[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
People speaks softer when their bellies are full. People also think more abstract thought when they aren't worrying.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
Well that was to be expected, the farmers practice human sacrifice. First of all I would try to teach them our language, they are expected to become Kin to Air, they can't really do that when they can't undrstand the rest of the people.
And more food is always good.
The other thing about food gathering is that captives have incentive to join in, and they aren't going to run if their remaining family can't get away. Also work removes bad idle thoughts and reduces unknown factor, can't be scared of the masked demon hunters if you and him eat the same food gathered by everyone you can see.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
Right, so I think if we want to continue on as we began that Language is crucial. We need to be able to talk to these people in order to properly care for them as members of the Kin, which is what they basically are. It's almost common courtesy in my mind. While we may not be able to teach children very well, the adults and teens should be better and it'll trickle down from there. Manus has also had some funny(to me) hell trying to deal with the language of the Godlanders.
I don't really have much more to say about it except that this band is kinda experienced at this kinda thing at least a little so it'll hopefully go quicker.
For the second option I really want food for the reason that this region is kinda iffy and I think we need to help support the main band however we can. Food will in some portion go to support the captives and shows that they are going to be cared for. It's also a natural way to introduce them to our routines of food gathering I would think and help them show we are people who control the demons instead of just being demons.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
I'm considering a bigger post. Not sure about what right now, lots to unpack about this update.
E: Joy definitely has it's place though and I haven't got objections to it.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Jul 26, 2018 at 6:38 PM, finished with 331 posts and 10 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Jul 26, 2018 at 8:11 PM, finished with 336 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
That was pretty brutal. The mythic tone was interesting.
Seems like Air's respect is rising posthumously. Also kudo's to @Spear on discord they figured out that Arashgicar may be Ereshkigal.
I'll think about the vote.
I was actually going to ask that you treat the art so far as one thing so that's fine!
For the art I would like this change in practices.
Practice, Maiden Art: The granddaughter of an honored grandmother, who are both talented in the arts, carries with her a series of cured scrolls, on the inside is cured tan and on the outside the fur of the beast it came from. On these scrolls are inscribed the pictorial images which detail the Great Journey. This daughter carries them everywhere, guided in her art by her grandmother.
Basically got it into my head that there's this one character named Ochre Painted-Sky who was struck by the idea to make pictures out of the Great Journey and brought it to her grandmother, who approved and now helps her paint the Kin Scrolls.
For the Diplomacy... Hmmm... something in myths I think?
Mother, Maiden: When the Ancestors of Ancestors came to the valley, it was recalcitrant and sad. It would not support life and health. The People Before They Were Kin were at a loss until a mother and her maiden daughter were struck by insight and so went round the valley, finding the precious herbs and good waters, soothing the angry spirits with gifts of fine food and drink and making the valley welcoming for all.
A little explanation as to why we might include women in diplomatic parties.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
We welcomed them as family, we can try to connect to them better as family should.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
Torn between food and joy, but I'll go with food for now. Might help the captives if they are well fed, and should keep them from panicking in the worst case.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
There was a... lot to unpack in this update, though I could mostly sum it up as "Dang ancient world, that's pretty brutal". Anyway to get in more detail.
In the middle of the camp of the fishing folk, they huddle; at the mercy of the Kin to Air, who wrestled with demons in the underworld, and the black-headed men of the Land of the Gods, they huddle. Women, children, men; old and young, all subdued by the demons that possessed you in battle, and made each of you as tenfold warriors of theirs. They whisper among each other, whispering in a strange, guttural tongue of harsh words and slithering sentences, like the scaled fish they take from the water and eat; like the strange spirits of the river, they no doubt worship.
So interesting thing to note first off is the systemic change our dear Doll is implementing by writing the updates in a more mythic style. I dig it, it works well to convey the right flavor of imagery for these events. An interesting detail here is Fire Defeats-Many's thought's on the fish folk's speech. There is indication here that he doesn't exactly consider them demons or spirits in humanlike skin, not exactly, which is a bit atypical. They are obviously strange to him though. Perhaps it is mitigated by the fact he is essentially adopting them.
You can also see here an interesting interpretation of the honored grandmother's tale of Air's trip into the underworld. Filtered through a lens which gives honor to her in the mind of a physically active and aggressive man, which in this case is painting her as responding like he would.
Lugalkam looks at you expectantly, waiting for you to make your choice. You ask him to stand back and let you confer, to which he agrees, and you bring the hunters together. You ask of them, their desires, but you can already see the gazes that the young hunters, faces still flushed with blood, cast towards the women of the fishing folk, and you yourself, are in need of a wife. You ask of them, if they desire anything more, but must quickly calm them when they speak of the golden jewelry, wishing to save that for Lugalkam, whose eyes you have seen glitter at least as much as the gold, when they fall upon it.
Brilliance strikes you, and you know what to ask for, smiling as you call off the conference and return with your host, to Lugalkam and Ninthutha, and the fishing folk.
"I ask firstly, of you, Lugalkam of the black-headed people, who come from the Land of the Gods, that I be given the unmarried women and the children of the fishing folk, and that all who are married be given the same fate as their husbands, as to not to separate them."
