I’ve been looking at the forces that shape Praxian culture, and metal is clearly one of them. The starting points for me were:
In Greg’s vision of the Praxians they have no metal working – they are a neolithic culture.
The Way of Waha shapes the way Praxians live in the Wastelands.
The cult of Waha insists that if you want to be a Khan, you need metal weapons, and metal armour if you wear it.
So how to bring this all together into a rational framework?
Firstly – the Way of Waha. Waha introduced to the survivors of the Great Darkness a new way of living in the new environment of the Wastelands. His nomadic culture has a number of interelated movement factors:
He introduced raiding. Raiding keeps the tribes fit and lean. They are always prepared to raid or be raided.
Herds need to move to find new grazing.
He introduced the pilgrimage to the Paps every 7 to 21 years.
He made the no metal working taboo (well spotted Dan), the tribes must move to raid foreigners for metal to be Khans. As Jeff says it’s a ground man occupation as well (The coming of Pavis made some of this easier – a new source of metal within the Wastelands).
These four things define the nomads moving state around the Wastelands. Every clan is caught up in these currents of movement and that is what makes them nomads – these are the driving forces.
Secondly – does this apply to all metal?
The taboo is against bronze and iron working – hot metal. I think the Praxians practice small scale cold metal working for copper, gold, tin and silver. Copper is important to Earth cults, and in the Travels of Biturian Varosh, he says:
Quote:
I sold the copper armor which I got at Pimper’s Block for great profit, for that metal is holy among the earth folk.
The Copper Sands are also taboo – they are part of Genert.
Thirdly – Won’t the amount of metal weapons and armour have built up over the 1600 years they’ve been in the Wastelands?
No. There are many more nomads now than then! Also there is a built in system of removal. Bronze is a welcome sacrifice. The Wastelands has no bronze deposits even though many gods died here. Bronze is slowly being gathered by those who are rebuilding Genert – for his bones. Flint is everywhere in the Wastelands, the flesh of the gods fell copiously in the Wastelands. Every nomad knows how to find it, work it, shape it, use it.
Finally – So no Praxian can be a Smith?
Not true, but you will have to break a cultural taboo. Easier to get a slave! I’m sure at some point one of the Tribal Khans had a red smith slave. Everyone came to stare at the wondrous weapons he made for his Khan, and then they came to raid for him.
If you are wondering about the Genert stuff, Greg wrote a little about it in the digest in 2004:
http://www.rpglist.org/pipermail/glorantha/2004-August/018317.html
There’s a bit more to the story, but that’s for another time.
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Quote:Quote from David Scott on April 2, 2014, 19:00
