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  1. #1

    Udam disease

    Both Dah and Ull complain about fire in their head; it actually reduces Udam longevity. My theory is that it's a primeval version of kuru, transmitted by eating brains of other infected humans.

    I've no time for the Ilizu--lost to the Symbolic already--but feel sorry the Udam, clearly a doomed/dying race. The disease only adds to their tragedy.
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  2. #2
    HorTyS's Avatar Senior Member
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    sickness allegedly caused by years of cannibalism and inbreeding.... all tribes have their own beliefs & religions in the game, though true the izilia are more prominent in that regard.
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  3. #3
    The Udam seem to take the role of a small group of neanderthals that have sonehow survived beyond their time with the rest of their people firmly extinct. There only hope if you treat the game as being on the same prehistory timeline as our present is to breed with the Wenja or other homosapiens and via that fix what might be a genetic affliction. Thus a bit of them might survive into the present that is why the adoption of the children by Takkar is so amazingly significant.

    According to wikipedia: Neanderthals actually went extinct 40,000 years ago but tellingly the Neanderthal genome project published papers in 2010 and 2014 stating that Neanderthals contributed to the DNA of modern humans so some cross breeding with this subspecies must have occured. Showing this process in Primal or just a last exceptionally late example of it is you have to admit pretty cool for a shooter franchise spin off.

    PS I think it is the Azilas general attitude of - racial superiority - a superiority that seeks to devalue other people and cultures that tends to make them especially unsympathetic as a group. They are portrayed as the first ever racists. The Udam are cannibals and poor neighbours but just trying to survive if via poor unintelligent combative means. The Wenja whilst robust in self defence when roused come accross as folk that would probably be happy enough to live and let live. However no one is going to tolerate other tribes invading their lands and killing / enslaving their people. The Azila are almost sold as a nation of conquerors who just seem to think they can treat anyone not Azila as fodder for their elevation and the fire of their faiths. Of course I am sure that each group has some people who question these cultural norms but in game terms, especially during a conflict of survival, that hardly matters.
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  4. #4
    Someone mentioned 'Apocalypto' and the Izila being modelled on the Aztecs. I think this is fair comment and no doubt intended to create a point of identification for US players - but many Neolithic societies went in for complex myth, human sacrifice (of neighbours..) and priestly hierarchy simultaneous with early agriculture. Really impressed Ubi put such a lot of effort into their anthropological research for FCP.
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  5. #5
    I guess they made the Wenja more acceptably thoroughly animistic to allow the player to feel they were fighting in self-defence rather than aggressing / oppressing. There was considerable criticism by I feel a vocal minority about the role of previous player characters in FC online as culturally invading outsider interventionists. I think some people are still suffering from post colonial sensitivities and so on and thus read it all a bit wrong.

    With Primal I utterly agree that they did a great job on the research and there seems lots of evidence of human sacrifice in early times. That it continued much later even it is believed practiced by the peoples often called celts in Europe suggests to me how deep rooted the idea is of paying with blood for the boon of a good harvest and so on. I know comparatively nothing about the neolythic period but almost all the costume designs, the jewellery and the craftwork all seems very plausible to me and appropriate in Primal. That fine detailing is for me a big part of what makes Primal extra special even though I feel it is let down a bit - gameplay wise - by the simplisity of some of its mechanics and the import of a modern feeling UI.
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  6. #6
    Yes! My first thought on the Udam was some version of Prion disease (that would include Kuru). Since they are always fatal and the brain is the primary organ attacked, I felt a sense of heartbreak as soon as I started talking to Dah and raiding the Udam. Great, compelling antagonist.
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  7. #7

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