Friday, February 18, 2011

Round 5

The development of purposeful agriculture is a product of the Neolithic, or new stone age, a period in human development marked by the advanced use of tools.  Undoubtedly early humans used many materials from their world, among them teeth, bone, hide, leather, sinew, wood, and woven plant fibers.  Mines beneath the downs of England were dug through the chalk using antlers as picks, for instance. Organic tools such as antlers simply don't survive for tens of thousands of years for archaeologists to discover, but the tribesmen of the Neolithic who carved those cramped tunnels in the chalk were after a substance that would:  flint.

It is tools of stone, advanced technology for the era, that help give the Stone Age its name.  Flint axes, stone spear points, carved arrowheads, primitive pots, and other mineral-based tools can survive for millennia buried in strata of compressed mud and gravel, and we can track the development of a culture over the centuries by its peculiar use of tools.  The carved face on this marker stone, we might say, is definitely of Olmec design; or this arrowhead is definitely a Clovis.  It isn't that we know that the people called themselves Clovis, but we of the modern day must call them something.*

We can then judge by the depth of the soils in which the objects were found, and compare the layers in the soil to known events — an eruption which leaves a layer of ash across half a continent, for example — to roughly calculate the movement of peoples.  Below this layer of pumice, perhaps, the arrowheads were of one design; above that pumice, a new design.  It's possible to guess that around the time of that ancient volcanic eruption, the old tribes in the area were killed or driven away, to be replaced by new tribes.  These are far from certainties, even with radiocarbon dating, a technique which can be subject to contaminants and poor sampling techniques, and with a margin of error that gets geometrically larger for more recent events.  Did the first tribe die in the eruption?  Were their hunting grounds devastated by the blast and ash?  Did the second tribe take advantage of the chaos of the eruption and make war on the first, or were they squabbling over territory?  There is simply no way to know with confidence. 

In the real world, agriculture was developed in multiple locations independently and simultaneously.  In the Far East, the early Indochinese domesticated rice, geese, pigs, tea, cattle, millet, and silk.  In Mesopotamia, the so-called Fertile Crescent between Asia Minor and the Persian Gulf, the Sumerians and Babylonians worked with wheat, barley, rye, grapes, sheep, goats, and cattle.  In Mesoamerica, those peoples who had migrated across the land bridge to the Americas discovered maize, squash, guinea pigs, the potato, the tomato, and the llama.  Arguments could be made for as many as five separate locations where agriculture arose, depending on whether one assumes the discovery was truly independent.

Writing has similarly narrow origins.  The original cuneiform ("wedge-shaped") writing of Mesopotamia was adapted for writing in wet clay, using a reed as a stylus.  The letters, as in Chinese, were pictographic at first, each representing a picture of the thing it meant.  A picture of a bull's head meant bull, naturally enough, but there were hundreds or even thousands of other signs that a scribe had to learn.  It was a specialized occupation, requiring a decade of education and training.  Scribes were the lifeblood of any organized civilization, for it was they who tracked the tribute collected by the kings, who noted the debts and payments and trade transactions by the merchants.  It is unsurprising, perhaps, that the original characters represented material goods.

As writing became adapted for other surfaces, silk and parchment instead of clay, the characters became simplified.  Rather than draw the entire head of a bull, with its eyes and curved horns, a stylized abstract was substituted — the Phoenician character that looks like a sideways A, as you can see in the backdrop of my blog, was adapted from the bull's head hieroglyphic.  That character itself became simpler and simpler over the years until we finally ended up with the recognizable pre-Roman letter we now use.  It is by virtue of the Phoenicians' dedicated effort to widespread trade that made their alphabet the most widely used of the various alternatives.  Indeed, most western languages can track their alphabets back, figuratively at least, to the Tower of Babel in Babylon, via Egypt, via the Hebrews, via Phoenicia.

The wheel was used by every civilization but one, but it seems to have been invented only in one place and at one time.  Most cultures appear to have borrowed it from a neighbor, or refined that existing invention for their local use.  One region stands out as lacking:  Mesoamerica, which inexplicably never developed anything like a stone wheel and axle for us to discover.  Was it because they lacked domesticated draft animals like water buffalo, oxen, or horses?  Was it because the most recognizable cultures of the New World — the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans — lived in the hills and jungles?  Was it because they had a surplus of manpower?  Did they not discover the wheel, or did they simply not see a need for it? 

