Explaining turn #8

Looking at the Basic data:

Ok since the data is broken down into two parts lets look at them seperately.

Drethen

The population of the cattle clans is up, and the number of cattle is WAY up. We've got a new mechanic showing this turn though, a point reserve. Drethnor has agreed to spend two points every turn to enforce certain rulings. He may not get any benefit from this during a turn, or he may get a lot, but no matter what he pays turn after turn before he can take any other action.

We also see a marked increase over last turn in both faith and fear points. Last turn they were gaining 11 faith and 10 fear, 21 points total, this turn the drethen are providing 15 points of each! Why? Before the tribe had NO formalized method of worship or rights that would lead to them thinking consiously about Drehnor's might. Now they have a sacrifice, it's minor but it keeps the great god in their minds, they also have a penalty for missing the sacrifice or stealing drethnor's meat; and they have SEEN what happens when someone angers their god. That lead to a good jump in both faith and fear. The organized ritual and punishment can be thought of as a form of propaganda, it keeps the people thinking of Drethnor and constantly reminds them that he COULD strike them down if he so chose.

The Chosen

The numbers are up here but not by as quite as much. The chosen are breeding slowly compared to the humans, part of it is that they still have a smaller base population, and part of it is because 10% of their children are giant intelligent STERILE birds. That's a 10% decrease in population every turn when your looking at numbers for breeding.

The total power of the god (faith + fear) hasn't increased more than a point this turn. However some change has happened. Last turn the Chosen provided Drethnor with 10 faith and 5 fear; this turn the faith has gone up and the fear down. The split is 12 faith and 3 fear.

Part of the reason the power level is so low is that the population is low, there aren't a lot of vulture men or Drethnor's own sitting around thinking and believing. However the real change comes from their "blessed" status. They don't fear Drethnor as much and they have a bit more confidence that come what may he will take care of them and lead them towards greatness.

Looking at the Description: Drethen

This is told pretty much as a legend it shows not merely what happened during the past 100 years but how the Drethen Cattle Clans INTERPRETTED those actions. In fact it includes a lot of things the people remember from previous turns. Drethnor has taken one set of actions but the way the two populations have interpretted those actions is drastically different and now his started to act on each group seperately.

It all adds up to the Drethen developing their own unique culture and way of looking at the world. People who several turns ago were proud, fierce, hunters and scavengers have decided that Drethnor was chiding them for the sin of PRIDE. As humble herdsmen that sometimes hunt wild game they make their sacrifices to him on the longest and shortest day of the year. It can be assumed that Drethnor has also given them some simple way to determine what those days are.

The story also tells of those who defied the great god, and took credit for the tribes success themselves, and shows how not only they but their entire clan were struck down for their pride. It also tells about those who tried to steal drethnor's sacrifice from where it rotted in the ground and how they were struck down and turned into bird men. It's interesting to note that the PEOPLE don't see the theft so much as a sin specifically but rather the act of SCAVENGING. To them ALL rotting meat belongs to the god and no man should dare touch it, let alone touch HIS sacred sacrifice.

Looking at the Description: The Chosen

The Chosen have also changed. They are still hunters and scavengers, but it seems like they have the insticts of a bird of prey from birth and hunting is what they prefer. They have grown in number and split off into groups and their territorial instinct has been noted. They see that other birds also have this and even have began to refer to their natural groupings as FLOCKS rather than clans or tribes.

These flocks honor courage and cleverness, the best hunters and the most cunning scavengers are given respect. The tribes compete to keep their own young within the flock and gain mates from the other groups; belonging to the largest flock gives a member great pride!

It's also important to notice that above the hunters and scavengers sit the most birdlike of the people; Drethnor's Own are now the tribes leaders! It's not a hereditary nobility as the great birds can't breed, but one in ten out of the children are born into this special position. To the chosen these leaders are probably thought to be hand picked by Drethnor himself!

Overview

It's hard to imagine that these two vastly different cultures were a single tribe of 45 hunters and scavengers just 400 years ago, or that they all came from a single even smaller group of stone age people with no culture at all 300 years before that! The past eight hundred years have led them to rise up, quarrel amongst themselves, split into factions, and part ways. Today the two groups couldn't be any more different if they tried. They aren't even the same species anymore!

The conversation

In this turn the player does two things both of which will be important during later turns. First he makes a large step towards solving this "Chosen" civilizations problem with communication. He rightly figured that if they were only allowed tenuous contact eventually the tribes would develop different ways of doing things. He also realized that it was rather annoying to have to spend tons of points telling every TRIBE what he wished rather than addressing a single hand picked emmissary. It cost him 15 points to do an action this turn that usually would have only cost 5 because he had to repeat it 3 times!

His action with the Drethen however will be a lot more important in the long run. Initially he'd set up a system of turning herdsmen into vulture people which would have produced a group of those beings within his Drethen civiilization. Vulture men who had a tradition and a culture that AGREED with the idea that they were being punished for their ancestors sin of scavenging.

Imagine the instant hostility and confusion this would have generated if someday the civilization of The Chosen had met up with the Drethen and found their brothers in chains! You can only imagine the war to free and reeducate their people, perhaps even to enslave the "pathetic" humans and put them in their place.

However now the curse now produces The Wretched instead. The player has had enough experience with me that he saw the problem coming BEFORE I sprang it upon him and spent a ton of points to change the Chosen Into the "The Wreched".

He also noticed that the previous cursed bird men had been left in the wilderness by the tribe and had promptly died out. This time he specified how the wretched were to be treated and what their punishment was WITHIN the structure of the clan. He also specified their function within society. They are to be this civilizations morticians.

This action begins to implant a few ideas into to the herdsmens heads that were lacking up until now. First it is clarified that all dead things DO belong to Drethnor, and second people are special among the dead things belonging to the god. These important ideas lay the groundwork for some concept of an afterlife.

Previously all dead animals and people had merely been left for the carrion birds. No difference was observed between them at all. Our new player is learning, either that or he just got lucky and did something right.