To this request, Lugalkam seems to acquiesce easily, smiling happily that you make such a light request,
Fire will be getting a wife out of this, probably the most beautiful of the lot. As the obligatory note by now, this sort of wife taking is really really common in the ancient world as it is essentially the expected action. Seen here it is taken well and not taken poorly. Though here you also see the respect for women Fire has by explicitly saying that the married women should go with their husbands.
We also see that Lugalkam is multi lingual, likely as a combination of regular conflict and exchange of gifts and trade between Pepilun and the nearest river folk villages in good times. I wonder if the partitioning of classes between warriors and merchants has happened in Pepilun yet.
Then you speak to Lugalkam again, and give your second request; your stroke of genius, which will secure greatness for the Kin.
"Secondly, I ask of you, Lugalkam of the black-headed people, who has become to me like a brother, through battle, that you and your men speak of us, and speak of our greatness, and say, "The Kin to Air, who are all kin to the woman who went into the land of dry dust and worms, and wrestled with the demons within, are great in the eyes of the spirits, and our gods", and that you bring this message with you wherever you go."
At this, Lugalkam laughs joyfully; a cheery laughter, not in mockery or jest, but in friendship forged, speaking up heartily.
"As you wish, Izidabduesh, of the Kin to Air, who says to me "you have become to me like a brother, through battle", I shall spread far your story, and say to them, "this man was born of Arashgichar, who is queen of the underworld and sister to the Queen of Heaven", and I shall tell them of your great deeds."
It's a curious and terrifying scene here for the fisher folk, to watch their enemies in the Godlanders bargain with masked demons. Probably comes off as him appeasing them for their services or something similar and the tongue he speaks must sound rather ghastly to them. Really big thing here though is that Arashgichar is, according to the vocal shifts laid out in Grimm's Law, Ereshkigal. She is the Queen of the Great Earth and the underworld, Kur in the Summerian mythos. Lugalkam was basically saying that Fire Defeats-Many was also descended from a divinity like Lugalkam claims to be, which seems to be a big marker of respect in his culture. The Queen of Heaven he refers to is Inanna most likely, or the deity concept that becomes her, as Ereshkigal is her older sister.
These were pretty inoffensive things to ask for, and I expect our legend and the embellished versions of it to extend far into the future.
Then, it is Ninthuta, property to the god Merthoch, who speaks up. In a harsh voice, she bids Lugalkam have the men and married women brought back, guarded by the soldiers, so they can be made to work. She also then bids him set the buildings aflame, to terrify others of their kind into fearing the retribution of the Land of the Gods, and seek other raiding targets. To these wishes, Lugalkam agrees, and he bids his soldiers take the remaining and lead them from the place, to stand afar under guard.
Also to this, Lugalkam agrees, giving the command and sending a group of men to make torches and bring forth fire.
Finally, it is Lugalkam's time to make his own claim, and he takes nothing but the gold and jewelry; personally looking through every hut and house for the tiniest piece that glimmers, bringing back necklaces with amber inlays and elaborate statuettes. Signs from trade afar and signs of wealth; both things that are now Lugalkam's.
We do have a conception of trade, comes from being settled for a while I guess. We should probably leave the area, because if this succeeds it will drive the fishers to go poke other people like us. I'd rather not have to rebuff them, especially when this land is as crowded as it seemingly is.
Around him, the three men he called forth begin stomping their feet in the earth, singing a song which you understand not, despite your partial understanding of their language.
"Ana Merthoche imen! Elenu thiemethoa imen!"
They stomp their feet, they shout their cry to the heavens, and the warriors keeping the captives, bid the ones they have taken kneel and lay hands upon their shoulders, forcing them down.
"Urumerthoch! Elenu keskel imen! Emkereene panazue imenak!"
In the dying, golden glow of the sun, dark clouds have begun to gather on the sky, slowly blotting out the last, feeble rays of light. The warriors take from the captives, an old man, bringing him forward, towards the great camp, held by his arms, by two warriors, as Ninthutha's eyes have rotated, so her visage is spots of white, full of tiny, red veins. From her mouth come words that sound nothing like what the warriors now holler and scream, if they are word, they are words of Merthoch.
In Lugalkam's hands, fire has begun as one would expect, and the smoke it gives off is caught in the heavy winds, dancing in a quick and murderous dance, while the three warriors have picked up their sticks, bashing them towards each other, roaring like beasts while they run around in circles. In the smoke and flame, the demons within your masks come alive, snarling and biting in the well-carved wood.
The light and heat of the fire can be felt even where you stand, the warriors have set their sticks alight. Only one holds the old man now, the other has digged a hole, in which they force him to kneel before filling it with earth again, so only his head pokes above the earth. Ninthutha has spread her arms, screaming words unknown to man, shaking violently in the light of the flame.
"Merthoch!" The warriors and Lugalkam scream in unison, shouting to the heavens as Ninthutha collapses, as if her spirit had journeyed away from her vessel, while the warriors run to the village, setting alight every building they come nearby. In the reddish-orange sunset gleam of the burning village, you can yourself shiver, despite the heat; perhaps the warriors of the Land of the Gods are not vultures as they say they are.
