Who/what are the Kitori these days?

[scott-martin]

1 hour ago, Gallowglass said:

I hope that the Kitori get some detailed coverage in a future supplement

They do seem to be extremely popular.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Gallowglass said:

I hope that the Kitori get some detailed coverage in a future supplement, hopefully as an option for making player characters and running campaigns.

Yes, I think there is thought towards that.

[Nick Underwood]

On 7/11/2020 at 9:56 AM, davecake said:

On 7/8/2020 at 11:04 PM, Nick Underwood said:

Whatsup with them killing Broyan?

That's a good question. King of Sartar, in the CHDP, suggests its due to Broyans betrayal of the City of Wonders, but the CHDP is an in-world source that may well be very biased pr speculative - it's not clear why the Kitori would be against Broyan, as both of them are representing pre-Belintar powers. It's also possible that the demon that kills Broyan isn't representing the KItori themselves.

I also read somewhere - apologies, I never remember where I read these things possibly, here on BRP - that Broyan may have been killed for failing to pay the Shadow Tribute, despite the fact he didn't know he was eligible for taxes. So the Shadow Tribute may be the cause of the the demon's attack, and the section from the Sourcebook that @dumuzid quoted gives us the reason for it's (unexpected) success:

"Among the Kitori, a little bright light was snuffed
out, and a demon that had many sharp mouths was let out
of its skin. It sought vengeance, and fell upon the army
of King Broyan while they slept. The king could not keep
it away, because he had betrayed the City of Wonders,
and the Great King was killed there, with his army."

Further wild speculation: if Broyan were indeed killed for not paying the Shadow Tribute, and this ancient tribute were based on Equal Exchange, what did Broyan receive from the Shadowlands that required repayment...? Could it be the support of Queen Leika who derives her authority from the Black Spear? What promises were extracted from King Colymar when he fled the Pharaoh with the support of the OOO, crossed the Kitori lands, and flung his Argan Argar weapon across the crossline?  What secret oaths do the Anmangarn Clan still utter without understanding in their woods? Is it an accident that the Black Spear returns in the hands of the Argrath?

I was looking for some hints before I tied myself in knots with my own hopeless conspiracy theory!  

Agreed, it's not clear the Kitori were responsible. Thanks. I hadn't considered that readinng.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Nick Underwood
Edit: Quote is from the Sourcebook, not KOS.

[Nick Underwood]

On 7/11/2020 at 3:14 PM, Jeff said:

There is. But I am happy to keep it cryptic.

Excellent. Isn't the best kind of rampant speculation the kind that won't get corrected by an upcoming release!

[Nick Underwood]

15 hours ago, Gallowglass said:

Also aren’t the Torkani and Bachad tribes supposed to be descended from Kitori? 

Ooh, interesting. It seems that this is covered in Wyrm's Footneote #15. Need to make a purchase.

[Gallowglass]

30 minutes ago, Nick Underwood said:

Ooh, interesting. It seems that this is covered in Wyrm's Footneote #15. Need to make a purchase.

They don’t go into a lot of detail on this, but WF #15 is still a great read. It’s the best source on the Dragon Pass Sun Dome Temple.

[Lordabdul]

16 hours ago, Nick Underwood said:

Ooh, interesting. It seems that this is covered in Wyrm's Footneote #15. Need to make a purchase.

I'm not totally sure whether the tribe classification in there is still canon, but note that there's really not much about it. Plus, I'm suspecting that the Bachad tribe was incorrectly categorized as "Dark Orlanthi" like the Torkani. I think they're most probably Tarshite or Earth Tarsh.... they couldn't be Dark Orlanthi when they're also listed as being renowned troll-killers who have special magic for that.

[Jeff]

Just now, lordabdul said:

I'm not totally sure whether the tribe classification in there is still canon, but note that there's really not much about it. Plus, I'm suspecting that the Bachad tribe was incorrectly categorized as "Dark Orlanthi" like the Torkani. I think they're most probably Tarshite or Earth Tarsh.... they couldn't be Dark Orlanthi when they're also listed as being renowned troll-killers who have special magic for that.

That was a screwup on my part. Here's the correct details:

BACHAD

The leading tribe of the Alone city ring, the Bachad are one of the New Sartar tribes, having settled this area after being exiled from Tarsh following the Battle of Grizzly Peak in 1582. They originally came from what is now the Bush Range. They control much of the good agricultural land in the Hidden Valley, raising barley and cattle. 

Tribal Center: Alone

City: Alone

Population: 3000

Clans: Three

Main Tribal Deities: Orlanth, Ernalda.

Minor Cults: Humakt, Maran Gor.

Language: Tarshite

[Lordabdul]

5 minutes ago, Jeff said:

That was a screwup on my part. Here's the correct details:

Ah thanks!

So they're indeed more from Tarshite origin as I suspected, it seems. I'm surprised to see Humakt as a notable minor cult, and not Elmal or Yelmalio. Does that mean they're using Humakti magic to fight trolls, instead of Sun magic? I was wondering about that because WF#15 also mentions they paint their shield and body black to better fight in the dark, and that felt like quite the opposite to what Sun-worshippers would do, which left me scratching my head as to what kind of special magic they were using. I guess if they're using Death-god magic, the black paint makes sense.

Edited July 14, 2020 by lordabdul

[Nick Underwood]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Here's the correct details:

Jeez @Jeff, How do you find time for this?

Much appreciated that you do!

[Alex]

On 4/15/2020 at 11:36 AM, Jeff said:

Writing is in the Theyalan script. So an Esrolian can read Sartarite, etc.

If Cat Scratchings are a semi-syllabary or some such, they might leave them in the position of "I can say this stuff, George, but you can't understand it!"  Though written communication might conventionally be in a sort of Classical Theyalan, with the spoken languages more diverged in their actual realizations.

[Alex]

On 4/15/2020 at 2:00 PM, soltakss said:

It still is. My wife speaks Bashkort, Tatar, Uzbek and Russian and can get by in Turkish and Khazak. She was talking to a Russian interpreter from Azerbaijan and they were having a conversation in Azeri, which she doesn't speak but is similar enough to the languages she does speak that they could both do the tricky bits in their head.

For about 3s I thought "most of those are Turkic languages, how hard can that be?!" before I looked up just how many different branches of Turkic were involved.

Occasionally I imagine people applying the something like the RQ language-tree to real life...  "Kurdish, huh?  Well, that's an Indo-European language, I speak one of those, I should totally get 1/5 my skill or so!"

[Alex]

On 4/15/2020 at 11:57 AM, Jeff said:

and whatever ancient Macedonian was (Greek dialect? separate Hellenic language?). 

Welllll, it certainly had its own army and navy, at any rate!  Likely not air force, admittedly, unless we go for an especially Clash of the Titans take on those wars...  which given the forum we're in, obviously we very much should.

[metcalph]

2 hours ago, Alex said:

Occasionally I imagine people applying the something like the RQ language-tree to real life...  "Kurdish, huh?  Well, that's an Indo-European language, I speak one of those, I should totally get 1/5 my skill or so!"

To be fair, this was kinda how hittite was deciphered.