Well, the base assumption for the covenant is that the mixed-religion community found a way to peacefully co-exist and prosper for decades, and that it is only due to the heavy losses of Las Navas de Tolosa that we're once again experiencing religious head-butting. So, for the purposes of the campaign, the important point is that they have somehow dealt with this before.
On the other hand, as an outsider, I'm curious to know.
Nope, Muslim butchered food ain't kosher. Usually in small villages the rebbe functions does the butchering, because a shochet has to be a pious Jew trained in Rabbinic law.
Preparing food is its own melachah, separate from making fire. Even with a hotpot it's still forbidden. I think even super Orthodox Jews are okay with reheating food that was cooked before Shabbat (using a fire that was lit before Shabbat) though. But you can't change the state of food, like going from raw asparagus to broiled asparagus, or from flour to bread, etc.
I know a guy who turns on his oven Friday night and leaves it on all through Shabbat because technically it's only kindling a fire that's forbidden.
So Orthodox people have a big dinner early Friday evening, and you can leave a fire burning from the night before and reheat leftovers on it.
This is all very fascinating. If we as a troupe really want to get into the nitty-gritty details, I'm all for it.
The one glaring question that needs answered is Azura going on the refugee mission? It's been established that it is on the Jewish sabbath. She has the pious (major) flaw.
I'm pretty sure Arya said that Azura would be joining the group after sundown that day. rummagerummage Ah.
So...I'm guessing, technically, no, unless it takes longer than we expect it to.
That topic is a hot mess.
The easy way to handle it is to say the whole covenant eats all vegetarian meals. more realistically there'd be a halal butcher and cook, and a kosher chef (with the rabbi or a proper shochet killing meat for Jewish meals), and the Christians would have to be okay with no pork, anywhere, ever.
Nope. She's pious in the letter of the law, not the spirit. So it's possible she could go the whole way, laying down a network of food spaced about half a mile apart.
The Pious flaw is to compensate for not being able to take the Outsider flaw. She's not super religious; she's super anal. The flaw is to reflect the negative impact of the truly bizarre things she does to keep the letter of rabbinic law
I believe it has already been established that Azura has obtained some Arcane Connection which she will use to join the party if they are still at it by nightfall.
Hrm, that's tricky. Since it seems like Arya was raised Jewish, at the very least, then I can certainly empathize with the frustration she must feel when we get details wrong. I can't tell you how many times I have ranted about the way gamers think about polytheistic religions, all because of D&D. I also don't want her superior knowledge to become an impediment to gameplay, but neither do I want to play Hebrew characters inaccurately (especially in front of somebody who knows better) when I have the resources to do a better job.
How about if we start a distinct thread for discussions about the differences between real-world religion and the way that we're playing the characters? Meanwhile, in the saga threads, we play our characters as best we understand, and if something comes up that we know is anachronistic, we post it in the real-world thread? Actually, that could be fun to do for all sorts of things, since there's a lot of historic and geographic knowledge which I am horribly abusing for this campaign. We could label the threads RL:, like RL:Judaism, RL:Geography, etc.
While I'm at it, I should probably make another thread for Spot the Reference....
That works pretty well, actually. There was all the necessary support staff to handle the butchering and cooking, but they've died, and the covenant has gone vegetarian while trying to figure out what to do about it.
Note that we have a Muslim Animal handler:
It's been established that Farihah has a pig named Hen that she's very fond of.
So, we can get halal meat, but couldn't get kosher. The Christians didn't have a butcher of their own. The Muslims have not been eating meat, in a rare show of solidarity amongst the animal-herding populace.
Hrm....if that's the case, then we need to be clear about when she is being asininely literal, and when the player's are being factually informative.
We could call it The Great Easter Egg Hunt
Actually, yeah, a vegetarian covenant makes a lot more sense than I thought before. I forgot that in medieval times most people were too poor to eat meat all that often anyway-- vegetarian food is safe all around, and in the 13th century no one's going to say "No way! You can take away my meat when you rip my canines from my jaws!"