That, as they say, is history:  a story we tell of the past to fill in the gaps between the points we do know, or the points we think we know, that are consistent with the behavior of our species.  In order to create this round, I would have to perform the conjuration in the opposite direction.  I would not be allowed vagueness or inspecifics.  I would have to establish what really happened, or at least a few plausible explanations for the mass migration of peoples, and give the Players the reins.

I had to have a new process for sorting out events.  For 100,000 years of history, and through four previous rounds, the Players had shown a remarkable instinct for not playing favorites.  However, the next step in the development of civilization was, by its very nature, unfair:  someone was going to have invent agriculture first.  Someone was going to have to develop writing, bronze, and the wheel.  Who would that be?

The Players had to get the benefit of the doubt.  It was their decision to bring the Sivon tribe to the surface with their stone-shaping magic and their agriculture.  The Sivon should therefore be the first surface tribes to master the basics of farming, thousands of years before anybody else.

I am working on adding Round 5 to the blog.  Watch this space! 

Players  
Joe the Leader
Dave the Artisan
Connor the Mystic

*The Clovis culture was named for the town of Clovis, New Mexico, near to where the first artifacts were found.  The town itself was named for the first king of the Franks who lived in the 5th century AD.  It is not the first time a culture became known by the name that it was given by later peoples.  The Minoans, for example, were a culture that flourished on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean around 2000-1450 BCE.  We know of them only because they were named by the Greeks to honor Minos, the legendary king whose daughter gave birth to a bull-headed man, the minotaur, who was later slain by the equally legendary Iason (of Argonauts fame).  In actuality, the Minoan culture was probably destroyed by the pre-Greek culture known as the Mycenaeans.  We suspect this because the Minoan script, Linear A, is absolutely indecipherable, but around that time it switches to Linear B — and the words are surprisingly close to ancient Greek.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Year 50,000: The Bellaron Sacrifice Chamandra

Previous history

(I started off the players with How The Beast of the Sea Slew the Weak.  The title alone made them apprehensive.  The fingers began pointing in Connor's direction almost as soon as the story was concluded.)

The Oparron tribe has crossed the island chain, in boats and rafts, for millennia. In that time, their society has changed; those who are strongest survive, and those who perish weren’t strong enough. Leaders of the tribe (now called Bellaron) are chosen by combat prowess; a loser who survives, which doesn’t happen often, is exiled. A loser who fails to survive is purified: that is, boiled or burnt. Mates are often selected by contest as well, with men fighting for the right to a woman or, just as frequently, women fighting over men.

Upon reaching adulthood, men and women must undergo a rite of passage, to do something daring and possibly deadly. Thousands of years ago, such demonstrations included hunting game alone; more recently, demonstrations involved far-ranging expeditions to find new islands, or deep-diving demonstrations to bring up pearls.

Now, as the seas are rising, their islands are disappearing, but salvation is in sight: land is just visible on the horizon.

The leader of the Turning Shell tribe has organized expeditions to neighboring islands to bring back as many trees as can be found, to make rafts to get the people to the mainland. The leader, Windstrong Ravvy (M, 50) is a tough, judicious leader. Yes, the trip to the mainland is perilous, but we cannot remain. Some will die, but the strong will make it.

Not all are happy with the decision to go. Many of the younger generation follow the words of Nightsky Chamandra (M, 16) who says he is the strongest who ever lived. He has personally killed seven men in combat, he can have any mate he wants, and he is not afraid o the water. He will remain behind with all his mates and any who will stay. In fact, Chamandra claims that the Sea Spirit spoke to him and told him he was immortal. He will remain behind and the tribe will witness that no harm comes to him.

Ravvy says he cannot allow this. Those that follow Chamandra include most of the women of childbearing age, and without them, Ravvy will have a short-lived time on the mainland.

