>Second, the cultural prejudice against dogs is different than that
>against goats. Goats are evil, chaotic, the children of Ragnaglar. Broo
>are goat-kin, goatmen. To understand this, think about the following:
I wonder if this close association between goats and broos isn't a 2nd edition hangover. There are all sorts of places in Glorantha where you would never see goat headed broos because there aren't any goats for the broos to father their children on. The notion that broos may breed true to goat headedness doesn't seem all that plausible. (Not that I'm suggesting Stephen is advocating this but it is a possible extrapolation).
>Ragnaglar has a fairly strong Goat connection
Why?
>To an Orlanthi, eating a goat is like eating a broo -- the
>occasional foreign importation of Walktapus steaks aside, Orlanthi do not
>eat chaotic things. Do you wipe the slime off 20-day old meat and eat it?
>Would you eat a slime deer?
Again, why? Any animal that walks, flies, crawls or swims could be the
parent of a broo. (Broo fish? Hmmmmm). You can argue that this is
a regional, cultural bias but Christians have long associated goats with
the Devil yet it never stopped them from keeping goats or eating them.
(Don't forget about cats and witches either. There may have been the
occasional cat pogrom but European Christians still kept them). Just
because there are cultural biases against something doesn't mean
you won't encounter that thing in that culture. There'll be parts of
Orlanthi
territory where goats are the only domesticated animal you could keep.
I'll bet those Orlanthi will keep goats. (OH, these are a special breed of
goat that Orlanth blessed. No chaos here!)
>I think that most Orlanthi, especially Uroxi,
>would kill any goats that they saw -- even if they don't trigger Sense
>Chaos, you never know, they might be illuminated.
Illuminated animals? You'd be pretty tired if you had to kill every animal associated with broos. Won't say it's never happened but it sounds pretty unproductive.
>Dogs is a cultural thing, IMO, not a Darkness thing. I am sure there are
>some Orlanthi tribes in southern Peloria that do use dogs, or at least
>there used to be. But the Alynx is so firmly entrenched in Orlanthi
>society, and the animosity between alynx and dog is so pronounced, that
>you can only have one or the other. Thus, if I, a good Orlanthi cottar,
>want to keep dogs on my farms, I will never even see an alynx prowling
>around. And do you think Orlanth will favor anyone who rejects his
>favorite brother? Not just doesn't worship him, but actually rejects him?
You're exaggerating here. Cat people and dog people cannot get along? Can you use Alynx to herd cattle or sheep? I doubt it unless the animal is an allied spirit and then I'd expect the rune lord or priest to have better things to do than herd sheep or cattle. There are people in the RW who keep
"domesticated" lynx and I don't believe they have to eschew dogs. Don't mistake a friend and an ally like the Alynx with a servant like dogs. Plenty of people own dogs and cats. Dogs may be reviled and poorly treated
by the Orlanthis but I believe they'd keep dogs for herding and guarding the
stead if for no other reason. I'm sure Orlanthi dogs know better than to
mess
with Alynxes.
There's my doubloonie's worth,
Oliver D. Bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca
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