"Man Rune," Open Seas

From: Stephen Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 16:47:39 EST


Peter Metcalfe:
>But the _fact_ that the mostali are human based and use sex to
>procreate does imply that they are descended from the Man Rune.
>If they had a seperate origin then why were they chosen to have
>two arms and two legs, two eyes, a mouth etc? Why not something
>like the trimanes or the gobblers or the tinimits? In this case
>Occam's razor indicates that there is an omission (aka Gold Mostali
>software upgrade to prevent occurence of openhandism) of anything
>resembling Grandfather Mortal from the myths than the complete
>absence of grandfather mortal in the actual making of the mostali.

It could also indicate that the dwarfs, the Clay Mostali, were deliberataly built in the shape of human beings -- as a fast-reproducing species, they would be a good model to use, since quick replacements is what the Mostali sought here.

>On a related note, I'm very suspicious about the myths which has
>Kyger Litor copulating with 'the man-rune' to begat the race of Uz.
>I do not believe that the original Uz myths would have such a
>mention in them.

I agree with you here, though I think there was once a Primal Troll figure to go along with Kyger Litor, her first husband. I even have a suspicion of who it is: Vivamort (from before he became a vampire). And this is why it is no longer mentioned or possibly even remembered -- would _you_ tell your children this story, even if it was true?

>If anything they would follow the Rathori women
>and claim that Kyger Litor and Korasting were (note past tense) so
>fertile they could begat children without men. That would remove
>at a stroke any human connection yet it changes not the fact that
>the Uz are descended from the man-rune.

Um, Grandfather Mortal is only claimed as a _human_ by humans -- I think you are showing a personal or at least Orlanthi bias here. For the trolls, "Grandfather Mortal" was certainly a troll, for the elves (if applicable) an elf-type being, etc. The Agimori claim that the "Man Rune" ancestor was better and greater than any species of human on Glorantha, though they claim they are the closest to that ideal.

Paavo Raappana (yet another loyal Finn) asks:
>As far as i know, no other cult teaches "Open Seas" ceremony, but do
they
>anyway? There are Tsankst-worshipping pirates of Vormain and
>Kogag-worshipping sailor trolls of Jrustela for example. What about
>mostali-sailors (from Slon) with their ships made of stone.
>Is Dormal's "Open Seas" the only way to penetrate the Closing, how do
the
>other cults and other-god-than-Dormal-worshipping sailors do it?

While, Dormal's cult probably claims that everyone else stole the secret. In my write-up of the Kogag cult (sadly, bumped out of Drastic: Darkness due to space reasons; look for it in Drastic: Water), a cult hero was one of Dormal's companions, but he stole the secret and is one of the founders of the modern Koagag cult. I imagine the Tsankth have their own secrets whcih allow them to travel on the seas. I would bet that the Mostali saw what Dormal did, and were able to quickly reverse-engineer an equivalent (but, of course, superior) sorcery spell in short order. I am not sure how the elves do it, though -- since their ships are made of living trees, perhaps they can bypass the Closing because they register on it as floating vegetation, not ships?

>Does the Closing affect the seaborn cultures such as Waertagi too, or
was it
>just to keep the land-dwellers out from the open seas and was the
Closing
>as powerful in Pamaltela and in Eastern Islands (they are pretty far
from
>Brithos) as it was in Genertela?

By all accounts, the Closing most definitely affected the Waertagi, though this may have been an accident. Pamaltela and the East Isles were as strongly hit as anywhere else, though the East Islanders, because of their unique cosmology and magics, seem to have been able to sail within the islands without too much trouble. The same occurred within many mostly-enclosed bays throughout Glorantha, including the bay at Sog City, Choralinthor Bay in Kethaela, and the Marthino Sea (do I remember rightly?) in coastal Pamaltela.

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

- -----------------------------------------------
The Book of Drastic Resolutions
drastic_at_juno.com

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