The medicine woman of the Turning Shell tribe, Copperdawn Dainar (F, 43) is not much use. Although she agrees that the waters will consume all the island and it is not safe to remain, it is also not safe to go. The berries which grow on the island are key to fertility: without the seaberries, we have no children. Have you not noticed that a woman only bears children when she eats of the seaberry? Have you not noticed that men only sire children when they have eaten the seaberry? There is a reason we use the seaberry in our rites of passage ritual, she says; we cannot abandon the islands, and yet we cannot leave. Our way of life is doomed; the world is ending; game over, man, etc.

That is nonsense, says Queenfisher Abda (F, 22). We all eat of the berries. Who here has not? In any case, the sea will support us. I will show you the way. I, who have dived deeper than any, and I who can remain below the water for hours at a time, will show you how the sea can sustain us.

Chamandra and Ravvy are squaring off to see which of their people will follow them.

What The Players Decided  
"He says he's immortal?" asked Connor.  "Let's kill him.  That will solve it.  They won't pay any attention to him once we kill him off."

What if he is immortal? I asked reasonably.

"Oh." And they went back to the drawing board.

"Hang on, that purification ritual," Joe the Leader said, glaring at Connor.  "The whole burning and boiling heads thing. If he
is immortal, he'll be the last to fall. So who will purify his remains? He can't leave his people. What does he say to that?"

"I am immortal," said Chamandra. "The question shall never arise."


"So he says he's immortal," the Joe said, trying again. "That doesn't mean he can protect the people that stay behind. Doesn't he care about them?"


"If they're strong," Chamandra says, "they'll survive. If they don't, they weren't strong enough."


"Boy," said Connor the Mystic, "we really messed these people up."


"What do you mean
we?" asked Dave and Joe, together.

"All right, let's test his immortality," Joe said, coming back around to Connor's first solution. "He doesn't seem to afraid to demonstrate it. If the people see that he's not immortal, they won't be as likely to take his advice and remain on the islands."

"We'll make him dive into the water and stay there for ... like, two days," Dave said.

"What about that water-breathing chick — Abda?" Joe asked.  "She can stay down for hours. What if she breathes air into his mouth?"

"We don't let her go down with him."


"What if he can breathe water too?"

"Hmmm. Okay, let's not use water. Let's say,
All right, you're immortal, do as you will. Before we depart the island we must perform the purification ritual for you. For if we all leave, who would perform these rites for you? Just step over here and stand in this fire..."
 
They built a giant bonfire to purify the body of Chamandra prior to his death. If he really wasn't immortal, he'd die, no problems, and we don't have to worry about him.

Chamandra was happy to oblige, and gathered the people before the fire. "I accept my purification directly from the hands of the Four Warriors, the only ones who have the power to do so—"

("I
knew he was going to do that!" said Joe.)

"I will die, but I will be reborn—"


("Aaargh, why didn't
we think of that?" asked Dave.)

"—for I
am immortal. You must now leave my islands. You will rue the day that you ever chose to leave."

He then stepped into the fire and burned to death.

The Players looked at each other.  "Oh, great," said Joe.

Results  
The effects of this event are too complex to enter into here, but suffice to say that the tribes of Brun who would now populate the mainland would have a strong element of sacrifice in their mythology.  They would all tell the tale of Chamandra, who was sacrificed to make the rising waters fall.  At the time I prepared this event, I thought it might be amusing to introduce a character that was actually immortal, considering how the Players would continue to return to the world and see the changing face of culture and technology.  Wouldn't it be fun to see one familiar face?  I did not, however, expect the Players to immediately resent this supposed immortal and order him burned to death.  You might say that the Players hadn't handled this particular Event very well.  I say that they gave me a gift, such that any GM would love to receive.

How the Beast of the Sea Slew the Weak

When the world was young and the seas were cold and the skies rained, the Island People did long ago live in the Land of the Setting Sun.  Their leader, a mighty leader called Axe-Hand Oparron, led the people to a place where there was nothing but water on all sides, and here he told them to rest and prepare for the hunt.

As the people rested and prepared, Four Warriors came forth from the Land of the Setting Sun, and they called out a warning.  But the people did not listen, and behold!  Two giant beasts of shell and horn emerged from the sea, and did slay five of the people.

Huntress Javaz said, “We must slay these beasts in kind,” and she led her mighty warriors to the battle, and they did kill the beasts of the sea.