Oh there's a lot of fun stuff to talk about in here. So first big thing is that the chant itself says that Arashgichar is the wife of Merthoch and that he gives her his children. Which ah... with the implication of his previous statement could be taken to mean that he considers us children of Merthoch, kinda like he is. Which is pretty huge as these things go.
The next thing is the choice of the old man. Some might think it merciful, but it isn't, not really. See, in societies like the one present in this village which is settled tribal the elder man is likely a person of influence since conventional leaders and regularized singular positions of authority are not exactly static or well defined(this deserves an essay of it's own, *makes note*). This man was probably related to most of the people in the village and well respected, maybe the father of the guy Lugalkam beheaded. I've talked about how age is equated to worth and wisdom before when it comes to the Kin and such things apply in other societies, even Lugalkam's. Thus this man is a proper gift to Merthoch. I'll get into why this is mind bogglingly important later in this post.
Ninthutha had some interesting features here by basically consecrating these actions in the eyes of Merthoch. Also note the authority which she wielded, with Lugalkam acquiescing to her wishes. This is because from the description, she is basically considered a mouth piece of Merthoch as his property. The trance she entered was something which can occur frequently in religious orders and on battle as well, a feature of humanity which is similar in ways to self hypnosis. We did not see her imbibe any form of drug or substance though which is usually also used so that's one curious thing. More than that, while Lugalkam was the one to light the fire she was the one really leading the ritual and in some ways her behavior is not that different from the ritualism the elder matrons used in Air's funeral.
A final detail is that the demons in our hunter's masks were described as moving into the flame which is a very curious thing. I did not figure they were associated with fire and smoke or the snapping of burning wood. Though it makes sense for that kind of belief to exist if you consider Fire's name.
So onto the other stuff I wanted to talk about.
Trust and the act of gift giving.
Here in the modern world trust is freely given to many. We trust our family, our friends, but more than the people in our direct monkey sphere you will also here talk of placing trust in our leaders. Or our gods, religions, philosophies and goverments(if you live in some places). This is very very much not the case in the old world. In the past the only people who were trusted were your family and, by extension with stuff I've talked about before, the tribe.
Why is this? Well from an social evolutionary/anthropological perspective it is because of how hominids evolved. Take bands of monkeys and the great apes. They are social and friendly and cooperative amongst each other, but some times if you put them together with another band of monkeys they will literally eat each other. Humans come from this stock via the hominids like Homo erectus. So you would have it that these small bands of hominids, maybe a dozen to two or three dozen would be living in an incredibly harsh world full of Paleolithic super predators and literally the only thing they can trust is themselves and their close relatives. They may not even meet other hominids over the course of their entire lives and if they do, evidence suggests they are not advanced enough to not attempt to frighten away or attack these others.
So you have these bands of proto-humans going about and doing their hunter gatherer thing until eventually humanity emerges fully as a distinct being. And all of that past has been carried with them, so you have the tribes of humans with an intense social drive aimed directly at trusting their family. They have no way to know that those other beings that look like them are safe. There is absolutely zero basis for trust in these earliest days.
And this carries forward for millennia.
From a more straightforward perspective, tribal peoples are not really in situations where trust can be freely extended simply for the nature of their lives. Which while fulfilling and depending on the environment potentially plentiful, are hard and engaging. This emerges often as beliefs that the foreigner is a beast or demon in human like skin. It's the sort of logical consequence of these sorts of beliefs. This is in part why cities and larger collections of people are so hard to control at first. You are pushing together people who have no mode or tools of trust which are actually usable in the cramped conditions of an urban setting.
How else does this manifest? It ties into the diplomacy thing as well. Tribe to tribe relations can take ages, decades of interactions where they essentially feel each other out in a variety of ways. Most of which lean towards the violent side, though you can also get wacked stories of women essentially asking to be kidnapped once it's progressed far enough. I hope Manus holds to this lengthy period of pseudo trust gaining. And I use the term pseudo trust specifically because there's a pretty hard stop after a certain point where the two tribes might get together and celebrate something. The next step is marriage and making the two tribes one, which can be tricky to actually swing.
As should be apparent this is both complicated and aided by being nomadic. Because one would move around a lot, it likely takes much time for one to develop relations with people, but on the flip side you can get through the turbulent periods relatively freely by just moving and leaving that connection behind if needed. It can be aided however because of connections you can make with fellow nomads, perhaps against settled folks or through some other means, by perhaps crossing similar paths regularly or by being related through distant blood ties. The similarity of beliefs also helps greatly.
Trust then can evolve into something more as time progresses. We've seen some of it in talking to Lugalkam and Ninthutha, and in watching them interact. What am I talking about? Well, take a step to the side for a moment and consider; a man who is your blood brother is trustworthy, he is your only source of trust. But what of religion, where your fellows are brothers and sisters of faith? Religion can serve as the next step in the development of trust in human society. Via swearing themselves to a higher power, as how in families you obey your parents, the followers of a faith obey the edicts of their gods you can create an order which provides some means for people from different families to trust others.
