Mesquite beans.  Mesquite is usually seen as "bushes" but can grow into fairly large trees.  For instance the one behind my daughter and son in law's house: that is as tall as that 2-story house.  There is a lot of mesquite, it is usually regarded as a weed.

Some cactus is edible, for instance prickly pear pads/ leaves are de-thorned, then cut into straips and eaten like green beans.  (Nopales). In this case it's the vitamins and fiber that are the nutrient benefits. Because the calorie content is very low.  You could probably starve to death eating all the nopales you could eat.

Prickly pear fruit is edible, but it's full of seeds.  When you see " cactus csndy" sold in tbe RW, be aware that the pulp is strained to eliminate the seeds, then mixed with sugar.

Onions grow wild in the wetter parts of the Southwest.

Yucca plants' thick roots are edible when roasted.  These resemble long thin sweet potatoes in size, but they are not sweet and are blackish.  

To my knowledge that is about it for edible wild plants.  Domesticated plants are another story.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing

[mfbrandi]

39 minutes ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

That is the problem as far as the Praxians are concerned: there are not a lot of wild vegetable foods that humans can eat.

There is bat-pollinated skullbush — yielding oilseeds, which are edible but hardly a complete vegetable protein (I am guessing). See the RQ Companion, p. 32.

[Squaredeal Sten]

The striking thing about Prax, as far as I am concerned, is that it is hard to live in because it is magically infertile, not because it is too dry.  If you look at the weather table, there is enough rain for dry farming, 35 inches a year being the rule of thumb.  It is very seasonal, and that's not good.  But the water is there. 

(Not necessarily true of the Wastes east of the Zola Fel.)

If only Genert were resurrected you could call it a garden again.  So let's gather those hyena hides and build up our magic.  If the Lunars can resurrect a god, why not the Praxians?

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing / undoing spell check.

[soltakss]

6 hours ago, David Scott said:

On 5/7/2023 at 2:57 PM, Erol of Backford said:

From another thread, are heardmen able to be taught to play simple musical interments?

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

They can ring bells.

3 hours ago, DrGoth said:

Well, herdmen can throw rocks - which other herd animals cannot.  So the analogy doesn't really hold.

They could bang drums and shake things, if trained, I suppose. It probably wouldn't sound great though.

 

[mfbrandi]

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

If the Lunars can resurrect a god, why not the Praxians?

Yeah, that caused no trouble, at all, so let us go off-piste again.

It is not mine, but I rather like the Dumb Theory that Genert was the OG Sun. Yelm is just grow lights on a stick: that is the true origin of the rune. Why did the big O bring us “back” such a feeble fake, a replacement Sun? Well, just as a stopped clock is right twice a day, even Orlanth makes a wise decision once in a while …

Consider that the Sky Dome was improvised — is the sheltering sky, if the truth be told — to protect what was left of Glorantha after the destruction of its original Sun and things start to make sense … and get scary.

Bringing back the Sun — an honest-to-god star, not LEDs on a pole — under a much-too-close rock dome sounds to me like setting off an H bomb in a polytunnel. Call me old-fashioned. Call me overly cautious. But I think it is too soon to bring back Genert. We need open skies. We need distance.

When Argrath does the double and offs most of the gods and the Devil, that potentially nets him an awful lot of magical energy. Enough to ditch the dome (much less claustrophobic to be able to see into the Void at night), re-spherize Glorantha, and restore the Sun at an appropriate 93 million miles or so?

Maybe Argrath is the perfect Orlanthi hero, after all, embodying the Orlanthi virtue of responsibility. Only in the Fourth Age — after he is gone, wyrm food — will the big O have completed his restorative justice project, his community service. But wait, a responsible, self-sacrificing Orlanth? No, that really is a Dumb Theory. (Or maybe getting splashed with dragonblood can be eye-opening.)

[Darius West]

8 hours ago, David Scott said:

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

If it isn't on YouTube, the answer is they probably don't.  I found an elephant having a go at a drum, but frankly they weren't showing much talent.

[Erol of Backford]

6 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

If only Genert were resurrected you could call it a garden again. 

We are sorting that out for our campaign, bringing at least one river back for sure, likely from a chaos tainted spring?

4 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Yeah, that caused no trouble, at all, so let us go off-piste again.

If they can do it so can we. It's my right! I think we'll like snakes somehow as well... as always great ideas.

Heardmen throwing rocks onto large drums and ringing bells. A cacophony of beautiful harmonistic music?