And the mighty leader Axe-Hand Oparron said, “You have done well, you have slain the beasts.  Now we hunt.”

But the people were starving and two of the weakest of them ate the flesh of the beasts, and those people turned red in the face and died at once.

And the people said, “These are not beasts that we can eat!  Axe-Hand Oparron, what shall we hunt?  For there is no food.”

Huntress Javaz said, “Only the strongest among us can eat the flesh of these beasts.  Dare you to see if you are strong, or if you are weak?”

And Axe-Hand Oparron consulted Warrior Zoad and Mystic Olan, and they said, “From this day forth, on the day when a boy becomes a man, and on the day a girl becomes a woman, each shall taste of the sea berry, and each shall partake of the flesh of the sea beasts, and we shall know if they are strong.”

And thus it was so.

And Huntress Javaz said, “And if ever question arises who is to hunt, the hunt shall be led by the strong, and not by the weak.”

And Mystic Olan said, “And if ever question arises who is to be our medicine man, we shall choose the one with the strongest spells, and not the weakest.”

And Axe-Hand Obarron, who was wisest of all, said, “And if ever question arises which is the strongest, remember the Four Warriors, who saw the beasts of the sea when others saw it not.”

Year 50,000: The Teyo Nami and the Moon Tiger

Previous history
     Year 0: The Kufu acquire a medicine man
          Year 30,000:  The Ayuté have two toolmakers

(The myth I gave them to prepare for this Event was The Tale of the Tiger and the Toolmaker.)

Since the competition of the toolmakers, the Teyo Nami has been divided into two types of person: the Strong and the Cunning. As each lives, hunts, works and breeds according to that which he does best, these tend to reinforce themselves. There are men and women of each type — the Strong women are the most numerous, followed by the Cunning women, the Cunning men and the Strong men. Due to the effects of a certain blue stone fruit on the local diet, more women are born in the tribe than men, by a factor of about 4:1. Most men in the culture are shared by several women.

The tribe is led ostensibly by a man, the biggest of the Strong men; but he is advised by Strong and Cunning women who are hunters, scouts, and craftswomen. They report to him, and he decides, but they hold the real power (and he serves to settle their arguments). These positions are filled by competition, driving the most skilled warriors and cunning craftsmen to the top of the heap.

They are, however, isolated on the south central island. They have for millennia been a fishing culture, armed with light weapons, and familiar with the ways of the water. Now they are beginning to encounter lands more arid and harsh than those they are accustomed to. The changing climate is not being kind to the island ecosystem, and the shifting climates of the southwest became filled with the rotting carcasses of dead animals that could neither survive, nor adapt, nor escape.

One predator that the Teyo Nami have tried to avoid is the moon tiger, a strange adaptation: each is merely a memory of an animal that had once lived there. A moon tiger appears as a ghostly, stalking feline skeleton, barely visible on the savannah during the day; at night it is a fully living tiger that prowls for spirits to devour; at sunrise and sunset it is visible as a strange overlap between living and dead. Stranger still, the moon tiger is an astral entity and its diet is the silver cord between drifting spirit and living body. When it attacks it does not kill; it merely disconnects the soul. The plains are filled with the wandering spirits of the discorporated; the graves are filled with empty-vessel tribesmen who lost the will to eat, hunt, or sleep.

The current leader is Vazet of the Oaks (Strong M, 32), a very good example of the Strong male: swift to decide, good hunter, powerful, and oddly enough, also good with his tools. He has just come back from an expedition where four of his people were lost to moon tigers.

They are Gantor of the Rushing River (Strong M, 30), Hemmon of the Storm (Cunning M, 32), Leba of the White Sand (Cunning F, 39), and his own wife, Yolani of the Tall Grass (Strong F, 26).

The revered and uncannily strong medicine man, Pasht of First Light (M, 48), believes it is not impossible to put the spirits back into the bodies, and he may have a spell for this. This, however, is not the problem.

Pasht can find spirits on the plains, and he believes he knows which are the four spirits, because the spirits are haunting the place where the four were killed. What he doesn’t know is which spirit is which, and there is no time for research — to stay in the area where a moon tiger prowls is worse than suicide. And since Yolani and Leba are part of the Council of Women, they have rightfully earned their positions — how dare Pasht fiddle with spirit magic in such a way?