This is part of why priests and the religious Intercessors had such a massive influence in urban society. They were means for members of it's clergy who would come from many many many families in the city to work together under the aegis of religious trust. Through them then, other families can be very loosely tied together, and some of their grievances arbitrated without bloodshed under the eyes of the gods. This arbitration extended up to the very top of urban political society and was why ancient priests were so involved in politics. However, this trust was fragile. It can be broken if the religious order burns the trust the wider society places in them, and there's a variety of ways that can happen. And another way it can happen is if the priests and clergy become political in the wrong ways, by engaging in politics like rulers and nobles instead of holy arbitrators.
Tied into this whole trust thing is of course the whole thing with seeing other humans as actually human instead of beasts in human skin. What religion ended up helping do along with some other features of advancing society is by bringing people together it fostered an environment wherein people could develop the absolutely crucial idea of "universality of humanity", which is the very simple idea that "that thing over there is also a human". The modern world wouldn't function without this and the other developments which began to occur alongside it.
As should be apparent, the animist beliefs of the Kin are not really advanced enough to support this. That requires the development of actual gods and the advancement of religion, to the point that you actually get social separation into a priestly section, which of course requires proper food surplus and security. Usually found in the settled peoples, though I don't think it is entirely exclusive.
Thus this then progressed along through many twists and turns which I don't know, which basically ends up in people being able to place trust in the idea of nation states and the rule of law. As an aside, this whole thing kinda casts Hammurabi in a new light for me. Dude was pretty cool.
Now onto gift giving, which as one would expect is some what related to alllllllll of the above *waves hands upwards*. First, the thing to know is that what economies exist at this time, except perhaps in Lugalkam's land, are gift economies. These are distinct from barter economies, in a very specific way, namely that barter economies invariably spring up post-currency and occur on the small scale as a means to exchange items whence, via currency, their value can be agreed upon by two parties. Gift economies however are the economies that the Kin run on, and they aren't even really about the transfer of goods. They are about the transfer and creation of ties of obligation in a form of "I give you something, I expect something back". This can vary from tribe to tribe but there is a very very veeeeeeeery strong idea of reciprocity to them.
This obviously ties into the whole trust thing I've already talked your eyeballs off about. Obligation and trust are not that far apart, and set limits of acceptable behavior. Thus in the ancient world, gifts are not really about making a person happy or seeing a joyous expression on a person's face like they are in modern times. They are a ritualistic method to gain trust via tenuous obligation ties in a world where trust is bereft.
One might be beginning to see why doing gift giving right is kinda a huge thing in the world right now. Overwhelming the bounds of reciprocity is basically the source of the idea of a "gift which is actually a curse", because it impinges on a persons honor by essentially saying that you the gift giver is the superior of the gift receiver. Or another way to put it in a modern equivalent. If I am a man with billions upon billions, served the most delectable feast imaginable and I invite a starving man to sit and watch me eat the entire thing in front of him that is the sort of thing one says by overloading on a gift in these times.
The giving of gifts must also be tailored in another way. One cannot, sometimes, give a gift which is equivalent to their social position if you the gift giver are of lower position. It implies that you think yourself your equal. The proper gift is one which is at the edge of your means, showing your lesser position and proper respect for your superior. Conversely a superior can gift you with a thing beyond your means as a way to establish sovereignty, much like a parent gives a gift or boon to a child.
An example of this is the tributary states the Chinese had. They would give gifts below the station of the emperor to the emperor, and in return the emperor would give them sweet shit beyond what they themselves could have. It's also a neat way to tie them to the Chinese, because it gives sweet perks.
So yeah, temper your impulse to shower people in shinnies and don't get weirded out if you hear someone complaining about too good gifts.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 2, 2018 at 5:48 AM, finished with 343 posts and 18 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 3, 2018 at 5:51 PM, finished with 347 posts and 19 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
For one, this is the first raid, or perhaps significant raid in living memory for the kin of Air. Furthermore, tis one where human spoils are brought.
The attitude and reception of both the Hunters and the kin to this is rather vital in developing an ethos or conception towards such practices, not just the act of raiding for flesh, but the fighting, pillaging and destruction of other populations, as well as the making of pacts and ventures with other peoples by the individual notables of the Kin (the Hunters in this case)
Thus cultivating a celebratory atmosphere within the group, and acquiring a good bounty of food(which will help spread such mood) will make a more favourable and memorable impact upon the kin.
Not to mention that the adding of new kin should be a joyous thing of some significance, and may ease or impress the new additions. Or at the very least Bury the embers of thier past legends and add new ones.
As for the language:
We destroyed these people, and after felling them, we decided to tie thier blood to us.
This is odd, as it can imply and lead to such cultural facets whereby the familial ties and Tribal ties are weakened due to the lack of solid barriers and criteria for entry into the tribe.
Or it can lead to a situation whereby two sets of familial structures exist, the primary one and the servile one, composed of the lines of those who where added rather than born into the people.
Lastly, it can facilitate an idea whereby the fate of the conquered is to be subsumed into the conqueror, and therefore the building of ties nesscitates subjugation.
How does this relate to language?
Well, if we do not make an effort to learn thier language, and infact disregard it. It'll increase the burden upon them to become one of us, and emphasise the idea that they have shed thier lesser pasts and are now of the kin.
