Divesting prior death

[Bearcat]

>1. Why doesn't blooded but non regent folk divest themselves just an
>hour (a minute whatever) before their death? (Give the bloodline to
>an ally, liutenant or henchman)

I think that they do everything they can to do exactly this,
however, one needs a priest to be present to perform the ceremony. Some DMs
(not me) may even require an investiture action, which takes a whole month
and so cannot be performed on a whim (if that is what dying is).

>2. Is it possible to invest only part of the bloodline?

Nope.
Bearcat
lcgm@elogica.com.br
Come visit Bearcat's Birthright Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6204

[relve@Otdk.Helsinki.F]

> > True...but it's much more fun that way. Seriously, though, if you're
> > undergoing investiture of a higher bloodline (one that will suplant your
> > own), it is more efficient to divest yourself of your prior bloodline; give
> > it to an ally, lieutenant, or henchman who is unblooded, as a way of
> > cementing their loyalty to you, or to a familly member. IMO this is
> > probably the more common way of doing it (bloodlines being a family legacy,
> > folks would be reluctant to let even a minor one just disipate...)

Let me ask a couple of stupid questions:

1. Why doesn't blooded but non regent folk divest themselves just an
hour (a minute whatever) before their death? (Give the bloodline to
an ally, liutenant or henchman)

This would help to spread their influence, the influence of their
"family".

2. Is it possible to invest only part of the bloodline?

If yes, then does it function
A: in this way that the part divested but not invested will be lost?
B: in such way that the divesting person will keep the other half?

Curious one

[James Ruhland]

> On a side note, let us not forget the example of Peter the Great of
> Russia, whose last words were, "Give it all to . . . ."
>
Or Alexander, who was asked on his death bed who he wanted to be his
successor, and answered "the strongest..." and then died; thus resulting in
the Wars of the Diodachi. Could make for an interesting campaign, if a PC
(or NPC) builds up a big empire, this is a good way to split it up again
(Alexander was only in his mid 30s when he died).

"Old settlements tend tobe in very good positions - natural habours, very
strong defensive etc,especially when you're dealing with genocidal elves."

True, which is why it always pains me when TSR puts a supposedly important
port city (like Bezantur in Thay) along an open coast, with no harbor,
using no imagination. I could do at least as well, but then TSR wouldn't
get my 30-40 bucks a pop, and I'd spend a lot of time on this stuff that
could better be spent on something else. TSR's old motto (perhaps it's
still their motto) was 'Products of your Imagination'; ok, I use mine. I
wish they'd excersise their's a bit more as well in making cities; if not,
then leave out the maps, and put some other stuff in there instead that
they have spent time and imagination on (most TSR writers etc. write up a
bunch more stuff than gets included; leave out the maps if you don't want
to spend time and effort on 'em, and keep some of that other stuff in
instead. I'll make my own; but I don't want to pay for them, and then have
to re-make 'em all anyhow).

"Basically I feel that everyone who controls a city [1] should have
something to be really proud of. It's like who would want to rule over
Birmingham when you could have Venice or Rome. Basically each city
should have about four or five really cool things that are really
distinctive. Especially (and this is where I'm slightly biased)
cities that are supposed to be over 1700 years old with a population of
50,000+; like, say, Ilien. There's enough examples out there that just
culling through a good travrl guide should throw up some nice ideas."

Exactly! Get yourself some good maps/travel guides of Venice, Florence,
Constantinople (most of these will be under another name, but I won't use
it), etc. Also, a quick jaunt through your lybrary's data base will turn up
a list of books (history, archiology, search under cities, narrow it to the
historical era you're looking for) that will often have good sketch maps
and descriptions of ancient & midieval cities (unfortunately for me, the
best of these seem to be written in french, so I cant read the info, but I
get a lot of cool ideas from the maps).

"One could argue that they were retaking territory seized by the Romans
:)"
One could, but the territory never belonged to Arabs; if, say, the Syriac
and Egyptian population rose in revolt in a war of national liberation,
that would be a different matter. Of course, we can get really deep into
the details of 7th century Syria-Palestine & Egypt, and the Empire under
Heraclius, but I don't think that would be apropriate to this forum. You
can e-mail me directly if you want an earfull of this stuff...plus, what is
going on currently in, say, the Sudan, isn't a matter of "retaking"
territory for Islam by any streach of the imagination. I'll stop now. Again
to excersise my pedantic nature, though; the peninsula is called "Anatolia"
or "asia minor" (geographic reference); "Turkey" refers to the people,
country, etc. that currently* exists there (cultural/civilizational
reference). I.E. "Central Asian Turkistan" is political geography, "central
asia" geography, and "Turkistan" political.

*and for all I know, from now till the end of time, but who knows? As my
example of "central asian turkistan" shows, a group can migrate out of it's
heartland, in this case central asia, and come to displace the populace of
another area. Sometimes folks seem to think that only happened in the
Americas, but it's happened all over the world, in just about every square
inch of it, and it will likely happen in the future as well. Migrations
like this could make for good gaming; an entire campaign could be built
upon being part of the mobile populace seeking a new home, or being part of
the populace of a land being invaded by such wanderers.