The medicine woman, Tora of the Shadow (F, 44), believes she can find a way to enchant a weapon so that it can strike and kill a moon tiger, but again, this bears great risk.

What the people want to know is how they decide which spirit is which, and do they risk random chance? Also, do they try to fight the moon tigers? If they could do so, they could take over the plains to the southeast where none now dare hunt.

 What The Players Decided  
Let me explain at the beginning that I wasn't particularly interested in which spirit ended up which body.  That problem was a problem of limited scope in the grand world view; four people, more or less, wouldn't cripple the Teyo Nami tribe.  What interested me more was how the Players attempted to solve the problem, and what their solution taught the Teyo Nami about the afterlife, about the soul, and — considering they were already well along the path toward either gender equality or female-dominated society — about the battle of the sexes.  The Players would have been well within their rights as holy immortal spirits to simply say, "Those people have passed on, and cannot be saved."  But they didn't.

Dave envisioned some pretty horrific scenarios for getting the spirits back into the correct bodies.  In particular, as this culture seemed to find women more important than men, he felt by implanting spirits randomly into the male bodies first, they could learn whether it was a valuable (female) spirit or an expendable (male) one.  If the male spirit went into a male body, no problem.  If it were a female spirit, they could just kill the body, freeing the spirit.  After all, Dave reasoned, the female ones were the spirits the Teyo Nami would want to save first.

The other Players, quite naturally, were appalled at this.  Rather than flesh out (ha!) Dave's plan to restore the spirits into the bodies, they turned to the immediate problem:  the moon tiger itself.

Armed with the arrowhead created by Tora, Joe the Leader slew the moon tiger, and they commenced to examine the spirits in the vicinity.  As Pasht had indicated, nothing could serve to determine which spirit was which.

At this point, the Players punted.  They had slain the moon tiger.  Putting the spirits back into the bodies, they essentially said, wasn't important enough to worry about.

Results  
The Teyo Nami now had the means to encroach into the moon tiger's hunting grounds.  More importantly, the Players had imparted a sense among their people that even if reduced to a disembodied spirit, once a Councilwoman, always a Councilwoman.  She didn't need to have a body to be revered by the tribe.

The Tale of the Tiger and the Toolmaker

Once the sea was a swamp, and once the swamp was a river, and once the river was a plain.  What the plain was before, no woman can say.  But the People of the Plain, who lived in the company of tigers, fled from the sun and came south.  And as they came, the plains became a river, and the river became a swamp, and the swamp became a sea.

The People of the Plain came to an island, where fish were plentiful, and where water was cold and swift.

One day, Voles the toolmaker, who was only a man, was killed by the biggest tiger in the world.  And his son, Volen, cried out, “How are we to slay this tiger so that it may never slay another?”  And he set to work making a weapon, just as his father before him had done.

But there was another toolmaker in the village, a cunning woman named Feya, and she said, “We have no need to slay tigers.  What we need are weapons to hunt food.”  And she set about making a weapon for catching food.

And the weapons made by Volen were used to hunt the large animals, and the weapons used by Feya were used to hunt small animals.  But Voles said, “Which of our two weapons is best?  For there can be only one toolmaker.”

They could not decide.  So they called upon the Four Wanderers, who visited the village in the course of time, and the Four Wanderers said, “Let she whose is best become the new toolmaker,” and they led the People of the Plain to the river.

And Feya was there, and she slew many fish with her spear.  And Volen was there, and he could catch nothing.  And the Four Wanderers said, “Feya’s weapon is better for catching fish, so she is to make all such weapons from now on.”

But sometimes, Volen’s weapon was used, when tigers came to attack the people.  And that is how it came to pass that the First Challenge happened.

Year 50,000: The Hybesh Valley is Burning


In the twenty millennia since the players last visited, the Hybesh tribe moved into the trees and spread throughout the valley. They have not created a city there, for they haven’t the technology or the metals, but they have tied branches together with short thongs and leather strips, creating highways in the canopy. From there they were able to specialize in hunting the great huaca — the giant cow-beasts that the players gave them, which (even as huge as they are) have the ability to hide their trails in the undergrowth.

