Author Topic: Cultural Summary: Laan?  (Read 1386 times)

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Offline Hurin

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Cultural Summary: Laan?
« on: February 07, 2022, 08:41:18 PM »
Anyone know if there was ever a cultural summary of the Laan/Zori? I have a player playing one in one of my current SW campaigns, and I'm not quite sure what to give him as background material. I've got cultural summaries for all the rest of the played races.
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

'Every party needs at least one insane person.'  --Aspen of the Jade Isle

Offline MisterK

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2022, 11:43:35 PM »
I would say that it depends on the area they're from : in Emer alone, they can come from either Stroane, Miir, Vornia, the Bay of Izar, the Komaren, or even Danarchis or Reandor (not to mention Sel-Kai and Kaitaine because, you know, big trade cities). And in Jaiman, you have them in Rhakhaan, sure, but also in Meluria, U-Lyshak and Norek, and probably Saralis as well. All those places are quite different.

For Haestra, you probably can find something in Emer I. For Reandor, in Emer II. For Rhakhaan, in Haalkitaine. For Sel-Kai, in Eidolon. But beyond that, I cannot help you :) I'm in the process of writing up a long cultural summary for Rhakhaan (my cultural summaries are typically muuuch longer than the standard SW half-page block), but I currently suffer from writer's block, so...

Offline Hurin

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2022, 09:00:21 AM »
Thanks, and let me know if you do ever do the cultural summary. I know I can do one for Haalkitaine, but that is of course a mixed kingdom, and I liked the uniformity of having a cultural summary for each of the other races (Duranaki, Vorloi, etc.), so I guess I will have to cobble together a one-page summary of the culture of Haalkitaine.
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

'Every party needs at least one insane person.'  --Aspen of the Jade Isle

Offline MisterK

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2022, 01:04:50 PM »
Thanks, and let me know if you do ever do the cultural summary. I know I can do one for Haalkitaine, but that is of course a mixed kingdom, and I liked the uniformity of having a cultural summary for each of the other races (Duranaki, Vorloi, etc.), so I guess I will have to cobble together a one-page summary of the culture of Haalkitaine.
Racial summary and cultural summary are two different things entirely - and given how they are used in Shadow World books, only the cultural summary makes sense. Which means it is culture-specific, not race-specific, and there are significant differences between, for instance, Komari and Stroane Laan, not to mention Komari Laan and Rhakhaan Zori.
Duranaki are a special case because, as far as we know, they are location-specific and culturally homogeneous. But I would certainly not say that the Zori from Merisia, for instance, are culturally close to the Rhakhaan Zori, even though they are basically neighbours.

I already have a number of "extended" cultural summaries (Duranaki, Saralian Jameri, Kaitaine, Kaldsjaari - the northmen who live in the Kaldsfang Mountains between Saralis and Quellbourne, Komari, Lysian, Namari, Rhiani, Vajaari, plus the Chelni, who are seminomad people who live between Saralis and Xa'ar in my own version of Jaiman). But sadly, all of those are in french, so not readily usable :(

I have a few incomplete cultural summaries for the various Kelestian cultures - in english, those - but all of them are missing some aspects (I have the notes on appearance and clothing, political and social structures, language, religion and military, but have not filled the other aspects). I can share those if there's an interest for them (on the same Gdrive where I already share a few maps).

[I have also written a few details about the Saralian economy and the Oriana faith in western Jaiman]

Offline Hurin

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2022, 11:10:19 PM »
I already have a number of "extended" cultural summaries (Duranaki, Saralian Jameri, Kaitaine, Kaldsjaari - the northmen who live in the Kaldsfang Mountains between Saralis and Quellbourne, Komari, Lysian, Namari, Rhiani, Vajaari, plus the Chelni, who are seminomad people who live between Saralis and Xa'ar in my own version of Jaiman). But sadly, all of those are in french, so not readily usable :(


They are readily usable if you're Canadian! (I and some of my players can read French).
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

'Every party needs at least one insane person.'  --Aspen of the Jade Isle

Offline MisterK

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2022, 12:29:29 AM »
Well, there you go - I've added them to my public GDrive. They are the .wri files (the other files are the maps that I dropped a while ago).

Here's the link : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VeDfDbuYhcX8RjRRJZYOFUG6DMsICtz2?usp=sharing

Offline MisterK

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2022, 05:54:16 AM »
One side note: while most of the text is reusable "as is" with vanilla Shadow World, there are a few sections where references to my personal version of Shadow World are used, notably when referencing dates from recent history. I have modified and updated the chronology and history, added a bunch of events in the past and greatly modified the recent history (especially 6050 and later) to fit my 30+ years of playing in the world - my chronology currently sits in 6072 and a number of events of the official chronology either didn't happen or happened at a different date. So use with caution :)

Offline Hurin

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Re: Cultural Summary: Laan?
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2022, 08:37:31 AM »
Thanks very much!
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

'Every party needs at least one insane person.'  --Aspen of the Jade Isle