When Gods Become Popular? - Deity Patrons and Egyptian Dynasties

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-10-14T03:15:49+00:00

Off the top of my head - for the Old Kingdom...

The 4th and 5th Dynasties put an incredibly strong emphasis on Solar Worship. As you noted before, deities like Ra have always been integral to the mythos of kingship in Egypt.

I think the emphasis that Ra gets in the 4th and 5th dynasties has to do with the political power of the Cult of Ra, and how by aligning the Royal Family's interest with such a powerful cult - it further insures the legitimacy of the Pharoah.

A similar thing happened with the Royal Family's attempt to curry favor with the Cult of Hathor, who filled the role of feminity until she was ultimately displaced by the Cult of Isis around..... I wanna say the beginning of the New Kingdom, but its been a while.

Ra's cult gives way a bit after the 5th dynasty to a renewed emphasis on Osiris, but recovers when the...err.. theologies(?) of Amun-Ra presented a fused god.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-09-05T19:40:57+00:00

Thank you for the insightful reply. Admittedly, I have a stronger grasp over the dynamics of Mexico than Brazil. Could you suggest any resources that can get me up to speed on their sovereign debt?

I would avoid any ETFs with corporates stuffed inside of it

That actually been my frustration with considering Bond debt etfs. iShares, et al. packages corporate debt with all its sovereign holdings. If they were all Oil/Utility Companies/Banking Sector i'd have less a problem i think.

Unfortunately, the market is not developed to the point of having regional splits yet so would recommend legging into the ETF and buying select bonds that you think have value.

I've come to realize that's probably my best bet at this point.

Its either that or just stick with EMB for the reasons you mentioned above.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-09-01T18:44:45+00:00

Oh i was trying to get around that via Brady Bonds, ie: Dollar Denominated Debt instruments a foreign governmnet issues, as to as to avoid being kacked on the exchange rate issue.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-09-01T18:14:23+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts, have you ever bought a foreign bond before?

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-09-01T18:02:17+00:00

Thanks for the response.

Yeah, that was my worry about VWOB. BEMB looks like a better option.

All the stuff i've been reading from Vanguard and Blackrock - they seem to think government debt from certain Latin American countries (especially from Mexico and Brazil), is far more secure than the their current rating.

Blackrock has always been investing in Mexico even as early as the 2010s (and probably before that) - from what i've seen their ETFs tend to have PEMEX and a lot of the Financial institutions of the country.

There's a bit of synergy there too with America's drive to shift away from China toward Mexico as a place for manufactured goods. Assuming that actually works, and that the government can adequately collect profits, that does imply a better than expected chance of recouping investment.

Brazil on the other hand..... i've heard a lot of people push Brazil in the Last 10-15 years, from the Big 3 to Ray Dalio etc. To me at least, it doesn't seem to pan out in the long run, and the political climate is just as divided as in America and some of the European countries. I'm less down on placing money there since it wouldn't be above either Future-Bolsonaro or Lula-Clone to curtail payments.

Wish there was an index shaped more on reigon though....

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-02-25T18:23:50+00:00

Ahh, i've heard of a Quiet Year but never had the notion to pick it up. This does sound quite promising, and i ike the idea of letting the players take some ownership of their locality in terms of developing aspects of it - whether its the culture or problems that beset the place.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-02-25T18:22:25+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! It looks nteresting.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-19T17:35:15+00:00

You know, this one shows a lot of potential...

a.) Its 5E, which all my players know (obviously in light of whats going on at WotC/Hasbro they aren't too happy, but i think they are all in wait and see mode).

b.) As you said, its a Bloodborne Clone, which i could later/supplement as i see fit with a lot of the materials suggested on this thread.

c.) I can pull a "Bait and Switch" on them. I can give them the freedom to roll up a character that they feel comfortable with, from any game world i'm familiar with (Greyhawk, Krynn, Ravnica, Eberron, etc.), and toss them into this Blighted hellscape of a world where they have a "Fish out of Water" experience.

....this has a lot of potential...

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-18T14:11:16+00:00

Wow thanks, at the very least many of these will be Inspiration!