A form of trail or rite of passage, something that at least gives credence to the uniqueness of familial and Tribal links as manifested in the kin of Air, and to affirm the position of new kin once they are accepted as kin.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
Hmm... I'm not sure about Sheep's argument. Not sure why though. *goes to think about it*
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 2, 2018 at 3:30 PM, finished with 345 posts and 18 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire. [X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
Hmmmm.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 2, 2018 at 3:31 PM, finished with 346 posts and 18 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 2, 2018 at 3:32 PM, finished with 346 posts and 18 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Aug 2, 2018 at 10:20 PM, finished with 347 posts and 19 votes.
[X] Language - You will attempt to learn the language of your captives, by means of interaction with them, naming things in your language, and making them do the same in theirs. You will also attempt to teach them your own language, thus ensuring that they can speak, and know what to say when they come to the rest of the Kin to Air.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire.
[X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
[X] Exploration - You will attempt to learn more of this strange land by the river, which you have come to, by sending out hunters short of days to return with news of what they see, and sending out hunters long of days to experience personally what it is, and give their verdict on the nature of all that they find.
[X] Food - You will attempt to gather food and forage while you travel, ensuring that you have more than just what you need to complete the journey. Thus, the Kin to Air will be able to walk and travel for longer, as will surely be necessary many times during the Great Journey towards the place seen in the fire. [X] Joy - You will attempt to bring good cheer over the hunters, ensuring that they are in good mood when they return. Both the captives and the hunters you bring, should both be cheerful, so that they best as possible can get along, and meet the rest of the Kin to Air with smiles rather than surly faces.
Hey fellas, sorry for the lack of update, I've been pretty stressed recently and don't really have time to get an update out. I'll get one out in next week though, with the absolute latest date being Friday seventeenth, so I hope you can have a bit of patience with me. In return for not being able to get an update out, I'll try to answer as many questions as you have of me in this thread. Think of it as an AMA, but pertaining specifically to the quest.
There was a... lot to unpack in this update, though I could mostly sum it up as "Dang ancient world, that's pretty brutal". Anyway to get in more detail.
So interesting thing to note first off is the systemic change our dear Doll is implementing by writing the updates in a more mythic style. I dig it, it works well to convey the right flavor of imagery for these events. An interesting detail here is Fire Defeats-Many's thought's on the fish folk's speech. There is indication here that he doesn't exactly consider them demons or spirits in humanlike skin, not exactly, which is a bit atypical. They are obviously strange to him though. Perhaps it is mitigated by the fact he is essentially adopting them.
You can also see here an interesting interpretation of the honored grandmother's tale of Air's trip into the underworld. Filtered through a lens which gives honor to her in the mind of a physically active and aggressive man, which in this case is painting her as responding like he would.
Fire will be getting a wife out of this, probably the most beautiful of the lot. As the obligatory note by now, this sort of wife taking is really really common in the ancient world as it is essentially the expected action. Seen here it is taken well and not taken poorly. Though here you also see the respect for women Fire has by explicitly saying that the married women should go with their husbands.
We also see that Lugalkam is multi lingual, likely as a combination of regular conflict and exchange of gifts and trade between Pepilun and the nearest river folk villages in good times. I wonder if the partitioning of classes between warriors and merchants has happened in Pepilun yet.
It's a curious and terrifying scene here for the fisher folk, to watch their enemies in the Godlanders bargain with masked demons. Probably comes off as him appeasing them for their services or something similar and the tongue he speaks must sound rather ghastly to them. Really big thing here though is that Arashgichar is, according to the vocal shifts laid out in Grimm's Law, Ereshkigal. She is the Queen of the Great Earth and the underworld, Kur in the Summerian mythos. Lugalkam was basically saying that Fire Defeats-Many was also descended from a divinity like Lugalkam claims to be, which seems to be a big marker of respect in his culture. The Queen of Heaven he refers to is Inanna most likely, or the deity concept that becomes her, as Ereshkigal is her older sister.
These were pretty inoffensive things to ask for, and I expect our legend and the embellished versions of it to extend far into the future.
We do have a conception of trade, comes from being settled for a while I guess. We should probably leave the area, because if this succeeds it will drive the fishers to go poke other people like us. I'd rather not have to rebuff them, especially when this land is as crowded as it seemingly is.
Well that's getting remembered as a specific detail.
Oh there's a lot of fun stuff to talk about in here. So first big thing is that the chant itself says that Arashgichar is the wife of Merthoch and that he gives her his children. Which ah... with the implication of his previous statement could be taken to mean that he considers us children of Merthoch, kinda like he is. Which is pretty huge as these things go.
The next thing is the choice of the old man. Some might think it merciful, but it isn't, not really. See, in societies like the one present in this village which is settled tribal the elder man is likely a person of influence since conventional leaders and regularized singular positions of authority are not exactly static or well defined(this deserves an essay of it's own, *makes note*). This man was probably related to most of the people in the village and well respected, maybe the father of the guy Lugalkam beheaded. I've talked about how age is equated to worth and wisdom before when it comes to the Kin and such things apply in other societies, even Lugalkam's. Thus this man is a proper gift to Merthoch. I'll get into why this is mind bogglingly important later in this post.
