>Nils Weinander has japanised the Kralorelan names.
Actually 'Sinicized' is the word (from 'sinna' Byzantine Greek for Silk from China). And it was Sandy that started it.
>Explaining this by saying that he thinks the names we use have
>been europeanised. That should be God learnerised of course.
Actually this question was brought up at the recent CON and the names were held to be theyalanised or godlearnerised spellings.
>The main basis of this seems to be to make it more japanese
>(or chinese). I think it is bad to draw too highly on world
>parallells. The lunars ain't the romans.
True, but Elder Secrets does say that Kralorela is the Gloranthan Analogue of Carthay (European POV of China) and Vormain, the Gloranthan Analogue of Japan. Furthermore the myths of both these nations are exotic to most of the readers on this digest.
>Of those that
>are, the geographical ones is a name and the other is "a statement of
>terrain" (can't think of the correct word) like Shan meaning mountain
>and Chang meaning island. Thus Hu Shan would be the Hu mountains and
>Shan Shan would be The great mountains (or something like that).
Shan does mean Mountains or Hills in Mandarin. Lur Nop on the Isle of Fanzow (where all the foreign ships dock at) is interestingly enough a juxaposition of Lop Nur (or vice versa) which is a Chinese Nuclear Weapons Facility. So Sandy, does the foreigners corner in Lur Nop glow in the dark?
Mike Cule:
>On another social taboo: does anyone know if homosexuality exists on
>Glorantha? And how the various cultures react to it?
A lot of the Hsunchen Shamans practice homosexuality as part of the change in gender when they achieve Shamanhood. Most Praxian Shamans are male (due to being Waha Cultists) thus I don't think they practice homosexuality and therefore I do not think Shamanism=homosexual is a general rule in Glorantha.
Orlanthi Attitudes are presumably like the Vikings (where being accused of enjoying the passive male homosexual position is a deadly insult).
For male homosexuality, the Dara Happans practice it, much to Shah CarTavar's Shock (but then again he got what he asked for - Fortunate Succesion). Presumably the Carmanaians inherit this view from their western ancestors.
For any cults with specific practices of homosexuality, the only one I can think of is Dormal }B-). As for the Elder Races....
As for specific cases of lesbianism, I'm ignorant. I don't know how societies viewed it in the ancient world, Aristophanes unusally says nothing about it despite all the other things he does mention in his plays. The Trowjangi amazons get too much of a good time with Tolat so I doubt they are lesbians. I think it's pretty much invisible within most of civilized Glorantha. The only thing I can think of is the Ghost Marriages of Africa (ie it'll be practiced by the Doraddi and perhaps the Fonritians) which John Hughes has mentioned before (ie Woman Warrior marries Woman Wife and any child the wife gets is considered to be a product of the marriage). I don't know whether the warrior and wive enjoyed sexual relations tho.
>And do any of the cultures practice polygamy/polyandry?
Hardly a Taboo subject!
In Dara Happa, the penalty for having many wives is to have many wives. Presumably Kralorela has a similar attitude. The West recognizes a Consort relationship as opposed to a proper marriage (cf the Players Book in G:CotHW). Does this mean that one can be married _and_ have a consort (or more)?
Argrath from his book does marry about three woman, (the Feathered Horse Queen, the Feathered Queen of the Kerofini Temple and the Queen of Saird). This was unpopular with the Sartarites who saw it as a Lunar Thing.
The Darjiinites have practice the custom of Polyandry (cf Plentionius's abuse of Surensliba in the GRAY) as do the Esrolians.
Fonrit is of course notorious for its harems.
>And who *says* Chalana Arroy is a GodLearner product? Cha! They'll be saying
>that about Orlanth next....Easy to sling mud isn't it?
Twas Argrath (aka Martin Crim). But then again Orlanth deserves all the mud he gets and more...
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