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Kara-Tur Supplement for 4e - Ideas?
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<blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 6767460" data-attributes="member: 6777454"><p>[ATTACH]72122[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Well, gee. It is SO generous of you, as one of those elite class of humans known as Floridians, no less one who use a South Park reference as your username, as the internationally recognized foremost experts at what does and does not qualify as a samurai, to inform us all that the Japanese have been doing it all wrong.</p><p></p><p>But, really, samurai is such a wider category than the narrow little box you would put it in. "Samurai" wasn't really a term used until after they stopped being in use. But, at best, it could be a term that would widely apply to "officers" and there weren't any particular requirements of their armor or weapons. Although many did carry two swords which, may or may not, have been of different lengths, they wore as heavy armor as was appropriate for the situation with and primarily fought with bow (or rifle) and a polearm from the back of a horse.</p><p></p><p>Focus on being the best swordsman around was the hobby of a few notorious duelists who ran around challenging anyone who proclaimed themselves to be the best. (And a lot of them didn't even fight with swords, the most famous one tended to use a wooden sword) And even many of them wouldn't really be called "samurai". Only in the later years when the descendants of samurai drove themselves bankrupt and sold almost all their ancestors equipment did they make a big deal about holding onto the swords (and taking care of them since they were no longer allowed to be produced!) and clung to possessing them and being able to use them the best as their point of pride to claim to still be a "samurai" of sorts.</p><p></p><p>But unless you are positing a world that has been at peace for 100 years with no weapons being produced and no one to fight against, then "samurai" for all intents and purposes is simply any Fighter or Paladin or Ranger or Warlord or possibly even Bard who claims to be from a rich family that is or works for a noble. Nothing more distinct than that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm not sure I would say Warlock is the best example, but certainly there aren't nearly as distinct differences between different sorts of mages. Of course, the reason why is because "shaman" and "witch doctor" are words invented assigned to "primitive" people's priests, "wizard" is generally the term associated with users of magic looked upon favorably while the words "witch" and "warlock" are just evil magic users who work with demons or the devil (which was all people who could be accused of using magic in the dominant society of the west). A more clear separation between "wizard" and "warlock/witch" is the product of the pop culture that sprung up around western fantasy since the 1940s or so. Prior to that time there was no clear distinction except that "witch" is generally thought to apply only to females (which wasn't necessarily the case back when people thought there were real witches).</p><p></p><p>Since more clear distinctions in these words is a relatively recent western invention, you really aren't going to find such clear-cut categories when looking at old eastern literature and mythology and even in their pop culture, it will only come up when one is copying the categories from a western game.</p><p></p><p>But here are some links to give you some ideas on what sort of model to consider.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-true-story-of-abe-no-seimei" target="_blank">http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-true-story-of-abe-no-seimei</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreenTengu, post: 6767460, member: 6777454"] [ATTACH=CONFIG]72122._xfImport[/ATTACH] Well, gee. It is SO generous of you, as one of those elite class of humans known as Floridians, no less one who use a South Park reference as your username, as the internationally recognized foremost experts at what does and does not qualify as a samurai, to inform us all that the Japanese have been doing it all wrong. But, really, samurai is such a wider category than the narrow little box you would put it in. "Samurai" wasn't really a term used until after they stopped being in use. But, at best, it could be a term that would widely apply to "officers" and there weren't any particular requirements of their armor or weapons. Although many did carry two swords which, may or may not, have been of different lengths, they wore as heavy armor as was appropriate for the situation with and primarily fought with bow (or rifle) and a polearm from the back of a horse. Focus on being the best swordsman around was the hobby of a few notorious duelists who ran around challenging anyone who proclaimed themselves to be the best. (And a lot of them didn't even fight with swords, the most famous one tended to use a wooden sword) And even many of them wouldn't really be called "samurai". Only in the later years when the descendants of samurai drove themselves bankrupt and sold almost all their ancestors equipment did they make a big deal about holding onto the swords (and taking care of them since they were no longer allowed to be produced!) and clung to possessing them and being able to use them the best as their point of pride to claim to still be a "samurai" of sorts. But unless you are positing a world that has been at peace for 100 years with no weapons being produced and no one to fight against, then "samurai" for all intents and purposes is simply any Fighter or Paladin or Ranger or Warlord or possibly even Bard who claims to be from a rich family that is or works for a noble. Nothing more distinct than that. I'm not sure I would say Warlock is the best example, but certainly there aren't nearly as distinct differences between different sorts of mages. Of course, the reason why is because "shaman" and "witch doctor" are words invented assigned to "primitive" people's priests, "wizard" is generally the term associated with users of magic looked upon favorably while the words "witch" and "warlock" are just evil magic users who work with demons or the devil (which was all people who could be accused of using magic in the dominant society of the west). A more clear separation between "wizard" and "warlock/witch" is the product of the pop culture that sprung up around western fantasy since the 1940s or so. Prior to that time there was no clear distinction except that "witch" is generally thought to apply only to females (which wasn't necessarily the case back when people thought there were real witches). Since more clear distinctions in these words is a relatively recent western invention, you really aren't going to find such clear-cut categories when looking at old eastern literature and mythology and even in their pop culture, it will only come up when one is copying the categories from a western game. But here are some links to give you some ideas on what sort of model to consider. [URL]http://coolinterestingstuff.com/the-true-story-of-abe-no-seimei[/URL] [URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_(shaman)[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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