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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:28:10

Here is a little snippet I used when I created an alternate Cormanthyr Elven language for High Elves, a barbaric Wild Elves dialect, and a varied speech for the Drow -

A language of use in Nigeria, 'Jukon', assigns different meanings to a spoken word by using either a high pitch, an intermediate pitch, or a low pitch.

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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:29:17

This was originally used to create a mythological history for a campaign world of my own design similar in style and culture to Raymond Feist's works -

A reference in classical legend and poetry makes mention of the Ages of Man, a system that divides the history of humankind into differing periods. The beginning anf first period was known as the Golden Age, presented as an age of innocence and great happiness, when the forces of strife, chaos and the injustices of humanity were unknown. There was very little need for farming or agriculture, as the earth itself produced its own abundance of everything humankind needed. The climate was always mild and invaried.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:30:51

This is some more information that I found useful -

After this Golden Age came what was to be known as the Silver Age. This was a less happy period than the first Age. Labor was the accepted means of humankind maintaining their livelihoods and also, humankind found it necessary to build homes to protect themselves from the elements.

The succeeding Bronze Age, saw humankind became more savage, and brutal. It also demonstrated humankinds ability to destroy each other. The last division, the fourth age, or the Age of Iron, was a major period of crime, hatred and violence. Slaughter and warfare were the norm spreading rapidly across the world.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:32:12

The Greek Poet, Hesiod's work, Works and Days, listed five ages. Hesiod created and inserting in his text, an Age of Heroes between the third Bronze Age and fourth Iron Age. The Age of Heroes composed of those who participated in the Trojan wars.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:34:03

Here's an interesting tidbit -

For the medieval physician, a detailed examination of a persons urine was just as important as the pulse-taking of modern day physicians. Also a variety of urine could be used by medieval physicians for medicinal purposes.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:35:39

Another medieval snippet -

A medieval theory called the Doctrine of Signatures stated that the outer appearance of a plant or leaf, gave an idea as well as an indication to the types of illnesses and ailments that it could cure. Surprisingly for some, the theory was very accurate.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:36:59

This is something I used when I reworked the 2e Shaman class, creating a more 'medicine-man' type feel -

In the Native American tradition, the ancient shaman, or 'medicine-man' would spirit-travel in the symbolic directions of his medicine wheel to find the soul of ill people, and then find help from the spirits for the healing process.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:38:13

Some thoughts on Alchemy -

The basic underlying doctrine and fundamental concept of the practice of alchemy originally grew from the Aristotelian theory that all things in the world tend to reach perfection. Because of this theory, some metals for example, silver, zinc or lead were commonly thought of as less "perfect" than gold. Alchemists therefore thoughts it was appropriate to assume that nature herself created gold out of other less perfect metals deep within the interior of the earth. They believed that with enough skill and sufficient diligence an alchemist could duplicate this fundamental process in his own alchemical workshop. Essentially empirical and practical at first, the efforts the alchemists used to attain this goal were impressive, but by the 4th century AD, the semi-disciplines of magic, and astrology, had now begun to gain a new level of importance within alchemical circles.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:39:21

A little more -

Alchemical research was greatly influenced by the works of the early Greek Pre-Socratics. Their early writings were generally considered to contain many of the first chemical theories; similarly, a theory propsed by Empedocles in the 5th century BC, stated that all things in the cosmos were composed of earth, air, fire, and water.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:40:56

Here is some interesting thoughts on the practice of Magic in real-life cultures -

Many people believe that magic illuminates deeply buried tendencies and beliefs of the human mind. This is inspite of it's current incompatibility with current techniques and methods of scientific thought and research. One of the fundamental concepts of magic is the manipulation of symbols. For example, such disciplines as religion, art, poetry, and rhetoric regularly illustrate the evidence in favor of this concept - the manipulation and progression of symbols and signs.

To illustrate the deeply held core beliefs about magic some ancient magical processes of the mind can be seen to a degree in several common practices. These practices and examples can be something as simple and plain as the use of mascot effigies and figurines, to something as psychologically complex as keeping locks of hair from loved ones.

While most people would expect that these types of practices would only affect their own internal way of thinking about a particular situation or consequence, the believers of magic simply see it as a series of practices conducted by those which affect the external reality of the self.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:42:28

I found this information useful when mummy-rot and plague-carrying undead became a huge part of my Mulhorand campaign. There are some very descriptive passages ahead about the symptoms of plague -

There are a variety of symptoms caused by plague, some of which I will illustrate here. For instance with concern to the bubonic plague, the very first signs of infection are headache, nausea and vomiting, the aching of joints, and a general perception of feeling ill. The lymph nodes centered around the groin area or, sometimes less commonly, around the area of the armpit and neck, will suddenly become inflammed, and swollen causing a degree of pain and discomfort. The infected persons temperature, which can be tied with a general shivering or shaking, actually rises to anywhere between 38.3� and 40.5� C (101� and 105� F). The persons breathing/respiration and pulse rate greatly increase, which normally leaves the victim exhausted and with general feelings apathy.