Ninthutha had some interesting features here by basically consecrating these actions in the eyes of Merthoch. Also note the authority which she wielded, with Lugalkam acquiescing to her wishes. This is because from the description, she is basically considered a mouth piece of Merthoch as his property. The trance she entered was something which can occur frequently in religious orders and on battle as well, a feature of humanity which is similar in ways to self hypnosis. We did not see her imbibe any form of drug or substance though which is usually also used so that's one curious thing. More than that, while Lugalkam was the one to light the fire she was the one really leading the ritual and in some ways her behavior is not that different from the ritualism the elder matrons used in Air's funeral.
A final detail is that the demons in our hunter's masks were described as moving into the flame which is a very curious thing. I did not figure they were associated with fire and smoke or the snapping of burning wood. Though it makes sense for that kind of belief to exist if you consider Fire's name.
So onto the other stuff I wanted to talk about.
Trust and the act of gift giving.
Here in the modern world trust is freely given to many. We trust our family, our friends, but more than the people in our direct monkey sphere you will also here talk of placing trust in our leaders. Or our gods, religions, philosophies and goverments(if you live in some places). This is very very much not the case in the old world. In the past the only people who were trusted were your family and, by extension with stuff I've talked about before, the tribe.
Why is this? Well from an social evolutionary/anthropological perspective it is because of how hominids evolved. Take bands of monkeys and the great apes. They are social and friendly and cooperative amongst each other, but some times if you put them together with another band of monkeys they will literally eat each other. Humans come from this stock via the hominids like Homo erectus. So you would have it that these small bands of hominids, maybe a dozen to two or three dozen would be living in an incredibly harsh world full of Paleolithic super predators and literally the only thing they can trust is themselves and their close relatives. They may not even meet other hominids over the course of their entire lives and if they do, evidence suggests they are not advanced enough to not attempt to frighten away or attack these others.
So you have these bands of proto-humans going about and doing their hunter gatherer thing until eventually humanity emerges fully as a distinct being. And all of that past has been carried with them, so you have the tribes of humans with an intense social drive aimed directly at trusting their family. They have no way to know that those other beings that look like them are safe. There is absolutely zero basis for trust in these earliest days.
And this carries forward for millennia.
From a more straightforward perspective, tribal peoples are not really in situations where trust can be freely extended simply for the nature of their lives. Which while fulfilling and depending on the environment potentially plentiful, are hard and engaging. This emerges often as beliefs that the foreigner is a beast or demon in human like skin. It's the sort of logical consequence of these sorts of beliefs. This is in part why cities and larger collections of people are so hard to control at first. You are pushing together people who have no mode or tools of trust which are actually usable in the cramped conditions of an urban setting.
How else does this manifest? It ties into the diplomacy thing as well. Tribe to tribe relations can take ages, decades of interactions where they essentially feel each other out in a variety of ways. Most of which lean towards the violent side, though you can also get wacked stories of women essentially asking to be kidnapped once it's progressed far enough. I hope Manus holds to this lengthy period of pseudo trust gaining. And I use the term pseudo trust specifically because there's a pretty hard stop after a certain point where the two tribes might get together and celebrate something. The next step is marriage and making the two tribes one, which can be tricky to actually swing.
As should be apparent this is both complicated and aided by being nomadic. Because one would move around a lot, it likely takes much time for one to develop relations with people, but on the flip side you can get through the turbulent periods relatively freely by just moving and leaving that connection behind if needed. It can be aided however because of connections you can make with fellow nomads, perhaps against settled folks or through some other means, by perhaps crossing similar paths regularly or by being related through distant blood ties. The similarity of beliefs also helps greatly.
Trust then can evolve into something more as time progresses. We've seen some of it in talking to Lugalkam and Ninthutha, and in watching them interact. What am I talking about? Well, take a step to the side for a moment and consider; a man who is your blood brother is trustworthy, he is your only source of trust. But what of religion, where your fellows are brothers and sisters of faith? Religion can serve as the next step in the development of trust in human society. Via swearing themselves to a higher power, as how in families you obey your parents, the followers of a faith obey the edicts of their gods you can create an order which provides some means for people from different families to trust others.
This is part of why priests and the religious Intercessors had such a massive influence in urban society. They were means for members of it's clergy who would come from many many many families in the city to work together under the aegis of religious trust. Through them then, other families can be very loosely tied together, and some of their grievances arbitrated without bloodshed under the eyes of the gods. This arbitration extended up to the very top of urban political society and was why ancient priests were so involved in politics. However, this trust was fragile. It can be broken if the religious order burns the trust the wider society places in them, and there's a variety of ways that can happen. And another way it can happen is if the priests and clergy become political in the wrong ways, by engaging in politics like rulers and nobles instead of holy arbitrators.
Tied into this whole trust thing is of course the whole thing with seeing other humans as actually human instead of beasts in human skin. What religion ended up helping do along with some other features of advancing society is by bringing people together it fostered an environment wherein people could develop the absolutely crucial idea of "universality of humanity", which is the very simple idea that "that thing over there is also a human". The modern world wouldn't function without this and the other developments which began to occur alongside it.
