I'm changing the update day of Coyote (yeah, I know... so consistent) to Thursday which gives me Mondays for Duncan and Mallory and Tuesdays for my steampunk novel, Tall Grass (http://tall-grass.blogspot.com/) So I thought I'd leave some art in place for today -- a picture of Soulspeaker Kurn.
As an anthropologist, it's fun to play with cultures. The people of the Shadowhills Tribe (Coyote's people) are basically a semi-nomadic band; a loose association of people under someone they've appointed (and can unappoint) leader. They move as the seasons and food resources demand it. They gather and hunt and they've SEEN people farming, but they don't actually farm.
The people of Two Forks are a settled culture, and live in permanent buildings. As in any case where you get a bunch of people living together, the first thing they come up with is a lot of rules -- and sometimes very strange rules. Groups with formal social structures (a permanent hereditary leader, for instance) are where we see the concept of gods developing -- a ruling spirit that is a chief over many other spirits.
Soulspeaker Kurn takes his job seriously (maybe a little TOO seriously.) The horn in his hand is a primitive trumpet, used to call the people together whenever the gods send him a revelation (generally it's along the lines of "you should bring more food. The gods are hungry and when they're hungry, they think you're neglecting them. You wouldn't want to neglect your god, would you??")
He's about Tall Elk's age, but Kurn's wife is one of those modest and shy little women who always obeys her husband (the gods insisted on this) and stays out of the way... unlike Greatmother Coyote, who is a LOT of trouble.
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