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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Sami Cultivation (Sirrocco)
  • Apocrypha
    • So... basics of Sami cultivation. I acknowledge that I have *not* read much of the 300+page book that's the best available resource on the subject, so this isn't exactly "deep dive on the culture" levels. Still, it should serve as a "better than nothing".

    - They have a variety of gods, in a style similar to the greeks, where when you travel to a different place you find a different set of gods being important and the stories change around, but everyone's pretty much willing to shrug and accept when you tell them who your gods are.
    - They have a priest caste known as Noraide who handle interactions with the gods. Those guys are what a viking would describe as pure Hugr/Seidr cultivation. Among other things they can predict the future (using large, decorated drums), and make directly magical attacks, though the latter are generally reserved for magical combat between Noraide.
    - Each god has a variety of little abilities they can offer, and a list of behaviors that they hate. Some of those are broadly shared, some are god-specific. They also like sacrifice. For everyone who is not a noraide, you get your cultivation by bringing sacrifices to the local noraide. They do a ritual, offer the sacrifice up to whichever god you're propitiating, get back qi-equivalent in return, and weave some (but usually not all) of it into knacks for you. Those knacks tend to be things that are handy for surviving in miserable conditions on marginal land, rather than stuff that makes you good at fighting. For example, you might have a knack that just lets you survive on less food, or be more resistant to the cold, or whatever. You can also get general favor, which is what lets you power those knacks.
    - If you act in a way displeasing to whichever gods you have knacks for, you lose favor. Generally speaking, this is your cue to beat feet to the nearest noraide and make with the sacrificing.
    - Noraide themselves also have favor and knacks, but they tend to have more of them, and they can also spend favor on ritual workings and whatnot. There's a reason they generally hold back a chunk of the favor that comes down when they do sacrifices for other people.

    Basically, the Sami don't have anything like the kind of power they'd need to actually fight against viking cultivators in any way... but they don't need to, because their particular cultivation style allows them to survive and actually do pretty well in lands that no one else wants.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Sami Cultivation Cont. (DeadmanwalkingXI)
  • Apocrypha
    • Sirrocco said:
    - Each god has a variety of little abilities they can offer, and a list of behaviors that they hate. Some of those are broadly shared, some are god-specific. They also like sacrifice. For everyone who is not a noraide, you get your cultivation by bringing sacrifices to the local noraide. They do a ritual, offer the sacrifice up to whichever god you're propitiating, get back qi-equivalent in return, and weave some (but usually not all) of it into knacks for you. Those knacks tend to be things that are handy for surviving in miserable conditions on marginal land, rather than stuff that makes you good at fighting. For example, you might have a knack that just lets you survive on less food, or be more resistant to the cold, or whatever. You can also get general favor, which is what lets you power those knacks.
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    My own research basically disagrees that these would only be 'little abilities'. Some would, certainly, but in terms of attitudes towards the Sami, the Norse seem to have thought they had a fairly significant amount of fairly potent magic with it influencing their own magical traditions (some of the stuff I looked at mentioned the Norse seemingly thinking they got a lot of their magic from the Sami), and there are some indications that early versions of Loki (where he is less adversarial and an ally) were based on how they viewed the Sami (with, one presumes, Thor and/or Odin then being how they viewed themselves comparatively). Like, there's a decent amount of evidence they thought the sami were a lot better at Seidr and magic in general than they were. Additionally, the Finns also thought the Sami were pretty magically potent, so it seems to have been a common outsider's view.

    So basically, definitely not as combative as the Norse, but probably a powerful seidr equivalent practiced by a lot of people (which you mention in terms of rituals and the noaide, but would likely go further than that...the noaide would be best at it, but a lot of stuff seems to indicate it as more widespread), shapeshifting, and trickery on top of the survival stuff (and probably some combat...especially archery). The Noaide would also definitely have a fylgja equivalent (as in an actual companion spirit) and one of their most mentioned abilities is the ability to send this spirit invisibly to see far events, providing basically scrying. Which is neat.

    This is supported by the fact that the Norse and the Sami actually mostly got along and viewed each other as peers and equals for the most part, at least early on (700s-900s), and the Sami actually built a lot of the boats that the Norse used locally (as opposed to, like, ships for raiding) for whaling and the like, and were actually probably better hunters, fishermen, and craftsmen and thus better off economically with the Norse buying a lot of things from them (boots and other clothing of various sorts, mostly, on top of the aforementioned boats). Their territories overlapped a fair bit and there was intermarriage.