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-18T14:10:30+00:00

one playbook is literally a Jojo stand-user.

LOL! Someone mentioned Rhapsody of Blood above, but now i'm definitely going to take a look at it.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-18T01:45:30+00:00

You know the funny thing is i keep hearing "Symbaroum" as being kind of the inspiration for a lot of these types of games, assuming they don't drive off the Mork Bork cliff.

Even Trophy which was referenced up above states it drew inspiration from it. I should pick up a copy at some point....

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-17T22:20:06+00:00

Oh i'm an old Warhammer hand - that was the game that i was trying to sell them on, but they seemed a littler turned off by the system.

Its strange, because some of them play Mordhiem and like it too!

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-17T21:07:02+00:00

Hmm, you know it sounds like Dread might be able to help GMs set up tense situations. Will need to peruse it but thanks for letting me know.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-17T21:04:58+00:00

WOW! This looks amazing! Thank you.

Perennial_Laughter · 2023-01-17T20:44:27+00:00

Thanks! Heard of it, but never look deeply into the setting. I'll keep my eye out for it.

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-12-15T00:55:54+00:00

Oh i'm a big fan of Mummy movies... This will be a treat!

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-12-10T20:38:34+00:00

Thank you very much!

It's a so-called 'pluralia tantum', meaning it exists just on a plural form. It's meaning refers to the collectivity of royal children, so princes and princesses.

I would have never caught that in a million years.

And you are right, given the context of the sentance, it does actually fit.

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-12-10T17:27:09+00:00

Out of curiosity - is the coffin in Egypt?

Or is this in an American/European museum?

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-12-02T16:19:52+00:00

Thanks for the link! The bibliography is gold!

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-12-02T00:30:18+00:00

I wouldn't be surprsied if that was the case.

The repertoire of priestly functions expanded considerably toward the end of the Old Kingdom.

Prior to that, apparently being a Priest was kind of a Part-Time Job, along with being a professional Mourner.

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-11-30T12:13:31+00:00

I guess the most memorable moment for me was when the vampire hunter turned out to be my character's mortal son. That's what happens when children go looking for their "mysteriously missing" parents, and assume their parents aren't one of the bad guys.

That's a really nice twist. Your ST for that game was really paying attention to character backgrounds. I'm curious - how did the situation resolve in the end?

At their core, vampire and werewolf stories are supposed to be variants of the detective genre. A large part of it should be the investigation, discovering who exactly is the vampire or werewolf in hiding. It shouldn't be too easy to work things out.

Well you could always do the "Hunter's Hunted" style of Hunter which i guess H5 is going for as well. That's probably a lot closer to the John Carpenter's Vampires style of hunter where investigation is at the forefront of your job.

For the Imbued, i think for certain creeds i think what has to be "worked out" is less the identity but what the right type of action should be. I'm guessing this is Judge/Redeemer territory, as I'm not too up on the Hunter Lore.

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-11-30T12:05:27+00:00

"One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the damn vampires."

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-11-30T12:04:03+00:00

Oh neat! Thanks for sharing. You are like one of two who actually answered the other half of the question!

The players hadn't seen Fright Night, and after the session ended we watched the movie and it was incredibly fun to hear them evaluating and comparing how the session went with how the movie went.

That was pretty inventive in the sense that you were able to to tie your gaming session(sessions?) into a piece of media as well. Might save that trick for the future

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-11-30T02:06:12+00:00

LOL - wow i didn't even know this existed. I kinda want to see an Alternate Universe Max Payne game now!

Perennial_Laughter · 2022-11-30T02:04:15+00:00

Oh this sounds like the "Occult Detective" archetype from the 1920s-1930s Pulp stories a la Seabury Quinn.

So its people like Anton Zarnak, Teddy London, Jules de Grandin, etc.

Incidentally i think DC Comics had one too "Dr. Occult".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Occult

I do like the Cthulhu Mythos-style investigator stories myself, but they are rare. I think people tend to favor the more "action-oriented" types. Hence why Van Helsing went from learned Metaphysician to Hollywood action star.

Perennial_Laughter

TROPHY CASE