mnight starts her HotB game this Friday. She and I were talking about some of the reasons I chose the ven as a subject matter for the game. One of those reasons was their distinct non-European appearance. No blondes. Darker skin.

When I ran the game, the ambiguity of the ven sponsored all kinds of interpretations. One group had a distinctly Arabian feel. Another was more Chinese. I was delighted to see people take the vagaries I employed in the book and draw their own conclusions.

For her game on Friday, mnight has been doing research on Hawaiian and Samoan cultures to give her own interpretation of the ven a distinctly different taste. A hint of pineapple. Long, hot summers. Scorching rains. Bare feet on cool stone. Colors, colors, colors. Exotic flowers everywhere.

At first, my head hiccuped. I had never pictured the ven that way before and it took me a little while to get my mind around it. Then, as I thought about it, I started asking questions.

"What kind of swords would they wear?" They wouldn't have the traditional rapiers or scimitars or broadswords. Their weapons would be shorter and easier to carry. Nothing in ven literature says the swords are made of metal: an assumption I carried from my own culture's biases. Discussing this with mnight, she suggests her version of the ven carry wooden swords for the matters of insult and put those away when a more serious matter comes to light.

Clothing would be different. Flowers and feathers. The suggestion of more revealing clothing makes sense in this light. No furs or velvet. Cotton, cotton, cotton. But think of the headdresses!

Of course, the Houses themselves take on different kinds of meanings in this context. Bear and Elk and Fox and Falcon. Serpent and Wolf. Different setting, different meanings, different symbols.

An idea that first caught me off guard, a suggestion that I quietly rejected in my head--and then slowly began to ask questions about. And now, I have a new vision of the ven completely different than the one I had before.

My mind said "No" until I forced it to consider "Yes."

I should have taken my own advice.

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PS: Now I'm thinking about Aztec and Mayan ven, too. Blood sacrifice, indeed.