When Nomads become Peshwah

[Havard]

Really nice work Havard, but you are a Devil for doing this now when I havn't got a lot of time to really dig into it.

Thanks Dan, I was hoping you would jump in here!

So where in the new material can we find traces of these groups?

Horsemen of Peshwah
This could ofcourse refer to multiple tribes, but they would definately include the Adiel who are described as the "Archetypical Peshwah". Ordniri and Somhak may also be included here.

Yes. should mean the major tirbes.

Although I just noticed something else. On the FFC the "Horsemen of Peshwah" are indicated to live on the Eastern Hak. But more on this below.

Yes again. I think the Briela are the FFC Gypsies

Makes sense.


Ben-Hassock & Desert Nomads

To these I would add the OD&D entry for nomads.

I beleive the desert nomads, and the Ben Hassock are the same group and are the predecessors of the Bortai as you suggest (not the Irfat, but the Irfat may have be seen as allies, see below).

Hmmm...I was really liking the Ben Hassock/Afridhi connection. Especially if this could mean Baron Wesley is hiding in the Afridhi Empire.... :twisted:

To these I would add both the the OD&D entry for dervishes and
the "Dervish" entry found in Arnesons playtest manuscript which I know you haven't seen yet but is very close in wording to the OD&D entry for Orcs (wagons and all).

Any chance of getting to see these notes? 8) :mrgreen:

These together are the model for the Sufz, I believe.

Very interesting. From the name alone I agree that it sounds like a good match. Is anything else said about the Dervishes?


I know your objection, "The Sufz and Bortai share the eastern Hak".

They don't, in my mind, because the eastern Hak is completely impossible. It makes no more sense than if one were to drop the entire Ukraine in between Medieval Denmark and Norway and then talk about how Norway is a province of Denmark.

On the old maps Blackmoor's borders the Great Kingdom (Thonia, if you like) on the southeast and it thus makes sense as a province of the Kingdom.

To the west of Blackmoor, beyond lake gloomy, lie the both Deserts and the Duchy of Ten. The eastern and western Karsh are nearby also.

Southern Ten/Eastern Karsh is where I would put the Sufz. Westen Karsh is where I would put the Bortai/BenHassocks. The two are still closely associated and make sense. Ritchie's "Great Barrier Swamp" becomes a problem because it sits exactly where the eastern Karsh should be, but if one sees the Barrier swamp as forming at the same time as the rest of the sinking lands with Coots rise, it solves that issue and allows the historic association of Ten as a territory of the DotP to make sense too.

One minor correction. The Barrier Swamp is not Ritchie's invention, as it appears on the FFC map. Also, as mentioned early in this post, the Peshwah are placed to the south east next to the label for the "Grand Kingdom".

But yeah, things were do definately seem to have been changed along the way. Actually what is the most fascinating is how many of the original concepts were in fact retained in the later versions. I think the differences in the version you describe occur somewhere between 1970 and 1975. As you know the FFC also includes the first draft of the Blackmoor map, which is different from the FFC fold-out map which I refer to.

The Peshwah Tribes from the DA modules/ZG books do indeed fit very well with the various earlier concepts. However based on what you have provided above, it seems clear that things were moved around quite a bit.

OTOH, the DA modules/ZG books specify that the Afridhi invasions have pushed the various tribes to the east, so this could perhaps be an in-game explanation for their shifted locations? These books are set 30-35 years later afterall.

If you don't do it this way you are left with a real problem regarding the nomads of Ten. By thier force composition, they are clearly horse warriors and nomadic. The Irfat would be the only possible candidate, I think, and I'm not sure thier description as basically tomb defenders can be made to fit with the aggresive alliance building nomads of Ten.

Again, the FFC map showed something I hadnt noticed when I wrote the first post. The Nomads of Ten label is placed close to the Qulaam holdings, not far from the Irfat. But ofcourse if we assume that tribes have been moved around as a response to the invasions, there could be multiple links here. OTOH, the Irfat are considerably war-like, and I could easily see them allying with the Duchy of Ten against Blackmoor, especially during the first Coot invasions when Ran has not yet taken over that Duchy.

Obviously we are (as usual) probably making the mistake of overestimating the amount of thought Arneson, Ritchie and Dustin may have put into all of this, but its more fun looking at it like a puzzle in this way, isnt it? 8)

-Havard