Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 24 Jan 2006 to 25 Jan 2006 (#2006-11) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 26/01/2006, 19:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 180 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Flaem race and culture? (3) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:52:31 -0400 From: Steve Carter Subject: Re: Flaem race and culture? I had always assumed that the Alphatians arrived on Mystara via planar gates similar to the Rainbow Bridge that the Feadial elves used to escape to Alfheim from the Sylvan Realm. I felt this was justified because the Flaems wandered the planes before arriving on Mystara. And to where was the then-mortal, deposed Emperor Alphaks banished? Or was he left behind on the doomed Alphatian homeworld? However I do like the idea of an Ochalean "treasure fleet". Are there any population numbers on the Alphatian emigration to Mystara? Does anyone know how to cook some up? The loss of the emigration/refugee fleet could be written off as crash landings on Mystara for whatever reason. Andrew Theisen wrote: > In fact, based on what I'm reading about the Chinese > treasure fleets of old in the book 1421: The Year > China Discovered America, I'm currently toying with > the idea that the flotillas of skyships that > transported the Alphatians to Mystara were of Old > Ochalean make and manufacture (though the techniques > were largely lost along with the massive troves of > information that disappeared when the planet was > destroyed). > > Tying in with that is (yet another) new theory of mine > about how the Myoshimans may have gotten their culture > from the Ochaleans who landed on Matera, rather than > continuing all the way to Mystara. (Seems an easier > explanation than trying to fit in the Rakasta Japanese > elements into such a short timespan on Mystara, and > then having them somehow transported to the moon.) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:12:02 -0800 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Flaem race and culture? --- Ville V Lahde wrote: > But when the Alphatians arrived in Mystara, their ruling caste > seems to have been mostly Old Alphatian (racially) and of > course from the Air faction. Whereas when the Flaem arrived, > they seem to have been more Cyprite outlook. There seems to be > a small discrepancy here. It is interesting to note, I think, the history of Haven on mainland Alphatia. >> From DotE, Player's Guide to Alphatia, p. 9: "... A farsighted wizardess... decided to form her own community, one where her own kind would not be held back by the followers of Kerothar [a "pure" Alphatian]." This, coupled with the miles long Haven wall (between Haven and Vertiloch, capitol of the emperors), indicates to me that the settlers of New Alphatia, though they may have been all "Air" school, were hardly unified. Obviously, there is the racial separation between "pure" and "cyprian" Alphatians, but I propose that the Ochaleans were also an ethnic/cultural minority among the settlers, who (like the Haveners) decided to separate themselves from the rest of the Alphatians and form their own community. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:24:57 -0800 From: Andrew Theisen Subject: Re: Flaem race and culture? --- Steve Carter wrote: > I had always assumed that the Alphatians arrived on Mystara via > planar gates similar to the Rainbow Bridge that the Feadial > elves used to escape to Alfheim from the Sylvan Realm. I felt > this was justified because the Flaems wandered the planes > before arriving on Mystara. And to where was the then-mortal, > deposed Emperor Alphaks banished? Or was he left behind on the > doomed Alphatian homeworld? There certainly seems to have been some degree of planar travel involved- the module M1: Into the Maelstrom has a gate at the edges of Alphatiaspace that the hereos must use to get back to Mystaraspace (and they are mystically transported to Old Alphatia by Immortals to begin with). Given the Alphatian skyships that are in that module, as well as the term "Landfall" that is often used to describe the Alphatians' arrival, I have just always assumed they used some sort of combination of skyships and planar travel. Of course, the Followers of the Flame, as losers of the whole conflict, would likely have been denied access/use of the majority of the skyships, and that might explain why they were "planar wanderers" rather than spacefarers. It's definitely a vague point, though. What do others think out there? > However I do like the idea of an Ochalean "treasure fleet". Well, if you go with the theory of Ochaleans as an Old Alphatian cultural group, then perhaps Ochalean treasure fleets were responsible for charting much of the depths of space prior to the destruction of Old Alphatia, and thus responsible for Alphatians knowing about Mystara (which they then chose for their retreat). Or, if you just want the Ochaleans to be Mystara-based only, Ochalean treasure fleets may have helped in the mapping of the planet in the past at some point. Come to think of it, perhaps the map Haldemar used to explore in the Princess Ark, with the names he attributed to some doddering Thyatian, was originally Ochalean in origin? The Thyatian managed to get it from them, and then passed it off as his own (in a manner similar to the way the author of 1421 suggests Magellan and Columbus may have originally learned of the Americas.) > Are there any population numbers on the Alphatian > emigration to Mystara? Does anyone know how to cook some up? Nothing that I know of, but more and more, I'm beginning to suspect that the numbers were probably pretty low (compared to the total population of Old Alphatia), and that the indigenous Yanifey peoples were largely blended into the current population (with the Cypri traits, as on Old Alphatia, becoming dominant over time). ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 24 Jan 2006 to 25 Jan 2006 (#2006-11) ***************************************************************