[Forum Game] From Caveman to Cosmos

And thus, a crowd of Ernfolk went to the Shore and settled at Weststrand, where they made ruses and caught fishes, and were pleased with living there. ((The Shore is so very close to Stickwood that we don't need to divide up people by locality.))

But then Elder Skritold called for a group of wards and wives to band together and settle in Great Limwood to the east. This undertaking would theen to ward the hallowed Ernsberg from, among others, a great, folkrich fighter people from the south - indeed, Ahuni and Renward had seen their great here, which counted more than onehundredandthirty odophezi men walking the shores of the Eastern World Sea. It was thought, though, that they never came further north than the southern edge of Great Limwood.

All who wants to go and settle in the Great Limwood to the east must state that they do wish to do so. We need at least 6 people to volunteer for going east. Forst Larkward has been named Underelder, and is to take lead of the undertaking.

Chapter 20: Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can​

The Eld of the Ern was, as brought up earlier, a truly lush time for the Ernings ((new name for our people?)). People liked to show their standing, and began wearing marks of their positions; Elder Skritold, for instance, began wearing hawk feathers in his hair in addition to his old, rotten cave cat cloak. Another thing that had become popular was wearing lacquered wood or stone beads. The wards liked getting their odophezis lacquered and engraved them with intricate patterns.
This also led to conflicts though, for people became attached to their things and didn’t want to share them with others. This was worried the older folk, for they thought of the old days when there was no concept of owndom. One night, as the Moon was full and the Ern’s Folk were all gathered at the Moonford, dancing around the fires and talking gravely about weighty matters, an old man rose, looked at the Elder and said:

“O Elder, Ern-Blessed Ethem-Eater, and all fellow Homefolk gathered here today! Harken now, for I wish to speak of something truly weighty! In the days of yore there were no ownings - each People did share all their tools and their food, and there was peace in the world. Nowadays people ward their odophezis and their traps as if others had no right to use them! It should not be so, for it causes strife and unfrith among us!"

This was true, Skritold thought; there had always been bickerings between different groups over who gets to gather berries here and who gets to sleep in the tree over there - indeed, that had been the reason for gathering together the Moon Moot in the first place. More lately, there had been more and more bickerings between single persons though. The old man’s speech gave rise to a heated debate - the viewpoints varying wildly about what should be subject to sunder owndom [private property] and what shouldn’t - and if anything at all should be. Some blamed the youth for this new stand on things and said that it was childish to not share things with others, and some said it was the women and their love of beads and pretty things that had caused it - and argued that only men should be allowed to own. There were also some, sundrily those nearest to Skritold, who thought that only the Elder and maybe the Forsts who were responsible enough

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DISCUSS! the Elder may have a say on things, but he cannot go against the opinions of his people, so let your character’s opinion be heard! This will decide the rules for owning things in our society in the future. Do look for inspiration on how different cultures have historically treated property.

We need to decide what can be property:
Food?
Buildings (ie. our huts, lean-tos and hollow trees)?
Land and/or the things that grow and walk upon it? Maybe land isn’t owned, but some have the rights to use it.
Manufactured things (beads, tools, weapons)?
Resources (like clay deposits, olive groves, hunting grounds)?
Other people can be property - in that case, who can be owned? Women, foreigners, children?

And who can own property:
Some things may be owned communally, ie. things are shared by a group of people. Things may be shared by the whole People, or maybe people from the same settlement, clan or family share things together, but without sharing with other groups.
Other things may be owned privately, ie. by single persons.
The rulers, ie. Elders and Forsts, may own some things
Might be a combination of any of the above; ie. only Elders and Forsts can own slaves, but other people cannot.

Also, Ahuni and his companion have returned home after hunting down a grey leaping deer.

And I’ve moved the remaining men in the “People” faction to ward-factions. You may change to another group if you want, though there is no more room in the Stone Wards faction. Since we’ll be moving towards playing as dynasties soon, I’ve given most of you surnames - feel free to change them If you don’t like them. And, since all men are wards, the -ward ending has lost its meaning, except to tell the difference from men and women. Forsts have gained the -forst suffix to indicate their important status.

Chapter 21: The Downfall of the Unbearded Man​

One day while the People of the Ern were busy cooking berries, making pearls and gathering mushrooms, a band of hunters came running out of the woods early, without any game and with a wild look on their faces.
“Beardless! Beardless in the woods! Skritold, they are everywhere!”, the man yelled.
Skritold befell the everyone to gather together in Stickwood, so that wives and children could easily be warded. The wards gathered together in the edge of the grove and stared at the Homewood across the clearing to the south. When the Beardless emerged from the woods, they were not frightened, they were taken aback. For the Beardless emerged were not wards, but mostly women and children, who ran unorderly across the clearing. Tears ran down their faces - they were clearly truly frightened of something. As they drew nearer to Skritold and his wards, they slowed down, and a woman came forward.
“Yhotam! Ämanam ña ssad tëzhëti. Ngoyën thäd athanam thád, od, ämanam ssiss ak thathanam thad tadb. Mëssab ämanaða dam!”, the woman said, addressing Skritold, who by virtue of his great fur cape was easily recognizable as the leader. Skritold could understand none of this though, and asked Fuzziward to tell him what the woman was saying.
“She sayeth that they wish not to fight us; merely do they seek our warding... She sayeth that they have been stricken by great mishap”, Fuzziward unriddled. “I see. And what may this great mishap be?”, Skritold wondered. Fuzziward translated the question for the woman, and she answered with a long, incomprehensible explanation.
Fuzzee turned back to his Elder: “My Elder... If what she sayeth be indeed true, the Home of the Unbearded Folk hath been burnt down by a great here of more than three hundred men and women from South, all beweaponed with odophezis. There be nothing left of their Home at all!”

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So the Beardless have been driven from their home, and there are 300 hostile odophezi men and women running around the southern woods. You need to decide what you will do with the surviving Beardless - mostly women and children, but also a few men. Our options regarding the raiders, refered to as the Ëssobam (translated either as “The Great Destructions” or “the Raider Folk”) by the Beardless, are limited, but we should be safe if we stay at our defensive position at the Ford.

The issue of owndom had been discussed by the Ernsfolk at the Moot, and now most agreed that land was shared by all of the Ern’s Folk, and that grown-ups could not be owned unless they were foreign haftlings. Food and all things from nature was to be shared by everyone too. There were conflicts regarding weapons and buildings though, for the Elders and Forsts thought that these should only be owned by them, whereas the wards argued that they had made them themselves, and they were to be owned by their shapers just as all other tools and man-crafted things were. - the bolded part remains open for discussion.