Havard Wrote:You ask some highly relevant questions here, Aldarron:
1) Where do the Afridhi come from?
2) How and why has their culture developed into something so different from that of Blackmoor and its neighours?
Your theory of having the Afridhi come from Tekumel is sound, but I am hesitant about weaving Tekumel and Blackmoor together so closely together. One reason for this is because I dont know Tekumel well enough. Another is because AFAIK there is no such thing as Afridhi in Tekumel. A third reason is that I am not sure such an elaborate explanation is neccessary.
Reason one - I'm not very well versed in Tekumel either, but DA and friends certainly did know Tekumel well, and I've seen you freely incorporate stuff from sources DA and Co would have had no knowledge of so I'm thinking its okay to think beyond your comfort zone
Reason two - by name no, but see the end of this post.
Reason three - elaborate? Come now Havard, with all the world jumping, time traveling, and incorporation of Sci Fi, refugees traveling through a gateway from Tekumel is rather typical and run of the mill for Blackmoor it seems to me. Anywho there's already a precedent of an entire ship being transported to Blackmoor from Tekumel as Jeff Berry relates in his Q&A:
""Playing in Blackmoor": Yes, Phil did play in Dave's Blackmoor for a while; the two of them conspired to transport us there in our ship, and we just appeared in Blackmoor Bay one day. Phil wanted to take a break from GM duties, so Dave took over the job of running our Tekumel PCs in his world. Phil played a Livyani character he'd rolled up, and was a very active player. "
Anyway I would also point out that it is very much in keeping with Dave's approach to incorporate the game worlds of your friends and associates (Great Kingdom, Greyhawk, Wilderlands) into Blackmoor
Havard Wrote:Here's how I see it: The heartlands of the Afridhi Empire are far from Blackmoor and even the Duchy of Ten. Goblin Kush lays to the far west, across the Vales from the Duchy of Ten, and Goblin Kush itself is not the Afridhi Heartlands, but rather the mountain that marks the border into the traditional Afridhi Empire. The name Goblin Kush could be one given to the mountain by the Valemen before they learned of the true nature of the people who lived there.
The arrival of the Afridhi to the vicinity of Blackmoor's neighbours is very recent. Untill a few decades ago, noone in Blackmoor had heard of the Afridhi. It was only when their god Zugzul ordered them to march eastwards in order for Toska Rusa to obtain the Well of Souls that the people of Blackmoor began learning of the Afridhi.
Given the 1000+ years of advanced civilization in the north, including the Duchy of the Peaks and the various wizards societies, its impossible a people as exotic as the Afridhi would go unnoted or left to develop in pure isolation. There should also at least be related/varient peoples. Nothing of the sort has ever happened on earth except in the case of island cultures, like Tasmania and Polynesia, but even there people shared cultural and genetic links with thier neighbors.
Havard Wrote:Their strange appearance is certainly unnatural, possibly because they are not really human at all, perhaps related to Fire Giants, but I also like your theory that it could be a result of manipulations from their God.
uh Fire Giant pygmies? Maybe, but I dunno...
On Tekumel, black hair is typical but red hair sometimes occurs. Most people are brown skinned and fairly similar in appearance. There are two exceptions, a somewhat lighter skinned and taller group of people in the far north, and the Nom. Here is the description from the Tekumel Bestiary:
Nom
Nomadic sailors of the great ocean east of Salarvya . An
island archipelago is located there, from whence the Nom
range the seas. Many islands are justcoral atolls, but others
are large enough to support half a hundred families .
The Nom are not encountered anywhere in the Five
Empires, but explorers whohave ventured out to the far
eastern ocean, Farise Isle, Dressa Isle, and the White
Water Shoals report having met the black ships of these
strange people . Racially, the Nom are very distinct: they
have almost jet-black skin, straight hair, and sharp,
triangular faces with long, slightly slanted eyes. At
times their eyes are a red-brown or even an amber gold
in hue. Theylive in societies centred around their ships:
the Captain is the ruler; under him is the warrior caste;
there is a small and relatively powerless caste of priests
and merchants; and at the bottom are the slaves . Each
ship has a home island, where a fortress and "home
crew" (replacements for the ship's personnel) live.
Women accompany their menfolk to sea and have a
powerful say in the society. The males ostensibly rule
the women and marry wives in groups of three (a
religious belief), but women may refuse such a marriage
- or divorce the husband and leave, as they wish.
Premarital sex is permitted, but extra-marital sex is
frowned upon as "shameful." In some ways, thus, the
Nom are the most puritanical of Tekumel's many
societies. Slaves seem to be a separate caste by choice
also; they do not intermarry with the warrior caste and
are quite proud of their status . These people are great
warriors and fashion excellent weapons of bronze,
bone, and obsidian. Armour is made of fish scales .
There are always feuds and piratical raids to take goods,
slaves, and treasure, and the life of a Nom warrior is
sometimes a short one. The Nom have eight major
deities: five males and three females; there are also
minor gods, sacred islands, and a host of spirits and
tabooes. They are good at sorcery but have a very
different concept of it: a Nom sorcerer memorises just
one spell and becomesknownforthatalone. Literature,
history, etc. are all "remembered" with the aid of spellpictures,
and a sorcerer may take his/her name from a
particular spell. Thus, Chari-Nom is the name of a
person who is a "picture" : a person who uses the
picture-spell to create visible, three-dimensional pictures
of places and events . Ka-Nom is a dramatist and
drama historian, who uses a similar spell to "recall"
dramas and present them again. Dre-Nom is an historian,
whose recollections of past events are kept in
pictorial formwith the aid ofa history-picture spell. An
offensive sorcerermaybe named "Flame-Strike" Qhte-
Nm), or "Ship-Shield" (MyC-Nom). Most sorcerers are
concerned with such mundane matters as finding fish,
avoiding storms, etc. The society of the Nom is complex
and deserves further investigation."
Also on Tekumel are a wide range of deities, one of the oldest and most well know is Vimuhla:
"Vimúhla, Lord of Fire, Power of Destruction and Red Ruin,
Maker of Thunders, the All-Cleansing One, are outwardly straightforward: he is that part of each being’s spirit that longs for violence and obliteration, the "simple and direct solution" to problems, the wiping away of all of the encroachments of time and reality by the most direct, pure, and final method: the Flame. Matter and substance are "impure," while raw energy is "pure." The catharsis of annihilation is pleasure, while existence is pain."
according to Barker, "Lord Vimúhla exists in various forms in Salarvyá, Jánnu, Kilalámmu, and the little states of the northeast..... in such places as Tsoléi, the Nyémesel Isles, and other distant lands there are hints of His doctrines in the tenets of the local deities, but no direct correlations."
Zugzul is a dead ringer for a "varient form" of Vimuhla.
I imagine the worship of Zugzul/Vimuhla taking root among priestesses in one of the Nom islands in the Salarvya sea, taking control of the society. I imagine the island is called Afrid. I imagine those islanders sailing forth to other Nom Islands on a mission of conversion and conquest in the name of Zugzul, thier hair turned (or dyed?) fiery red as a mark of devotion to the god of flame. I Imagine a uniting of Nom peoples against the threat. I see Afridhi defeated and Afrid invaded. I see Zugzul opening a gate to a harsh and isolated corner of Blackmoor to save his Priestesses and a few hundred of his followers. I see them dreaming of revenge and conquest again.
