>Hokay, I'll recap on my views. Moirades is seeking to become King of
>Dragon Pass in order to eclipse the reputation and greatness of King
>Tarkalor, and to assert his own dynasty's claims over Tarsh and Sartar.
>So, he starts off following in his father's footsteps and tries to marry
>the Feathered *Horse* Queen.
>The first FHQ, "Mother of Lands" refuses and stays faithful to her
>deceased lover Tarkalor.
>The next FHQ, "Splendid Among the Proud" also refuses him for reasons
>unknown.
Annoying personal habits?
>Moirades is by now incredibly frustrated and so he sets his scholars
>on the problem.
>2) The scholars unearth the basis of the ritual Sartar originally used
>(and changed - such was his power) to become king of Dragon Pass - that
>of Arim the Pauper.
>Arim meets a centaur, a grazer, makes peace with a Dragon (or dragonewt),
Actually, makes peace or treaties with each of these.
>and then marries the Earth in order to gain sovereignty over the land.
Hmm. As you portray it, he marries the incarnated daughter of Kero Fin, not necessarily the earth.
>Moirades does this ritual and ends up marrying the Queen of the Wind
>Children of Kero Fin - The Feathered Queen of the Kerofini (was Sorana
>Tor also a Wind Child?).
I like this theory a lot!
>However, the ritual doesn't work, because no one in DP believes it any
>more - instead they believe in the power of the rite used by Sartar and
>Tarkalor (in which the FHQ is the Earth representative and the Dragon is
>the Inhuman King).
Given Sartar's special power, it wouldn't work any more, either.
>So, finally Moirades is so desperate to become King of Dragon Pass that,
>when a new FHQ is chosen, he beggars his kingdom and pays a ludicrous
>price to marry her and fulfil his lifetime ambition.
This far, sheer genius! All Hail the Reaching Moon!
But, true to the Lunar doctrine that there may be no light without despairing darkness, David falls into the other extreme:
>Then in 1610 Moirades dies and is replaced by his son Pharandros.
Why do you insist in this factoid?
There is only the unluckily placed "date" of Moirades' death in the Tarsh king list, and the birth year of Pharandros calculated from that, indicating at this course of events.
>Note: Unfortunately, Pharandros was not such a powerful or strong character
>as his father (or, more likely, was an able man saddled with an impossible
>exchequer and Fazzur's ego) and as a result gained a bad, and even black,
>reputation. Therefore, in the subsequent histories of the period editors
>and writers often supposed that any good/clever actions attributed to the
>*King of Tarsh* must have been by Moirades and not by Pharandros - and
>changed the manuscript to fit this.
Hmm. Or may it be vice versa: that Moirades later mistakes were attributed to his son by his Lunar admirer?
>IMHO this fits into the sources and, more importantly, is a fine MGF solution!
While this does have some More Game Fun possibilities, it lacks Maximum Game Fun for me. I will send the Tarsh ideas I currently toy about with in the next message.
>All Hail the Crimson Light of Inspiration!
Yeah.
But let's look at the sources, too.
The Sartarite sources - Sartar section of CHDP, composed of the Fazzurite or Tarshite account (compare p.100) of the Military Governor era, a short Sartarite account of Kallyr's first year as Prince of Sartar, breaking off after her alleged death at the Battle of Old Top, and a very carefully phrased account of Argraths early years of contest for the Princeship - and the Grazer sources (p.227) contradict neither Minaryth Blue's "Events of My Life" (p.212) nor the southern version of the Argrath Saga (p.28) in that they (led by Jandetin the Avenger) capture and kill the evil king (Moirades) in the first year of Argrath's Tarsh campaign. (Note that the Northern text, read alone on p.28, fails to make sense. Whom did Mularik kill "in the manner of his homeland"?)
I still say that the only date to cause problems in the entire Tarsh section is 1610 for Moirades' death.
BTW:
My current impression is that Pharandros and Estal Donge are the children of
Moirades and Harsta Vostosdotter, Fazzur's sister. Since her birth-date is
given as 1568, I have the impression that 1582 is a little bit early for
Pharandros' birth, though Lunar standards may vary. (Source: Wyrms Footnotes
#12, p.16)
WRT Greg's contradictions: I have no problems with contradictions in KoS after 1621, but I have the firm opinion that in the 3rd Age prior to 1621, there is one definite version of events. Some details have changed during Greg's work on the world, but these did not fork up the events before. Any contradictions for this period can, and IMO should, be resolved. Anything significantly after 1621 is more or less in the realm of speculation. Let's do so.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #396
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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