As should be apparent, the animist beliefs of the Kin are not really advanced enough to support this. That requires the development of actual gods and the advancement of religion, to the point that you actually get social separation into a priestly section, which of course requires proper food surplus and security. Usually found in the settled peoples, though I don't think it is entirely exclusive.
Thus this then progressed along through many twists and turns which I don't know, which basically ends up in people being able to place trust in the idea of nation states and the rule of law. As an aside, this whole thing kinda casts Hammurabi in a new light for me. Dude was pretty cool.
Now onto gift giving, which as one would expect is some what related to alllllllll of the above *waves hands upwards*. First, the thing to know is that what economies exist at this time, except perhaps in Lugalkam's land, are gift economies. These are distinct from barter economies, in a very specific way, namely that barter economies invariably spring up post-currency and occur on the small scale as a means to exchange items whence, via currency, their value can be agreed upon by two parties. Gift economies however are the economies that the Kin run on, and they aren't even really about the transfer of goods. They are about the transfer and creation of ties of obligation in a form of "I give you something, I expect something back". This can vary from tribe to tribe but there is a very very veeeeeeeery strong idea of reciprocity to them.
This obviously ties into the whole trust thing I've already talked your eyeballs off about. Obligation and trust are not that far apart, and set limits of acceptable behavior. Thus in the ancient world, gifts are not really about making a person happy or seeing a joyous expression on a person's face like they are in modern times. They are a ritualistic method to gain trust via tenuous obligation ties in a world where trust is bereft.
One might be beginning to see why doing gift giving right is kinda a huge thing in the world right now. Overwhelming the bounds of reciprocity is basically the source of the idea of a "gift which is actually a curse", because it impinges on a persons honor by essentially saying that you the gift giver is the superior of the gift receiver. Or another way to put it in a modern equivalent. If I am a man with billions upon billions, served the most delectable feast imaginable and I invite a starving man to sit and watch me eat the entire thing in front of him that is the sort of thing one says by overloading on a gift in these times.
The giving of gifts must also be tailored in another way. One cannot, sometimes, give a gift which is equivalent to their social position if you the gift giver are of lower position. It implies that you think yourself your equal. The proper gift is one which is at the edge of your means, showing your lesser position and proper respect for your superior. Conversely a superior can gift you with a thing beyond your means as a way to establish sovereignty, much like a parent gives a gift or boon to a child.
An example of this is the tributary states the Chinese had. They would give gifts below the station of the emperor to the emperor, and in return the emperor would give them sweet shit beyond what they themselves could have. It's also a neat way to tie them to the Chinese, because it gives sweet perks.
So yeah, temper your impulse to shower people in shinnies and don't get weirded out if you hear someone complaining about too good gifts.
The ashes of the camp of the fishing people are still fresh; tiny fires still burn, casting rapidly fading shadows in the pale, naked dawn. In the smouldering graveyard that had been a village, a few pieces of jewelry still lie scorched and ruined. The old man that the black-headed people had sacrificed lies still in the earth, his head no more than a burnt, vaguely misshapen lump of ash-covered flesh and soot-struck bone. Here, a trident lies broken, there a spear has stuck itself into the earth after someone threw it. The children, and some of the women that you have taken, climb and clamber through the coldly ashen graveyard, while others prefer to stand at a distance, staring numbly at the fuming ruins of what had once been their lives. Some kneel, weeping, covering their faces with their hands and speaking prayers in their strange, guttural language; casting spears and tridents into the river, asking the alien spirits that must protect them, to rise up, to punish the destroyers, to bring them deliverance, to cast away the ravenous, rapine swarm that has taken all they know away.
The river does not answer, and the people who used to be fishers remain alone, weeping, begging for something they know can never happen.
The sharp, cold breeze playing across your face feels so awfully much like rain, yet the skies are as naked and unclouded as the memories of the flame, dancing it's frightful dance in the wood and clay.
You gather yourself, calling the hunters - no, the not hunters anymore, Blooded - together to meet you by the river. You do not bother looking for the taken people, the hunt- Blooded take whoever they fancy with them, the children will follow, and the rest cannot leave, much less fight you at all. They are as helpless as the fish they once caught in nets, but a few days before you came. The Blooded gather in a loose, circular assembly; children and women standing outside it, if anyone wishes to flee, they will not survive for long. No pursuit is necessary.
You ask of them firstly, that you debate the value of a kill in combat, for you are not hunters anymore, but Blooded and the slayers of men. Forth, does a Blooded man named Twining River, step and speak his mind, that while the killing of another slayer of men, is an impressive feat, they are not the prey that are you sworn by the spirits. This, he reasons can be clearly evidenced, from the paintings that had been made upon cave walls by their own ancestors of the ancestors in the valley from which they had come, where in, only the slaying of animals was depicted. Thus, it could be clearly reasoned forth, that the ancestors of the ancestors did not consider the slaying of their enemies a wholesome and good activity to engage in, and were thus, themselves, not Blooded.
This, you agree, is a strong argument for proper behaviour, but does not, itself propose an answer then, to the conundrum of what to consider of the value in the taking a human life in war.
