The pasty-skinned man says, in northern-accented sirihish:
"Allanak? You mean, that place where there's no trees and magickers walk around unhindered and you have to sell a finger for a drop of water?"
Allanak is, in many many ways, much worse than Tuluk, for the average commoner. Sure, there's the crazy paranoia and all that, but there are no magickers, there is plenty of food, you don't have to bow to people and you've got bards.
Should Southerners be dreaming of moving up there, then? Sure, they don't have a cool arena and you can't sleep with the nobility...but should the only thing stopping the Average Commoner from moving to Tuluk be the fact that they'd probably not want him there?
What can a proud Allanaki use in order to scoff at Tuluk? (Moon-paganism and having a lousy sorcerer-king do not count).
They're barbarians! They have no order, no civil structure. Their so-called nobles don't command the respect of the populace (no bowing). They spend most of their time prancing around and singing... how can they get any work done with so many bards? And whats with all the green everywhere? Its so weird! Don't even get me started on the -freaks-. People with tentacles and horns and guts on the outside... creatures like that should be locked away to be fed to arena beasts. Last but not least, its -impossible- to get a good old scrab steak up there.
Those views aside, the social stigmatism a southerner would knows he/she would face is the strongest deterrant to relocating. Besides, its not instant prosperity to live there afterall.
There is no definite answer to this question. Some people will want to move to Tuluk because they want to live in that environment. Some people will despise Tuluk because they hate that type of culture. It all depends upon the person.
This is why I was referring to the more objective advantages.
Wood, food and water are all cheaper in Tuluk. Tuluk has better weather and less sandstorms. Tuluk does not have evil scary magickers.
Allanak has...obsidian? More snakeskin? Hmm. Well, maybe Allanaki obsidian armor and weapons are generally better than what Tuluk has to offer (weighing specs against price), but I don't see how that is a good reason for people to want to go there.
I guess that in part, I'm wondering why half of Allanak doesn't pack up and leave to Tuluk, but this is undoubtedly something with an IC answer.
Highlord's mercy! They have all those foofy bards running around...that bizarre caste crap...mutants, man, mutants!..it's so humid :wink: ...fake nobles...
I mean, pick your reason. It's part of what the people living in Allanak have been indoctrinated with their entire life: "The North is bad!" Just figure out why your character thinks that that is true. Pick from something suggested, or make up something else.
I'd also imagine a big reason of why most don't attempt a move would be things such as... Scrab... Gith... Ect ect...
Also, from the way I've seen it, the average common mind would be raised simply to know that Tuluk is -the enemy-. No matter what anyone says, it's a terrible place up there, and we in Allanak, are the betters. Why go to somewhere so less than Tek's great city?
Oh yeah, and the mudsex is much better in slimy and grimy Allanak too. :-p
I played a now dead southerner who had heard things about Tuluk and rode there on an expedition. Shortly after he was so floored by the treatment of the citizens, the weather, the everything....that he took up residence, did his best to make northern friends and not be seen as a spy and basically just lived there pretty happily.
The north isn't an idyllic forest paradise. There isn't a whole lot of 'green' associated with forests/plains. (except the blurp of the grey-green deeper forest) The grasses are dry and burnt and brownish. The trees, in the case of agafaris, are gnarled and twisted and weeping-willow like. (And in the case of baobab, scary purple leaves.)
In the case of numut vines... (from the Plantlife page) they are spider-web like parasitic plants that grow in splays from the ground and rotting bodies. Considering they are common, they are probably everywhere. (Another scary thing!)
And then there is whipleaf (also from plantlife):
"These plants are like shorter versions of cynipri, but have flexible trunks of deep brown softwood, covered with a dusky-red bark; the leaves are spear-shaped and are very sharply serrated, usually twice as long as the tree is high; when moved by even moderate winds, these leaves can tear open the nearby ground; any small animals are quickly killed by this and are used for food and fertilizer."
Sounds scary to me.
It is still hot, and it still storms, the loose-dirt to wind ratio may be less, but it still will look pretty scary.
Plus the stories are probably alot worse. Like halflings, and mutants, and scary animals with FUR on them!
I don't know, a bleak desert might sound better to my character then a land of scary trees and man-eatting midgets.
And:
(http://img50.exs.cx/img50/1848/allanak.gif)
doesn't look that much worse then:
(http://img50.exs.cx/img50/7506/tuluk.gif)
But then my take on them may be incorrect and Tuluk is actually beautiful.
(And yes I drew these, so dont make fun of them!)
Hey that second picture looks like my back yard.
Good way of depicting Tuluk...I wouldn't have thought it to be that bad... :lol: . Nice work. I like the little people in the sand hills...or is that the shield wall?
got to love the Gith outside Nak and Halfling(?) outside Tuluk....Real cute.