Having moved into the treetops, some of the Hybesh, called the Ascenders, have adapted for tree-climbing. Their feet are slightly wider, with a gap between the great toe and the other four; their upper body and grip is very strong and their balance is good. This is an adaptation that the Hybesh have absorbed from the arbor dogs, a type of arboreal predator with gripping paws that hunts and scavenges in packs, descending to the forest floor when needed and retreating to the trees otherwise. Arbor dogs also have a very perplexing set of calls, hard to locate; and they possess the ability to imitate the calls of others — the sounds of wounded prey to lure predators to or away from the pack; or the sound of predators to herd or drive prey. These abilities are sometimes also reflected in the Hybesh.

Another group of Hybesh, the Leapers, has adapted for the trees in a slightly different way, with more powerful legs for leaping, smaller and lighter bodies, and a vestigial set of second arms, just below the shoulder, that have skin flaps that can be used both to help glide and with fingers to grip the tree while they shoot a bow. Their adaptations are stolen from the dash falcon, a bird of prey that can, with its gaze, cast a slow effect on its target, sweeping down to pluck before it can escape. The trait has yet to appear in adapted humans.

The people aren’t neatly divided into two types, however. Some display adaptations of both.

The Hybesh are matriarchal, and the leader is chosen from among the most skilled, who take on the responsibility for the good of the people. Leaders are free to step down when they feel someone else’s skills might be more useful, and they have great respect from among their people. The matriarch has a few advisers from among the tool-makers (because Jebba chose as her mate the toolsmith). Because they were given strong reverence for life, they shepherd the trees as much as they shepherd the huaca, taking only what is needed.

But the river is rising and the fog is lifting, so the giant trees are no longer sustainable. Underbrush and smaller trees, ones that drink water from the river, are taking over. The drier air — they’re in a vast three-sided valley, rain is almost unknown — means there are more fires, which are not easily stopped. The huaca are declining; they are too big, and the world is growing too warm. Already the smaller animals — the arbor dogs and the dash falcons — are growing in numbers as tinier prey multiplies.

Scenario: Geyad the Old (F, 54) is the matriarch of matriarchs, leader of the High Tree tribe, and she is ready to pass along her leadership to others. With the change in the weather, the fog is not as thick, and the great trees cannot grow so tall. The huaca are harder and harder to find. Her skills are no longer up to the task, and her magic (aspected strongly toward Animal magic) cannot work unless she can find the animals. Many of her tribe have died in the fires that continue to consume their lands.

Two candidates have been put forth. Neither is very young; each was selected as matriarch of her own clan; each has her advantages. Furthermore, neither of them particularly want the job.

Duna the Golden (F, 32) is an Ascender. She and her people are predominantly also Ascenders, excellent hunters and climbers. Duna believes the Hybesh must adapt as the forest changes, and with her aspected magic she will lead the tribes to follow the game wherever it goes. She can teach her followers how to seek food, and how to sense foes; both are new spells unknown to most. “The forest always changes,” she says. “The river goes up and down. The fog rises and falls. Every year the huaca bed down in new fields, every year the arbor dogs follow the herds. We must change, too. One day, it will change again.”

Rizon Bow-Mistress (F, 41) She and her people are predominantly Leapers. She has excellent hunting skills with the bow, of course, but her aspected magic lies in Fire (especially Find and Extinguish, a new technology her people use to stop the fires in their lands) and Seek Plant (another new technology, in a brand new school of magic). She says they must protect the valley from fire, shepherd the remaining huaca, and bring back the great trees they are accustomed to living in. “We are the Eagle People. Long ago, the Four Hunters followed the Great Eagle and led us to this valley. The Great Eagle showed us that everything is a quest. Eagles do not run; they wait and watch and strike. She showed us into the mountains. She showed us how to build cages to trap the huaca, and now the huaca feed us. She has shown us how to build cages to trap the fires. That is our quest.”

What The Players Decided  
Once again, they set a course due Weasel.  Could there be two Matriarchs? they wondered.

What happens when the two matriarchs disagree?  I asked.

"Ah," they said, and went back to the drawing board.

"Actually," Dave said, "I kinda like them both.  They both have really good reasons for their choices that are backed by their mythology."

