From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 09 Jun 1994, part 6
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
Content-Return: Prohibited
Precedence: junk
---------------------
From: marks@slough.mit.edu (Mark S. c/o Tom Yates)
Subject: Loskalm
Message-ID: <9406090431.AA06590@Sun.COM>
Date: 9 Jun 94 04:32:16 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4457
As Loskalm is being talked about again I thought I'd tell you
how I dealt with some of the issues brought up. Your one true
world may vary.
Land Ownership: My Loskalm is more Brithini than feudal.
Farmers, Knights and Wizards work under the direction of Lords.
Only Lords may "own" property; they are obligated to provide the
other castes with tools and also the necessities and comforts of
life. Hrestoli doctrine holds that only Lords have the spiritual
mastery needed to avoid conflating identity with material
objects. In practice, of course, no mortal Lord could direct the
use of all of his holdings personally, and many resources are
allocated by a Lord's officers or by tradition.
Virtues: I gave them energetic (especially important virtue
for farmers), brave (knights), pious (wizards) , just (lords),
proud (important for all Hrestoli!) Cultivation of these
virtues is one of the goals of the Hrestoli relegion. Class
progression mirrors spiritual progression. Childhood is left
behind when one enters the farmer class. Having learned the life
giving arts, one goes on to master the deadly skills of the
knight. Once knowlege of the outer world is obtained, one must
struggle with the inner metaphysical challenges of a wizard.
Those who have shown ability in all aspects of life are those
most fit to lead.
Is Loskalm bent on crusading world conquest?: No AND yes.
Loskalm is the one major power not ruled by some god emperor.
This means that it has lots of fun "normal" politics (no dart
throwers need apply). Some people want to start a holy crusade,
others want nothing to do with the outside world, still others
don't care; they have other fish to fry. Factions vying for
influnce in the court and the High Council has lots of
role-playing potential. Why should a nation of three million
people have one view on any subject?
Shameless plugs: Most of my 'zine Pen and Sword ( in Pete
Maranci's APA Interregnum) is background material from my
Fronelan campaign. Codex #2 will be chock full of Fronelan
information as well. (including a composite Fronelan timeline I
worked on)
Other Business
Alex:
>On the third hand, note that Loskalm had clearly annexed part
>of Junora long before anyone had even heard of the Kingdom of
>War. They'd probably have made a point of crusading against it
>earlier, anyway, had it not been so inoffensively sub-Loskalmi,
Clearly!?! Could you please quote your sources? I've only
heard that: "Loskalm led in the exploration of the new Fronela
... Yet the kingdom has exhibited no imperial intent and has
scrupulously respected the territorial claims of nearby lands."
Alex:
>Everyone seems to have it in for Jonatela these days, but I
>don't see that much evidence that it's all that stratified or
>repressive.
The three COMMON events listed on the Kingdom of the Jonatings
regional activity table are:
1. Assassination plot against King uncovered.
2. Unhappy peasants threatening rebellion.
3. Peasant rebellion brutally crushed.
MOB:
Sorry to hear about the hard disk crash. Absolutely thrilled
to hear about Soldiers of the Red Moon!
Nick Brooke:
" The Emperor who had No Clothes" One word - Wow!
catch you all later,
Mark
---------------------
From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 08 Jun 1994, part 3
Message-ID: <01HDBIG3PXXU8ZEPML@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 94 19:51:18 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4458
Gonn Orta = Genert?
Now that's an idea! There's an obvious relation since you pointed it out,
but I think it's unlikely that they are exactly identical, after all Genert
got completely destroyed by Kajabor or Wakboth or whomever he fought.
But, Gonn Orta should definitely be a relative of Genert, and possibly the
key to the Desert Tracker quest.
-- Loren
---------------------
From: lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell)
Subject: Cats in Glorantha
Message-ID: <9406090454.AA09239@Sun.COM>
Date: 9 Jun 94 19:53:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4459
Scott (The Lotus Jukebox) writes:
>Most cats exhibit solitary behavior (lions are a classic exception).
I recall a TV show which documented a biologist studying feral domestic
cats. They seemed to be more social than most other cats (lions excepted),
with a small pride of related females associated with a much more
wide ranging male. They were still solitary hunters, though.
> Personally, I think it would be *great* for
>people to have trained hunting cats. Glorantha ain't Earth, have fun
>with it!
Their ability to train cats is probably mythical/magical in nature; possibly
only the Orlanthi (or Yinkin initiates) can train alynxes. After all, lions
aren't charming pets, but the Basmoli can live with them. Earth rhinos aren't
too charming, either, but the rhino riders have tamed them. With these examples
around, arguing about the social life of Earth cats becomes a bit irrelevant.