The buboes (inflammed lymph nodes) usually swell until approximately the size of a regular chicken egg, and sometimes to the size of a childs clenched fist. In cases of nonfatal infection, the temperature of the body will slowly begins to decrease after about four to five days, and will stabilize at the normal level within about two weeks. However in really fatal cases, the result is normally death within approximately four days.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:43:52

Here's some more. This details some other types of plagues -

For the pneumonic plague, the sputum (saliva and phlegm) is normally slimy with traces of blood. It will later generate into a free-flowing and bright red liquid. Three days after the first sign of symptoms, death occurs in most cases.

The septicemic plague, sees the victim struck with a quick phase of high fever in which the infected person will regularly turn deep purple in skin coloration. This normally lasts several hours, with death occuring within the same day of the development of the symptoms. The purple discoloration of the skin, apparent in all infected victims when dying, is mainly a consequence of respiratory failure. The popular name Black Death would sometimes be applied to this disease, derived from this signs of this symptom.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:45:04

Latin was the language of Western scholarship in the Medieval to early Renaissance period. Any person who wished to be acknowledged as civilized would have to be able to speak, read and write in Latin.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:47:43

Here is a small sampling of some interesting medieval terms -

Allod: Land held outright without any feudal obligation

Allodial Lord: The lord who holds a piece of land outright without any feudal obligation

Bowyer: People who manufacture bows

Bushel: A unit of dry volume

Chandler: Those who make and sell candle wax and soap

Chevage: A manorial fee for living or living off the manor

Demesne: Synonymous with 'domain'

Draper: People who sell cloth

Enfeoff: To provide a fief to a vassal

Escheat: A fee paid by inheritors for assuming vassalage for land

Fallow: Cultivated arable land that is not currently growing crops

Furlong: A roughly rectangular piece of land which has been divided into strips

Gentry: The lowest level of landed society

Granger: Manorial worker

Hallmote: The manorial court

Herbalist: Those who produce herbal concoctions

Infeudation: A vassal being lord over someone else

Investiture: Placing, or selecting a candidate for a position

Jongleur: Those who entertain through juggling, acrobatics, and music

Journeyman: People practising a trade of profession

Laborer: Those who perform manual labor

Legerwite: A fine for females having sex outside of marriage

Mendicant: Members of landless monastic orders

Mortmain: The choosing of a representative's life to signal relief payment to the lord

Nobility: A landed social class

That's it for now, there is still more to come.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:51:16

Here is another small sampling of terms I have collected -

Peddler: Street sellers without a store

Porter: Those who carry things

Ridge and fullow: The pattern of growth on the fields

Saddler and spurrier: Those who manufacture saddles, spurs, and bridles

Scutage: A payment in exchange for serving military service to a lord

Tallage: A manorial tax paid by land tenants

Tanner: Those who treat leather for leather manufacture

Utile domain: Land used to acquire vassals

Vetch: Legumes, planted in spring crops

Wheelwright: Those who manufacture wheels, carts and wagons

Woad: A plant in the mustard family that yields blue dye

That's all for now. I might have some more soon. However I have several books to work through to find some new terms to add to my notes and lists.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 18 Jun 2003 : 10:53:38

Well that's it for now. I still have a few more things to add, but I'll let some other scribes post here, before I take up all the whole page.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 07:50:19

Just four more and you would have.

Here are two terms I found a while back, for those who like particular oriental-sounding names for things when playing monks (like that "rice paper walk" in the PHB):

Munen muso: no-mind, to strike without thought or intention.

Sekka no atari: to strike with no warning

I think they're both Japanese, but since I don't speak it and I had no reference, I don't actually know. But hey, they sound impressive.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 07:51:43

In a thatch hut, there is no real chimney, only a smoke-hole, but that can be useful. The smoke will soon soak through, both drying the straw and keeping vermin out. The smoke will leave a broad stain-stripe on the wall and roof.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 07:57:00

Peasants typically fell into several categories. The highest was prosperous enough to hire help, or to contract with sharecroppers. The second class owned their own land and farmed it with the labor of their family. The third was sharecroppers, and below them day laborers who found paying work as they could.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 08:16:58

The following post regards courtesans. Don't read it if this sort of thing upsets you; however, this is useful for some stories and campaigns. After all, a courtesan is one of the Lords of Waterdeep, and they are in any large, prosperous city. Unless you run a game with a highly Victorian attitude or you're out in hillbilly country, your players are going to run into them.

A courtesan is not a whore; if she were, no man of wealth and taste would bother with what he could have cheaper, elsewhere. Mere sex, however luxurious the setting, is not sufficient for the price that a man pays for a cortegiana.

Courtesans are schooled in languages. A gifted woman might be able to read and write in three or four languages, and speak in that and more. They usually play an instrument, such as the lute, and sing passably. Dancing is, of course, a necessity.

A good courtesan should be well-educated as well. It's no good to speak in the language of your learned client and not have anything interesting to say. In our world, that meant being able to hold one's own with an average philosopher on the works of the Greeks and Romans, as well as the great works of the current times. They would also know the ins and outs of poetry, and write it themselves. (It didn't have to be good. You just had to know it.)

