Peshwah after the Great Rain of Fire

[Havard]

One of my favorite topics lately is the Peshwah. Its hard to say what life was like for the Peshwah during the last days of Blackmoor, but my assumption is that the cataclysm caused many to return to their nomadic way of life.

The Jennites seem like a natural successor of the Peshwah. I also personally like the idea of the Ethengars being descendants of the Peshwah, but it is more difficult to reconcile that with various canonical sources. The Jennites went on to gain dominance over large parts of the continent. Nomads may have had a great advantage in a post-apocalyptic environment. If the Horseclans series were an inspiration for Arneson when he was developing the Peshwah, then they are no less relevant after the GRoF.

I dont know if the Jennites or Skothar has yet been touched much upon in the BC2300 project or other discussions?

-Havard

[Chimpman]

With regards to BC 2300 this is a very interesting question. AFAIK we've had some discussions on New Thonia, which would be located on Skothar, but we haven't touched on much other than that. There are a few things we know about this time from canon:

BC 2000: Ethengarian ancestors arrive in Ethengar.
circa BC 1750-1700: Ethengarian conflict with humanoids (King Loark and Akkila Khan)
BC 1675: Tahkati Stormtamer is said to have brought horseback riding to the continent of Brun

So the interesting implication (if you can believe it) is that the early Ethengarians did not ride horses. Perhaps they rode some other beasts, or perhaps they traveled by foot. Horses are absent from the BC 2300 setting for this reason, but that doesn't mean folks don't travel. Giant dogs and wolves take the place of horses in BC 2300 - they have the advantage of being almost equal participants in combat, however I would think that feeding costs make their numbers prohibitively small. The horse (once it is introduced to Brun again) will have the advantage of being relatively cheep to upkeep by comparison.

It's also interesting to not that horses are introduced/utilized along the southeastern coast of Brun before the Ethengarians get a hold of them. This probably means that the horses on Brun came from the west... possibly from the Savage Coast and the cultures living there.

[Havard]

Yeah, I remember Cthulhudrew talking about this. Perhaps the Proto-Ethengar were Peshwah who abandoned the Way of the Horse when they travelled across the Ocean? I like the idea of the Peshwah God Calelrin being the same as Cretia. I have also added Yamunga (Terra) and Tubak (Ixion/Pacuun) to my Peshwah Pantheon.

The Ethengars look somewhat different from the Peshwah though. The Peshwah are likely more middle eastern in appearance, while the Ethengars are Mongolian-like. I wonder where they would have acquired that trait...

I actually like the idea of the BC2300 Ethengars as not using any kind of mount. Makes them very different from their descendants. Fast runners perhaps? Drawing some inspiration from Pre-Columbian Native Americans...

-Havard

[Chimpman]

Yeah, I remember Cthulhudrew talking about this. Perhaps the Proto-Ethengar were Peshwah who abandoned the Way of the Horse when they travelled across the Ocean?

...

I actually like the idea of the BC2300 Ethengars as not using any kind of mount. Makes them very different from their descendants. Fast runners perhaps? Drawing some inspiration from Pre-Columbian Native Americans...

I'm wondering if the Peshwah who would later become the Ethengarians, somehow lost all of their horse mounts. In keeping with the Wasting trend after the GRoF, perhaps their horses were more susceptible to the Wasting than the humans were, and so all died out? Or perhaps there was some horrible Wasting inspired disease that killed all the horses?

This might give the proto-Ethengarians a sort of racial memory about horses and how to use them as mounts, while at the same time removing horses from their culture altogether. They would have had to relearn all that knowledge that their ancestors had, but perhaps they would have had a leg up in doing so thanks to their history.

[Havard]

I'm wondering if the Peshwah who would later become the Ethengarians, somehow lost all of their horse mounts. In keeping with the Wasting trend after the GRoF, perhaps their horses were more susceptible to the Wasting than the humans were, and so all died out? Or perhaps there was some horrible Wasting inspired disease that killed all the horses?

This might give the proto-Ethengarians a sort of racial memory about horses and how to use them as mounts, while at the same time removing horses from their culture altogether. They would have had to relearn all that knowledge that their ancestors had, but perhaps they would have had a leg up in doing so thanks to their history.

That is definately possible, although it would have to only include those horses they brought over the Brun, since the Skothar Peshwah would need to have their horses intact to become the Jennite. Perhaps the Proto-Jennite found some clerical ritual that allowed them to save their horses?

-Havard

[Chimpman]

That is definately possible, although it would have to only include those horses they brought over the Brun, since the Skothar Peshwah would need to have their horses intact to become the Jennite. Perhaps the Proto-Jennite found some clerical ritual that allowed them to save their horses?

Or it could have been entirely environmental. Perhaps the Jennite horses were able to survive by eating some plant that gave a boost to immunity from the Wasting, while the Ethengarians traveled beyond that plant's zone of influence. That's just one idea, but there could be a hundred more things that would work. Hmmm... In keeping with the general theme of BC 2300, I usually like to find some 'thing', or some explanation as to how a people managed to survive the GRoF and the subsequent Wasting disease. What if the proto-Ethengarians actually sacrificed all of their horses in some ritual in order to protect themselves from the disease? The proto-Jennites (whether the two groups were already split or not) would have found some other way to survive that did not require loosing their mounts.

[Havard]

That is definately possible, although it would have to only include those horses they brought over the Brun, since the Skothar Peshwah would need to have their horses intact to become the Jennite. Perhaps the Proto-Jennite found some clerical ritual that allowed them to save their horses?

Or it could have been entirely environmental. Perhaps the Jennite horses were able to survive by eating some plant that gave a boost to immunity from the Wasting, while the Ethengarians traveled beyond that plant's zone of influence. That's just one idea, but there could be a hundred more things that would work. Hmmm... In keeping with the general theme of BC 2300, I usually like to find some 'thing', or some explanation as to how a people managed to survive the GRoF and the subsequent Wasting disease. What if the proto-Ethengarians actually sacrificed all of their horses in some ritual in order to protect themselves from the disease? The proto-Jennites (whether the two groups were already split or not) would have found some other way to survive that did not require loosing their mounts.

I like the idea of some kind of ritual being involved. Basically I prefer having explanations where there could be some kind of personal story involved. 8)

-Havard