Sandy Petersen writes:
>Lionesses normally set an ambush,
Which probably means the Orlanthi prefer hunting by ambush to the chase. I
don't think the Orlanthi hunt from horseback at all.
The point about cats being bad as herding animals is good though. Cats aren't
physically suited to running long distances, either, being built to produce
a lot of power for a short time, and then needing to rest. Like the Orlanthi,
always blowing hot and cold, come to think of it.
--
Graeme Lindsell a.k.a lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au
Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra.
"I was 17 miles from Greybridge before I was caught by the school leopard"
Ripping Yarns - Tomkinson's Schooldays.
- See, my .sig has become relevant!
---------------------
From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: Why Loskalm isn't fascist
Message-ID: <01HDBIUVK6ZS8ZEPML@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 94 20:11:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4460
As an experienced devil's advocate it appears it falls to me to defend
the Loskalmi against charges of fascism. "Who would want to be a rebel
in Loskalm?" is a question that accuses the Loskalmi of suppressing
rebellion, simply because the leaders are so goddamn competent. Yes,
they're competent, but it is the kind of competence built of
achievement, not one born from some kind of inbred status, nor from an
expensive education in an MBA mill such as ... (need I say it?). I
know that if I were a farmer I would far rather have a leader who had
farmed in his youth than one who had never lived outside his family
estates, one who had never milked a cow or reaped a row of grain.
Plus, by mastering my present assignment I have an opportunity to
advance and do something new, to visit strange places, meet strange
people, and kill them, and later to enchant them, and even later to
rule them. In fact, Loskalm is the land where everybody has the chance
to follow four careers and finally become the king. It is not a
fascist land, not even close. In fact, the only way to become a rebel
in Loskalm is to advocate an unchanging caste structure. The only way
to rebel in Loskalm is to be a fascist. No career politicians, but
only politicians who had lived a full life.
Summing up, it seems to me that Loskalm is the land of Plato's
Republic, where everything works perfectly, not a fantasy version of
Mussolini's Italy.
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
"Enough sound bites. Let's get to work." -- Ross Perot sound bite
---------------------
From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)
Subject: Language, Thought, and Reality
Message-ID: <199406090556.AAA24588@peaches.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 94 19:56:31 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4461
From: SYS_RSH%PV0A@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com (The Lotus Jukebox)
Message-ID: <01HD95Q2K8W28WXATP@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com>
Date: 7 Jun 94 03:23:42 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4411
I believe Jack Vance wrote a book called "The Languages of Pao"
that covers this very concept. It's an interesting story.
Essentially, some invaders attempted to alter the social structure
of an entire planet by introducing specific languages to specific
groups...and weren't entirely successful. Check it out.
Mind you, this is just the Sapir-Worf hypothesis in fiction, which,
these days, seems amazingly quaint, mainly due to its "obviousness."
Regardless of what the anti-Earthers say, I like to see Glorantha as a
means of testing out the cutting edge of whatever bits of new
philosophy I can glean, from the mundage (media technology) to the
profound (linguistic reality.) Maybe I am going off the deep edge
here, but all the folks I know who are into Glorantha in a big way
(even Sandy, who seems to "live" the world in a much more visceral
sense than anyone else (even Greg) that I know) appear to use it as a
sort of whetstone for honing earthly views. So: in response to your
quite appropriate mention of the Vance book, I say: "Of course, but
where do we go from there?"
--David Gadbois
---------------------
From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)
Subject: Cats and Dogs, Living Together
Message-ID: <199406090616.BAA24658@peaches.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 94 20:16:14 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4462
From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Date: 7 Jun 94 04:12:11 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4415
You can't grow orchards in Scotland? Utah, with a
semi-desert climate, is able to support apricots, apples, peaches,
pears, cherries, etc. with ease.
Crops tend to be quite cultural and economic, regardless of whether
they *can* be grown in a given climate. I was amazed to learn a few
years ago of a quite successful apple farm in Texas (where I have
lived all my life): I had always thought that it just never froze
regularly enough here to support fruitful apple trees, when in reality
the reason was that other crops were more (at the time) profitable.
On the other hand, chile peppers, which just weren't on the cultural
plate twenty years ago, are now found in everyone's garden here.
Cats, on the other hand, stalk their prey cautiously, are highly
solitary, and appear to consider their masters equals at best.
The last I heard of the current thinking is that cats make a mother
identification with their owner. Make for all sorts of interesting
insights into Yinkin psychology.
--David "Has a cat *and* a dog" Gadbois
---------------------