[mfbrandi]

20 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

Heardmen throwing rocks onto large drums and ringing bells.
A cacophony of beautiful harmonistic music?

Of course: given that they don’t speak, how else are they to be heard, man?

[Erol of Backford]

1 hour ago, mfbrandi said:

Of course: given that they don’t speak, how else are they to be heard, man?

That is the worst...

worse than Akhôrahil's commnet about finding the invisible sword seems difficult (which I didn't understand... 🤪)

Do pigmies wear cowboy hats?

Are any Praxians similar to Aborigines in Australia?

Why have Kralorelan straw hats not been imported to Prax? It seems they would be ideal for keeping the sun out especially if they were 3-4' in diameter?

Do Praxian tribes have wind chimes to give notice of oncoming storms, noted the lacquered bamboo in the sample cowboy hat windchime for sale at Pavis location P6: Goemon's FIne Haberdashery. He is from far away Lur Nop in Wanzow... he has secret ties to the Red Dragon Servant and likely the Black Fang Brotherhood.

  

[g33k]

16 hours ago, David Scott said:

The easiest reply is 

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

I think herdmen might be able to learn to "vocalize" in a usably-musical fashion.  Not *singing* per se -- no lyrics -- but rhythm-lines & such.  They won't have much of a "repertoire," but might be trainable to play a part in musical portions of a ritual, etc.

[Bill the barbarian]

On 3/12/2023 at 9:24 PM, SDLeary said:

On 3/12/2023 at 9:24 PM, SDLeary said:

I missed this in the guide... So seeing this has caused my head to churn... and churn... and out spilled... Cactus Aldryami!

Fly you fools!

[Bill the barbarian]

17 hours ago, David Scott said:

Are cows (or other herd animals) able to be taught to play simple musical interments? 🙂

According to Mark Knopfler they can!

And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises? He's bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee

[Erol of Backford]

[Agentorange]

On 5/8/2023 at 9:25 PM, Erol of Backford said:

Heardmen throwing rocks onto large drums and ringing bells. A cacophony of beautiful harmonistic music?

For some reason this comment reminds me of this.........
 

 

[Erol of Backford]

Do heardmen wear gold chains and striped suit jackets. Better yet do they smoke hazia?

[Ian A. Thomson]

On 5/8/2023 at 7:41 PM, Qizilbashwoman said:

this i don't know, but if tiktok has taught me anything, it's that cows LOVE music

Is that the same as 'playing' with his food? Playing at his food?

On a more serious note, writing some Praxian bits and pieces today I answered a question I have had for many years, which may or may not be a common assumption already.

I was writing about Waha trails that go from oasis to oasis, and came to the conclusion that this is why (Doh!) the Praxians don't destroy the oases, and limit their predations to bad treatment and looting of food. They need the oasis people to keep doing what they do. Because if the oasis people failed as a race then ALL of the oases would fail, and the Waha Trails shamanic magic would then cease to work. So the people of Waha and their beasts would lose one of their primary survival mechanisms.

EDIT: Maybe not primary, but highly advantageous if the health of all oases are linked to the health of the oasis folk culture (which is hanging on by a thread anyway). I mention this not as an attempt at 'canon' ideas, but as potentially 'game interesting' ideas.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Ian A. Thomson

[Joerg]

8 minutes ago, Ian A. Thomson said:

Is that the same as 'playing' with his food? Playing at his food?

On a more serious note, writing some Praxian bits and pieces today I answered a question I have had for many years, which may or may not be a common assumption already.

I was writing about Waha trails that go from oasis to oasis, and came to the conclusion that this is why (Doh!) the Praxians don't destroy the oases, and limit their predations to bad treatment and looting of food. They need the oasis people to keep doing what they do. Because if the oasis people failed as a race then ALL of the oases would fail, and the Waha Trails shamanic magic would then cease to work. So the people of Waha and their beasts would lose one of their primary survival mechanisms.

The average Animal Nomad clan will stay within reach of an oasis only a few weeks every year, spending more time in slow migration across the chaparral. There will be watering holes without permanent habitation, possibly because they will be over-exploited and require some time to regenerate between visits.

If you buy into the "Praxian herd beasts graze on spirit plants in addition to the physical plants of the chaparral" explanation, these spirit plants may regenerate at a slower rate, too.

[Malin]

This has always been an enormously useful post for me, and now when I am finally posting on the forum I'm going to say thank you and ask: There were some mentions in here of a Prax book. Is that still on the table? Or one about the Wastes?