GOLIATHS
Power Struggles Because he’s responsible for bringing the tribe to food and water, a foolish or otherwise ineffective chieftain puts the whole tribe at risk. When a chieftain makes bad decisions or is simply unlucky too often, challengers to his authority might develop. In most tribes, a would-be chieftain can take over a tribe by defeating the existing chieftain at each of three contests. The challenger chooses the first contest, the existing chieftain chooses the second, and the third is a traditional contest. It’s an expected part of the power struggle that chieftain and challenger each choose contests that reward their particular skills and abilities, but a contest that’s obviously impossible for one contestant isn’t a contest at all and will earn a shunning from the tribe (see Shunning later in this chapter). The challenger must win all three contests to become the new chieftain. When that happens, the former chieftain often, but not always, leaves the tribe. For safety reasons, members of the tribe feel strong social pressure against challenging a chieftain in the middle of a crisis or repeatedly challenging a chieftain.
If a chieftain voluntarily retires or dies suddenly, a similar set of contests among aspiring chieftains determines the new chieftain. Unlike with a challenge to a sitting chieftain, however, a candidate need only win a plurality of the contests to become the next chieftain. Unlike in many human societies, most goliaths don’t seek power for its own sake, and most regard being chieftain as a grave responsibility, not as something to aspire to. Goliaths love competition, after all, and the chieftain doesn’t get to participate in many of the daily contests and games that make up goliath life. More primitive goliath tribes have only one simple rule for succession: If you beat up the old chieftain, you become the new chieftain. Roleplaying Application: How does your goliath character feel about your current or former chieftain? Does he have interest in leading a tribe himself? If so, does he have a plan to make this happen? Has he ever taken part in a power struggle for chieftain? If so, what was the result?
CHAPTER 3
act as wet nurse for the entire tribe. No child can be picked for a task by a captain until the tent-mother deems him old enough (which often happens around ten years of age and involves an important rite of passage). Goliath folk tales abound of children who chafe under the rule of a tentmother but suffer misfortune when they run away from the tribe and are eventually rescued by a team led by the very same tent-mother. The chieftain chooses the tent-mother and can take the honorific away, although this form of punishment rarely occurs. Lamenter: A goliath tribe’s lamenter has a single job: identify when a particular goliath isn’t being a productive member of the tribe. If a goliath is obviously too old or too ill to survive the rigors of mountain life without assistance, the lamenter prepares a long chant or dirge that commemorates the goliath’s achievements throughout life. At the conclusion of the dirge, the entire tribe moans and wails as the old or sick goliath walks away from the camp, never to return. The lamenter does likewise with goliaths who die suddenly or fall in battle, and then buries them under a simple cairn. A good lamenter talks with a goliath perceived as weak before preparing a lament, and sometimes a heart-to-heart talk with a lamenter is sufficient to get a goliath back on his feet and producing. Lamenters generally consult with the chieftain before preparing a lament and defer to the chieftain’s judgment if it’s more merciful (for example, the tribe is moving to a lower, warmer elevation where an infi rm goliath will be less of a burden). Roleplaying Application: What role did your goliath character play in the tribal hierarchy before he became an adventurer? Goliath tribes are essentially meritocracies, so it’s not inconceivable that even a young goliath could have an important position within the tribe. What were the other members of the tribe (especially the chieftain and your character’s tent-mother) like?
LAWS AND JUSTICE Because goliaths don’t have a written legal code, it’s hard to make generalizations about goliath law. In general, only one law matters: Obey the chieftain, and by extension, the captains he chooses. The system of punishment for goliaths is likewise less structured than it is in many other societies. Because goliaths are nomadic, imprisonment isn’t an option, and fines rarely work in a society where many goods are owned jointly by the tribe. Goliaths who disobey the chieftain or are caught stealing, cheating, or committing other crimes are often simply beaten. Goliaths have a healthy respect for pain as a motivator. Their other primary punishment is social: To a greater or lesser degree, the rest of the tribe shuns the criminal. Shunning When a goliath is completely shunned, the rest of the tribe pretends that the criminal doesn’t exist. The criminal isn’t picked for teams, can’t participate in sports and games, and isn’t provided food and shelter by the tribe. For the duration of the shunning (known as “volok-thea” in Gol-Kaa), the goliath must survive on his own. A less severe form of shunning known as “volok-kanu” exists for minor crimes. A criminal suffering a period of half-shunning is treated poorly by the rest of the tribe. The criminal is picked last by captains, given particularly loathsome work assignments, and receives only leftover food and water. These half-shunned goliaths are allowed to participate in contests and games only if their presence is necessary for some reason, and opponents often gang up on the criminal rather than try to win themselves. Goliaths who assist a shunned goliath face shunning themselves, because breaking the solidarity of a shunning is an attack on the very foundation of goliath society. What is remarkable to a nongoliath who witnesses a goliath shunning is how everyone acts in concert without anyone saying, “We’re going to shun Thotham completely
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