What we know about Men on Carcosa

[Deleted]

May 22, 2012 6:45:30 GMT -6 strangebrew said:

I think it would be cool if people would share how they interpret Carcosa, especially the lives of the men on Carcosa.

My take on Carcosa, as stated up-thread, is a bit different. Mine is a combination of Conan-type towns (graced with the name of cities) and USA's "Old West" mentality.

Thus, you have mean, wretched walled towns surrounded by miles of hostile wilderness. Villages, thorpes, hamlets, etc.; tend to be small and in very out of the way and easily defensible locales.

The people, on the other hand, are an odd combination of helpful and distrustful. There are those who would kill a stranger out of hand, but most would help an outlander while never completely trusting him. It would take many years before a stranger would be accepted as "one of us."

In the event of trouble, strangers will be viewed as a source of any ill-wind that blows ... an "albatross" if you will.

The common source of food are the bronar, a ostrich-sized chicken like fowl with a bad attitude and only barely less dangerous than a wild animal. Beasts of burden are large lizard-like beasts whose ridged spines make useless as mounts and their temperament rendering them useless in tandem ... so they are limited to single use and pulling carts and drays. Their meat is barely edible and they are only used as food in extremis.

A fortunate town's well-being is looked over by a witch, an elderly woman skilled in the use of herbs and natural ingredients. She is normally treated with respect though they are usually feared a bit as well ... her healing strikes many common folk as sorcery and sorcerers are rightly feared by the general public. All in all, she a combination of country doctor and druid in the grove.

That's what is at the top of my head. I hope it helps.

[crusssdaddy]

May 20, 2012 9:23:08 GMT -6 Mushgnome said:

The next Carcosa campaign I run, the term "men" will be gender-neutral. Some of the races will have distinct biological classes that we earthlings would call "male" and "female" but other races will be hermaphrodites, some eunuchs, some have three (or more) genders, etc. Regardless of biological gender, all of these beings would be referred to as "man," "sir," "fighting-man," "dude," "king," etc.

Just a thought I've been mulling over, to give the sexist pronouns of the 1970s a biological/cultural a legitimate explanation on Carcosa...

I think I've decided to run with Carcosan humans being egg layers. Like, the man and the woman bump uglies and a couple weeks later the woman lays a leathery egg about the size of a grapefruit. In a village, all eggs are kept in one place and tended to by old people who don't fight, hunt, etc. Kids are raised communally. In my world, this means the men and women do most of the same stuff and roles are much more based upon skills, age, and infirmity instead of gender. This also allows a much larger fraction of each population to bear arms and contribute muscle, which seems useful in such a sh!thole. I like to see the chicks out there kicking asses and taking names.

Except the Bone Men, who all reproduce via budding and the offspring develop into maturity within 2 years (not sure if this contradicts any of the ritual descriptions).