To this, another Blooded, who is named Grass Snake, and was born long-haired and more elegant than others of his sex, steps up and speaks. He strikes first his spear upon a rock, to ensure that all gaze upon him, and speaks then, with a clear, shrill voice that it is evident to him, that the value of taking a human life in times of warfare, should be that:
What Is The Price Of A Life? This vote will impact how the Kin to Air view the act of murder in combat, and may impact their Practices and Myths. Choose up to two. [ ] Shame - The reward for taking a human life shall be the shame of community and one's fellows. Taking a life is tantamount to becoming like a wolf, destroying the works of man and taking their heartsblood. There is no greatness or joy, but sometimes, a wolf must hunt.
[ ] Embrace - The reward for taking a human life shall be the embrace of all who surround one. Taking the life of another marks one as an experienced, powerful and worldly person, who is to be joined to the community and sought as a partner of marriage.
[ ] Glory - The reward for taking a human life shall be the glory of a great deed done. Taking a life is a valorous achievement, for in the contest between two men of skill is the greatest challenge of all, and deserves recognition for the achievement.
[ ] Rejection - The reward for taking a human life shall be the rejection of those who know one. Taking a life befouls the body with dangerous power, thus one must be rejected and treated as a murderer in daily life, for they hold great power of death in their hands.
This argument is beautiful to you, for it is well-reasoned, made with great eloquence and spoken with high certainty of its own correctness, but does not reach greater than it is. Thus, you speak your agreement, and invite all who disagree to speak their mind, to which none of the assembled of the Blooded respond, and you deem it satisfactory, and to be clear and true as day, for the convene of the Blooded at the Fishing Hill - which you have named this place - have decided it.
Then you speak up, that the youngest of the Blooded assembled, who had not yet proven his skill in combat step forth and name himself, and three boys, barely young men at all step forth to name themselves; Reed, Stick and Stone. You bid these run a lap around the Fishing Hill, and return to you, and speak to you which one was fastest, and then the one who was fastest, shall be made to run for the remainder of the Kin to Air, and bring them here, so that the journey can continue, and you can speak to them of what has happened, and what deeds have been committed.
As they run, it seems clear to you, that Stick shall be successful, for his form is great, and his run is practiced well, but Stone overtakes him at the end, sprinting faster and making it to you. Thus, it is made clear to you, that the spirits helped him conserve his stamina, and would likely aid him similarly when bringing your message to the Kin to Air, and you instruct him, to shout when he sees them, "I have come! I bring news from afar, and from Fire Defeats-Many! I have come!" and he begins walking, to collect his provisions for the journey.
In the meantime, you too, must do the same, so you bid the Blooded seek food, in the way they know, by spear and sling, and by gathering it, in order to ensure there is plenty for all. For this place has a great bounty of food, and the area around the Fishing Hill, is similarly blessed with abundance, for here the river flows clear and strong. Thus, you consider it to be of vital importance, to ensure that you make great use of this bounty, for you feel a great hunger, and the Kin to Air that shall arrive, will lack your skill and finesse in the ways of the hunt.
You decide, also to learn to speak the tongue of the women and children that you have taken. You will learn the language here, both to find yourself a wife among them, for you are as of yet unwed, and to ease your own ability to command them; a pragmatic, but useful goal to set oneself. Unfortunately, you are not the only one who has made that decision, and in the following days, several of the women that you attempt to learn the language from, attempt to learn yours as well - with significantly greater success, even - at the cost of your own ability to learn theirs.
Stone sets off, running and walking for three days, and enduring an adventure of his own, but that is a story for another time, for three days later, Stone returns with the Kin to Air in tow, and carrying in his hands, three spears and a shield of the kind that had been worn by the men from the Land of the Gods, as well as wearing a cape on his shoulders, of wolven skin. As he returns, you make great celebration of his deeds and passage into mandom, and ask him that he regale the Blooded with the tales of what came to pass, just as you shall regale the Kin to Air with the stories of the past days.
You assemble a fire - there is plenty of ready tinder - for storytelling, and take to wearing your mask, shifting and moving in the flickering shadows of the firelight, as the Blooded sing a low chorus to give power to your voice. Here you tell them, of the black-headed people from the Land of the Gods, of Lugalkam and the frightful power of his shuhadaku, and of the bloodthirsty archer named Merthoch and the fire that consumed the Fishing People, even as the black-headed people dragged away all that you did not take for yourself.
What Shall You Tell Them? Special vote: the result of this vote will decide the next few updates, that will cover the beginning of the heroic narrative tradition of the Kin to Air. [ ] Sing of Spears - You sing and speak of a great battle, of the warfare that the Blooded of the Kin to Air made upon the Fishing People; of your great deeds, of the bright-cutting blade of Lugalkam from the land where the gods live.
[ ] Sing of History - A woman, who is among those taken from the Fishing People named Ash-thohe Kush-uy, has learnt of the tongue of the Kin to Air, and will sing to you, of the past of the Fishing People, and the hill that their camp stands on, and the struggles of their ancestors and the blessings of the river being.
[ ] Sing of Stone - Stone sings of his travel, and of the deeds that he accomplished in his journey; the swift strokes of his spear duel, the wrathful victory over the wolf he faced, and his return and bringing the Kin to Air to the Blooded.