    There is, however, not a lot of history indicating that the Norse raided them. Now, I'm sure it happened, but the fact that it was apparently fairly rare (and rarely mentioned by either) despite the Sami being both decently well off in material goods and right there seems to indicate that the Norse thought doing so was a bad idea, and that should definitely be kept in mind when deciding how Sami Cultivation works.

    Now, how exactly that manifests is another matter...though much later Norwegian folklore does attribute the noaide with the ability to use sympathetic magic to kill people from hundreds of miles away, slay entire herds of animals, and unleash plagues, so going to that as inspiration isn't unreasonable (though all those stories are post-Christianization and the view of outsiders rather than the Sami themselves, but it still might provide inspiration). They probably would also all be cultivators, though as less combative ones than the Norse most might not be their match in a fight. Still, even a not-very-combative cultivator is more of a combat threat than a mortal.

    In reality, the relative lack of attacks is likely because the Sami were primarily hunters (they didn't farm, being nomadic) as well as herders...and fighting experienced hunters willing to make traps and engage in guerilla warfare (which they were, by all accounts) who have no actual home base for you to target is a bad scene. Odin's bow, when he has one, is supposedly made by the Sami and archery was considered one of their primary skills along with magic by the Norse. So that would probably also play a part in their Cultivation in a xianxia world.

    Which is not to say I disagree with the rest of this post, but it's a big enough difference (and brings enough additional cultural context) that I thought it was worth commenting on.

    To be clear, I got all this from various stuff on Norse/Sami relations, so it isn't likely to show up in a book on Sami mythology and religion, and it's entirely understandable why you didn't find any of it, but it does provide what seems to me to be much needed context on the likely power level of the Sami.

    EDIT: Continued reading had me add the archery/guerilla warfare paragraph, which seems well worth noting.
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • DeadmanwalkingXI said:
    To be clear, I got all this from various stuff on Norse/Sami relations, so it isn't likely to show up in a book on Sami mythology and religion, and it's entirely understandable why you didn't find any of it, but it does provide what seems to me to be much needed context on the likely power level of the Sami.
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    Cool addition! Have a reward dice

    Also, I'll call voting in an hour and a half, so vote while you can!
     
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    Alectai said:
    Can Reward Dice be used to rig the "Chance of fighting two Knights" check in our favor?
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    You would have to specify which direction you want the dice to go in, but yes. I'm going to roll a d100 (1-30 being 2 Knights) and any reward dice used will (as specified) either add or subtract a d6 to the result.
     
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    Imperial Fister said:
    Cool addition! Have a reward dice
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    Sweet!

    Alectai said:
    Can Reward Dice be used to rig the "Chance of fighting two Knights" check in our favor?
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    Constenanto said:
    If this can't be done and anyone has reward dice they don't know what to do with, could they please spend one on convincing Folkmarr?
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    At this point, I'm saving any Reward Dice I get for when we have a kid, to help lock in useful traits (with 4 Reward dice we can effectively lock in both Snake's Tongue and Giant's Blood...which is really good, especially if we can also use our muna on Godly Luck). I can't speak to what other people might want to do with them, and something else might come up that convinces me otherwise, but it hasn't yet.
     
    En Fortælling Om Kugle Knaser Kvinden (Drieder) (Danish)
  • Apocrypha
    • Da Kugle Knaser
    Kvinden og den
    Gud Glade Galning
    Mødtes Mellem byger af Stål,
    Da viste Kvindens Kugle
    Knasende Knæ,
    Det var stærkere
    End ilden i Gud Galningens Bål.

    When the Nut Cracking
    Lady and the God Happy Mad Man
    Met Between a rain of Steel,
    Then did the Nut Cracking Lady's Knee show
    That it was stronger
    Then the Fire in the God Madman's Bonfire.