Dropping little bits of food every half mile would be the character being asininely literal. If she suggested the rabbi come along "because technically the places are linked" would get her a raised eyebrow and a tsk tsk. Actually I thought about bringing along a boundary maven as a grog
Everything else was just facts.
I had said previously, when you mentioned your character was flaky, that you needed to be extremely descriptive of your character's intentions. This is a really good example of why you should be descriptive, and allow us to roleplay as a troupe around your character.
Let's not call that Pious[1], and instead call it Dutybound[2], and while it's normally a minor personality flaw, I don't see a reason it can't be major. It fits your character concept, and if everyone's good with that, let's call it that.
I will point out that the council meeting was going to happen after sundown on Friday, and you will have an issue there. Whether or not that changes when Jamie finds out there are two Jewish magi will be entirely up to the GM, although there's some time discontinuit since the explore labs thread was supposed to occur on Thursday according to the game log, and both of us originally arrived on Friday afternoon. Ra'am was deliberately transported back in time. Azura's situation was a bit less clear on when she actually appeared.
[1]Pious:You are a fervent follower of your religion. You avoid the things it prohibits, and enthusiastically do the things it commands.
[2]Dutybound: You adhere to a restrictive code of conduct that forbids certain behavior, probably including prohibitions against lying, killing prisoners, stealing, and other occasionally useful actions. You follow this code out of guilt or fear rather than high-flown moral standards, and may spend more time justifying yourself than keeping your conduct pure.
Originally I had hoped to bring along a rabbi character to make things work out better. But then it seemed there was already a conflict with two other people also playing rabbis, so I scrapped that. In medieval times, and still today even, most Jews didn't know a whole lot about rabbinic law. If you thought something was questionable then you asked a rabbi. So Jewish covenfolk might do all sorts of things that are forbidden, unless a rabbi taught them otherwise. (Intentional sin is treated differently than unintentional sin, for the most part.) As technology has progressed, more and more of it is up to individual interpretation (you can't drive a car on sabbath because it's got a combustion engine, but what about electric cars? is turning on electric lights really "making a fire"? what if you know for a fact your electricity comes from hydropower and never involves kindling fire at all? and what about battery-powered flashlights? can you take the bus to synagogue on shabbat? if you do, do you have to stop and ask the bus driver whether or not he's jewish so you know whether or not he's intentionally sinning to benefit you? etc etc), but in medieval times it's all pretty cut and dry, since everyone's pretty much orthodox.
Aha! Actually, yes, that description does seem much more accurate. "Piety" comes from pietas which is Latin for duty, but in usage it tends to mean more the spirit of it than the act, so dutybound does sound much more accurate.
Now I really want Azura to go along and do some truly strange boundary-maven stuff to justify how she's not actually "leaving her place" on Shabbat. Who plays the rabbi? He should totally chastise her for the impertinence
I'm more than willing to let anyone have Ibrahim, or if you want to have a Rabbi, Ibrahim can go back, or enjoy retirement at Cijara, study medicine under Esteban, whatever. I brought him because it was important that Ra'am have one, and he wouldn't know if there was one where he was going.
Sounds good If I play Abraham, I can keep all my rabbinic law commentary entirely in-character
p.s. Oh yes, Azura is, like most Mercere, a tramp "It's not adultery because I'm not married."
Dutybound indeed
Abraham's the Warder. Ibrahim's the one that came with Ra'am. Confusing, isn't it?
Abraham's the Warder. Ibrahim's the one that came with Ra'am. Confusing, isn't it?
Eh? Ibrahim is an Arabic name. Isn't the rabbi Jewish? Could make it "Avram" to distinguish the two, it's technically the same name but it would help us distinguish them OOC.
Sounds good If I play Abraham, I can keep all my rabbinic law commentary entirely in-character
Hey, if you want to play Abraham Warder, he's free, and J.L can continue to play Ibrahim.