"There's no reason we can't have them both go their own ways," Joe said.

"Sure," said Dave.  "That's why the Great Eagle lays two eggs."

They stared at one another and realized that they had the perfect way of inserting this decision into the mythology of each tribe.  "What we'll do," Dave said, "is we'll go to the one tribe and say you're the real chosen tribe, forget about those others.  Follow the herds, it's all good.  Then we go to the other tribe, and say you're the real chosen tribe, you stay here and guard the trees."

The conflict between the two seemed to be settled — or at least postponed.

Results  
The Ascender tribe, in time, became bigger and stronger for following the herds through the hills and adapting to some of their traits.  The Leaper tribe gradually adapted for flight, although they wouldn't be fully-fledged birdmen by the next round.

The Great Eagle and How It Led the Hunters to the Valley

Many seasons past, the People lived on the river.  They fished the rivers and they hunted the herds.  One day, the great chief Pagh, who was a strong warrior, went to his medicine woman.  And he said, “The river is rising.  Is this a Sign?”

And Zifu, for that was how the medicine woman was called, said “This is not a sign.  Rivers rise sometimes, and fall sometimes.  All things change.”

And Pagh said, “Why do all things change?”  But Zifu did not know.

The very next day, the People came to a great plain, where they met all the tribes of the world.  There were the Serpent People, and the Fox People, and the Bear People, and the Tiger People.  And there were so many people there, the very earth shook.

The Serpent People said, “The earth is shaking.  Is this a Sign?”

And Pagh, who was very wise and learned the teachings of the medicine woman, said, “Sometimes the earth shakes and sometimes it does not.  All things change.”

And the Serpent People said, “Why do all things change?”  But Pagh did not know.

Just then the Great Eagle appeared in the sky, and the people were afraid.  And the Great Eagle brought forth Four Hunters who are her champions.

“O Great Eagle,” said the People, “why must the rivers rise?  Why must the earth shake?  Why must all things change?”

The Eagle did not say, but she said, “It is a quest.  Go ye into the mountains, where I have taken the answer and placed it inside an egg.  When that egg is hatched and grows, then you shall have your answer.”

And thus the People did so, and followed the Great Eagle’s words, and they went into the mountains.  And there in the mountains the People saw the Eagle’s nest, and in the next they found the egg, and from it hatched an eagle, and the people truly knew that all things must change.

But in the mountains it was cold, and in the mountains there was little to hunt, and the People said, “Where is there food?  Who will lead us?  It is very cold and we are hungry.”

Again the Great Eagle appeared, and again the Four Hunters appeared, and the Great Eagle said, “It is a quest.  Those among you who are best at finding food must do so, and whoever succeeds shall lead, and take for a mate any in the tribe.”

One man, Bkesh, said he would slaughter every animal, and the people would feast, but the Eagle said, “And what would you eat next season?  All things, even Eagles, come from eggs.  Who would lay the eggs?”  And Bkesh was ashamed.

Another man, Ktope, said he found a Valley, where lived the great herds of huaca, a thousand times more food than any man could eat.  But he said, “I do not know how to hunt the huaca.  We must sit and watch.”  And the Eagle said, “Would you have your people starve?”  And Ktope, too, was ashamed.

But then the medicine woman, Jebba, said, “Great Eagle, you have said we must not kill too much, and you have said we must not kill too little.  Your people are confused.  What must we do?”

The Great Eagle called to his Four Hunters, and they took Jebba away into the forest and showed her the secret of the cages, and they taught her mighty spells to tame the huaca, and Jebba did bring back to the Eagle People a mighty beast for their own, but only one:  such a beast in those days was larger even than five of the huaca today.

And the Great Eagle said, “You, Jebba, shall be leader, and you shall have your choice of mates.”

But Jebba said, “Mighty Eagle, I do not wish to be leader.  I am a simple medicine woman.”

And the Great Eagle said, “You have tamed a huaca and fed your people.  Who else among your people can do the same?”

And Jebba said, “I will lead my people, Great Eagle, but I do not choose my mate to be Bkesh or Ktope.  I choose Ammad, the Tool-Maker, for he helped me to build the cages.”

And from that day, the People of the Great Eagle did live among the trees and hunt the huaca.