    This isnt very skaldic, but it came to me really quickly and rhymes really well (in Danish).
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Aaaand voting is now closed.
    Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Mar 30, 2023 at 6:21 PM, finished with 72 posts and 20 votes.
    • [X] Plan And Now The Manor
      -[X] The Manor (High Danger (100% chance a Knight is there. 30% chance a second Knight is there)) (High Loot) (++++Heat)
      -[X] Get to know/spend time with the other felagi
      --[X] Folkmarr Manetaker, the Jarl in charge of the felag
      --[X] Convince him to make sure nobody challenges any Knights to single combat
      --[X] Stigmar Kersson, Stigandr's brother
      -[X] Recite poetry to the felag (Hugr (Wordplay))
      -[X] Train Sidestep 1d6
      -[X] Train Magnify-Sight Trick 1d6
      -[X] (Blackhand's Training) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
      --[X] Train Kindle-Spinner 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Ember-Winged Cloak 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Firebomb-Strike 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Campfire 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Halting Vortex 1d6
      -[X] (Training) Hamr (30 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Farmwork 1d6
      --[X] Train Labor 1d6
      -[X] (Training) Hugr (31 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Management 1d6
      --[X] Train Sailing 1d6
      -[X] (Orthstirr Usage)
      --[X] 5 Hamr
      ---[X] 4 Chop, 4 Defend, 4 Dodge, 4 Glima, 3 Bash, 3 Pierce, 3 Throw, 2 Labor, 3 Overland (30 total)
      --[X] 6 Hugr
      ---[X] 3 Composure, 3 Scouting, 3 Silver-Tongue, 3 Strategy, 3 Tactics, 4 Wordplay, 3 Wildcraft (22 total)
      --[X] 4 Fylgja
      --[X] 1 First Impression
      --[X] 49 free for tricks
      [X] Plan Too Rich For My Blood
      -[X] The Village (Low Danger (30 Fighters. 15% chance a Knight is there)) (Low Loot) (++Heat)
      -[X] Get to know/spend time with the other felagi
      --[X] Folkmarr Manetaker, the Jarl in charge of the felag
      --[X] Convince him to make sure nobody challenges any Knights to single combat
      --[X] Stigmar Kersson, Stigandr's brother
      -[X] Recite poetry to the felag (Hugr (Wordplay))
      -[X] Train Sidestep 1d6
      -[X] Train Magnify-Sight Trick 1d6
      -[X] (Blackhand's Training) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
      --[X] Train Kindle-Spinner 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Ember-Winged Cloak 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Firebomb-Strike 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Campfire 2d6 (1d6)
      --[X] Train Halting Vortex 1d6
      -[X] (Training) Hamr (30 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Farmwork 1d6
      --[X] Train Labor 1d6
      -[X] (Training) Hugr (31 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Management 1d6
      --[X] Train Sailing 1d6
      -[X] (Orthstirr Usage)
      --[X] 5 Hamr
      ---[X] 4 Chop, 4 Defend, 4 Dodge, 4 Glima, 3 Bash, 3 Pierce, 3 Throw, 2 Labor, 3 Overland (30 total)
      --[X] 6 Hugr
      ---[X] 3 Composure, 3 Scouting, 3 Silver-Tongue, 3 Strategy, 3 Tactics, 4 Wordplay, 3 Wildcraft (22 total)
      --[X] 4 Fylgja
      --[X] 1 First Impression
      --[X] 49 free for tricks
      [X] Plan And Now The Manor but Lucky
      -[X] The Manor (High Danger (100% chance a Knight is there. 30% chance a second Knight is there)) (High Loot) (++++Heat)
      -[X] Get to know/spend time with the other felagi
      --[X] Folkmarr Manetaker, the Jarl in charge of the felag
      --[X] Convince him to make sure nobody challenges any Knights to single combat
      --[X] Stigmar Kersson, Stigandr's brother
      -[X] Recite poetry to the felag (Hugr (Wordplay))
      -[X] Train Sidestep 1d6
      -[X] Train Magnify-Sight Trick 1d6
      -[X] (Blackhand's Training) Try to develop old/train new hugareida tricks (Write in)
      --[X] Train Kindle-Spinner 4d6 (2d6)
      --[X] Train Campfire 4d6 (2d6)
      -[X] (Training) Hamr (30 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Hamr itself
      --[X] Train Farmwork 1d6
      --[X] Train Labor 1d6
      -[X] (Training) Hugr (31 successes to rank up)
      --[X] Train Management 1d6
      --[X] Train Teaching Skill-Trick 1d6
      -[X] (Orthstirr Usage)
      --[X] 5 Hamr
      ---[X] 4 Chop, 4 Defend, 4 Dodge, 4 Glima, 3 Bash, 3 Pierce, 3 Throw, 2 Labor, 3 Overland (30 total)
      --[X] 6 Hugr
      ---[X] 3 Composure, 3 Scouting, 3 Silver-Tongue, 3 Strategy, 3 Tactics, 4 Wordplay, 3 Wildcraft (22 total)
      --[X] 4 Fylgja
      --[X] 1 First Impression
      --[X] 49 free for tricks
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    Yeah though, I feel we've got good odds vs 1 Knight and their Squire as long as people don't go full pants on head (And I do hope cautioning against "1v1 Figt Me" doesn't hurt our rep, I didn't push back hard enough against that), but 2 and 2 squires would probably have unavoidable casualties.
     
    Oh god that terrifies me.

    Uh, is this well known about that a reminder "Yeah, let's not 1v1 a Knight" isn't going to cause us Problems?

    If even the shittiest Knight would be a tough fight for us.
     
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