Larrath wrote:QuoteTuluk does not have evil scary magickers.
Yes, it does. And they're ten times as dangerous. They're going about untagged, untethered, unchecked, and they're not conveniently tucked away into their own crappy corner of the city.
Thank Tek that in Allanak we know enough to put those filthy finger-wigglers in their place, instead of letting them run rampant and eat our livestock!
I almost want those as a wall paper.
For the one who asked those are the Scien Walls and the Ivory Pyramid.
Quote from: "Larrath"This is why I was referring to the more objective advantages.
Wood, food and water are all cheaper in Tuluk. Tuluk has better weather and less sandstorms.
1. How would the average peasant know any of that? I don't know how much gasoline or pepsi costs in, say, Cleavland or Geneva. I don't even know what they cost in nearby towns and cities, because I never go to those towns. I'm not willing to take a trip to a town half a day away, much less take everything I know and move there, just to see if something is a little cheaper.
2. People aren't really objective about their lives. We might think that the price of water and food are objective criteria, but that is only because we are outsiders. I know a place that sells water cheaper than either Tulak or Allanak, and even places with "free" water, but I wouldn't want to live there (neither would most of my PCs). The food in Tuluk may be cheaper, but it is the
wrong food. Ok, practically everyone in the known world is crazy for ginka fruit, but there are also regional foods and most people prefer what is familiar. It is the wrong kind of meat, the wrong vegetables and the wrong grains, cooked the wrong way, with the wrong seasoning. Some people think snails and live :shock: oysters are great foods, other people think the chili dog is the best food other, there are probably some people who like eating both snails and chili dogs, but not too many because most people like what is familiar. An Allanaki thinks eating a roasted scrab head is rare treat, a Tulukian thinks it is a form of torture. ;) Of course a starving person will eat almost anything, but starving people couldn't afford to move accross the known world.
3. Tuluk doesn't want southern immigrants. They don't send travel agents down to Allanak to tell everybody how much greater the north is. They can absorb a few now and then, but they'd close the gates if hundreds started showing up. At times durring the rebuilding Tuluk ICly has had temporary openings for skilled and semi-skilled construction workers, but they have no use for a bunch of barbaric unskilled peasants, desperate theives, and shiftless thugs. In general southerners don't like northerners, and northerners don't like southerners. Prejudice doesn't have to make sense.
4. Trees aren't necessarily attractive. There are
things living in those trees. There are
things hiding behind those trees. Twisted trees reaching toward the sky like tortured souls. Those limbs look kind of like arms, those roots look kind of like feet, are you really sure those are just trees and not creatures that move around when you aren't looking? In real life I've seen trees that looked spooky, and I know that trees are harmless. In Zalanthas some of the plants are as dangerous as the animals. From plantlife:
Thornbush
Similar to loreshi shrubs; thornbushes have no leafage whatsoever, and are in fact quite
dangerous; when a warm-blooded organism passes near, the plant pierces it with its thorns, which
inject a paralyzing poison (even a scratch will paralyze creatures of gortok-size); the plant then
grows toward the paralyzed victim at a rapid pace (3-4 hours is usually enough) and sucks moisture
from the victim (blood and such) through its hollow thorns.
People know that there are predatory plants out there, and are suspicious enough to think anything humanoid-shaped could become animated at any moment.
AC
Quote from: "Larrath"This is why I was referring to the more objective advantages.
Wood, food and water are all cheaper in Tuluk. Tuluk has better weather and less sandstorms. Tuluk does not have evil scary magickers.
Allanak has...obsidian? More snakeskin? Hmm. Well, maybe Allanaki obsidian armor and weapons are generally better than what Tuluk has to offer (weighing specs against price), but I don't see how that is a good reason for people to want to go there.
I guess that in part, I'm wondering why half of Allanak doesn't pack up and leave to Tuluk, but this is undoubtedly something with an IC answer.
First of all, they don't -know- it's much easier to live up there. Everything spouted to them from birth would say that Allanak's a better place. Secondly, it's hard to leave home, and friends, and family, and a sure job.
I don't think that's accurate, Bogre.
Tuluk has only been free from Allanak's grasp for thirty-something years; these are hardly five generations, even with Zalanthan life expectency. People see wood all the time; the thuja benches in the Arena, the wood in the *enormous* argosies that ride back and forth, whatever. Wood is out there, and it's very obvious that there are no agafari groves in the Vrun Driath (Allanak's general region).
Migrating is difficult, sure, but not impossible.
Regardless, I have been given plenty of answers for my question. Thanks, everyone. :)