Perhaps most importantly, a courtesan is up to date on politics. She would know more about the secret affairs and plans of the high-and-mighty than any one of them would. Pillow-talk is easy to piece together for someone who has conviced her partner that she is trustworthy. Hear enough of it, and you will know many things that can be turned to advantage.

And as for the "games of the bed" -- *cough* they had to be . . . athletic. Let's leave it at that.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 08:20:45

Moving on! . . .

The miniature barrels that spices were shipped in were unlike any other such containers in that they were not tarred to make them waterproof. Tar ruined the delicate flavor of the spices. They were very carefully waxed instead; caulked with hemp and coated with beeswax, inside and out.

This made them very valuable, no matter that they were so small. Cooks liked them to hold flour and sugar and salt. For that matter�a good many used the casks, with the wax coating burnished into their wood until it glowed, as workbaskets, and for a dozen other semi-ornamental purposes. So even if the spice inside had somehow spoiled, through leakage, or rot, or insect contamination, the cask had a resale value.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 08:22:37

Rules for thieving:

One: case the place till you know it like the inside of your mouth.

Two: take it slow.

Three: go by feel and know by feel.

Four: have a lookout.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 08:23:39

Thieving tool: cable saw. Little more than wire with two handles, but can cut through any metal short of modern alloys, especially soft iron bars.

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

Bookwyrm
Great Reader

USA
4740 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 08:26:37

Now, come on. I'm sure that others are reading this. Is anyone benefiting from this? Do you want more? Do you have something? Am I (and Sage) just wasting Alaudo's shelf space?

Feedback!

Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.

Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 10:49:08

Yes, I agree. Feedback is imperative for a scroll such as this. Both Bookwyrm and I are just posting tidbits and trivia that we have found useful for our own games and stories. Surely some of you as gamers have thought about entering some 'real-life' lore and fact into your campaigns.

Let's see what you've got!

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 10:51:26

Anyway, I have some fresh updates coming. There is a varied selection in this pile, so just let me quickly sort through them, get them organised and I will see to posting them up soon.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 11:53:15

WHOOPS!. Sorry about the delay people but I was a little side-tracked by a certain female-visitor

.

Anyway, here is the first of my new updates. Here is an interesting selection of herbs to use in your campaigns, or maybe if you have a 'herbalist' in your party -

Pokeroot
Native Americans call this pocon. It is a long singular root from the main plant and has a slightly pungent, and drying character and taste, and can sometimes appear to be slightly cold. When grinded down, by pestel to a powdery form, the herb is used in a variety of ways, however it's two main uses are firstly, as an emetic (that is, it can induce vomiting), and secondly, it can be applied externally for skin diseases. Indians of the Delaware utilised the herb as a heart stimulant, while the Virginia Indians used it as a powerful purgative. It can also be used to relief the pains of arthritis, simply by chewing the seeds and berries of the plant. It's useage in 19th century medicine revolved around it's important properties as a lymphatic cleanser.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 11:54:15

Elecampane
A long flat root, the ancient Greeks and Romans, this herb was one of the most important weapons in their arsenal against many diseases and bodily problems. They regarded it almost a cure for nearly every ailment and illness encountered. From ailments as diverse as digestive upsets to Sciatica. It useage gradually grew, as the early Anglo-Saxons found the herb useful as a tonic, as well as treatment for skin disease and leprosy. In the 19th century, Elecampane was regularly utilised by physicians to treat a variety of problems, such as skin disease, neuralgia, liver problems, and sever coughs. It is slightly bitter to the taste, while also a little sweet. It is a dry and salty herb. It was regularly sliced up in portions, grinded into large chunks, and then somtimes boiled to release some of the 'supposed' curative properties.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 11:55:27

Juniper
The Juniper herb has long been tied to ancient beliefs of ritual cleansing. Juniper would be regularly burned in temples as part of the Temples purification rituals. Ancient Egyptian papyri scrolls detail several recipes useful with this herb dating around 1550 BC. Most of these dealt with the use of the herb as a treatment fever, skin irritations, and minor surface wounds. Duing the 19th and early 20th century in central Europe, oil extracted from the juniper berries were regarded as a potential cure for such illnesses as typhoid, cholera and similar ills, even minor plague-like symptoms. The herb itself is slightly bitter-sweet to the taste. It is believed that the berries of the Juniper could be eaten as is, for the effects to take hold, although there is some evidence, that a powdery substance collected from the berries could be just as useful.

The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31774 Posts

Posted - 19 Jun 2003 : 11:56:27

The great agricultural innovations developed during the High Middle Ages saw to it that bread became one of the most important staples in the commoner's diet. The design of heavier ploughs and more well constructed agricultural tools made the main types arable land more more prosperous and productive in terms of food growth and production. The useage of windmills and watermills became the accepted norm to process the grains that had been harvested. As well as these developments, commoners and farmers had began to utilise a rotating crop system. This meant that two fields were planted on the land, with grains and one field was left fallow.

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