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A minor question: in the "How to Tell if You're Verdurian" culture test, it says, "You also like to listen to the sad songs of Lacatur--so long as the Lacaturians don't stick around too long after they stop singing."

I have yet to find Lacatur on a map--what is it? Where is it? And what's so bad about those sad Lacaturians anyway?

p@,
Glenn

Glenn Kempf wrote:I have yet to find Lacatur on a map--what is it? Where is it? And what's so bad about those sad Lacaturians anyway?

You can see it in the Atlas, Z.E. 750, when it was briefly a country (the name is Cu?zi for 'Northland'). Later it was a Cadhinorian province, and even later on a Verdurian province. It's now more often called the Western Wild.

As the region fell into lawlessness, quite a few Lacaturians turned to wandering more settled regions, earning a living doing seasonal work, trading, some song and dance, and some petty thievery.

I see...attitudes toward the Lacaturians sound a bit reminiscent of those toward the Rom, or Gypsies, in much of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In the United States, we tend to think of Gypsies as colorful, romantic, magical or mysterious; here, they're viewed unromantically, with suspicion--as fortune-tellers, to be sure, but also as beggars and potential theives. If you tell someone that they look like a Gypsy, it is not a compliment.

p@,
Glenn