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, Sat, 03 Sep 1994, part 2 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson) Subject: Vinga again. Message-ID: <9409022208.AA02736@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk> Date: 2 Sep 94 22:08:42 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6017 Original Source David on Vinga's runes: > I seem to be outnumbered on this -- I use just Mobility and Air. I join David in his outnumberedness. Even if she _is_ Ernalda's daughter, she's not a Woman's Path deity, and has no real earth function that I'm aware off. (Compare with Lodril, who has a _huge_ earth function (entendre unintended, but not "withdrawn" -- fnarr), but not the rune.) > But if > Greg treats her as an Orlanth subcult, does the Earth rune give her > anything? Doubtless not. Yet more evidence that Greg's an Evil Sexist (if more were needed after Dara Happa and Seshnela); we must stop him going to all those Men's Mythology workshops. > As for Bryan's thought that she is Orlanth's sister, could be. I prefer her > being his daughter from a one-night stand, as always happens with mythic > heroes, but that hero could be Umath, I suppose. I don't see this as a huge issue; after all, we already have license to confuse Umath and Orlanth whenever we like (to wit, Greg does). > I treat Vinga as a subcult as described by Alex (though I don't forget that > _I_ came up with the Wind Run spell :-). Except that I don't see > Vinga-specific temples (they do have their own separate shrine building in > the rambling Orlanth temple complex in Kilwin). I don't think Vinga temples are at all common, but the reference in G:G to Kallyr's Red Hair Lodge suggets to me that they can form when (direly) needed. Though their "temple" may not be bigger than a shrine in RQ3 terms, anyhow. Alex. --------------------- From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson) Subject: Re: Thaw of Jonatela Message-ID: <9409030016.AA02878@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk> Date: 3 Sep 94 00:16:07 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6018 Joerg and me: > >> Timms thawed earlier, in 1597 (induced by the Lunars). > > [...] why do you say the thaw was induced by the Lunars? > > G:G blames Dona boatmen, after all. Though this could cover people from > > Eastpoint egged on the Lunars, I suppose. > Something along that line. Eastpoint was the first city to have outside > contact (the Lunar moon-boat expedition of 1589, see Jar-eel, p.34). > [...] Yeah, but there seems no direct Lunar agency in the thawing of Timms. I'm not quite sure if you having reason to suppose there is, or you're just blaming them indirectly. elsewhere: > I was talking about mind-affecting spells, something the Lunars dominate. Get thee to a punnery. Alex. --------------------- From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson) Subject: Red-shifted deer. Message-ID: <9409030039.AA02900@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk> Date: 3 Sep 94 00:39:10 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6019 Sandy persists in His Own Private Nomenclature, in particular for C. canadensis, which no-one would get peeved or confused about if they were refered to as "wapiti": > > Apparently you know little about Cervus elaphus. They are > > HUGE and shaggy, with needle-sharp horns, excellent swimmers, and > > they can be mean. Bull elk (they're not called "bucks") make a sound > > during the rut that can only be described as a roar. Joerg: > If this (and your cthulhuid story) is the case, I don't think we have > this beast over here in Germany. True, the red deer does something > which is described (in German) as "roehren", which seems to be somewhat > diminutive for "to roar", but while looking somewhat royal, the red deer > is too skittish to be considered majestic. I knew Joerg and I had agreed too long on this thread: the Monarch of the Glen, not majestic? Maybe the Teutonic types have some other species too, C. scitticus. ;-) Granted, they don't go around charging emplaced artillery positions, but maybe that just makes them non-stupid. Well, not all _that_ stupid. > What I mean is that the beasts of Ygg's isles are the subarctic species > of large deer with spoon-like antlers a sub-average-sized man can walk > under. Is this plausible for a bunch of small, isolated islands? Not many Alces alces on the shetlands, are there? Alex. --------------------- From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson) Subject: Morocanth pin-cushions. Message-ID: <9409030149.AA03441@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk> Date: 3 Sep 94 01:49:26 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6020 Martin worries about: > Re: Morokanth tactical inferiority against missile-toting mounted > enemies > If equal groups of Morokanth and Impala Riders meet, and the > Impala Riders have laid by an adequate store of arrows, all other > things being equal, my money is on the pygmies. I think Martin's probably right, in this example. But the other Great Nations make much less (if any real) use of the bow, so with them the main difficulty is withstanding cavalry charges, which I'd think they would be pretty good at. > My quick fix is to have the Morokanth carry great big > shields, which they can arrange in a circle to protect themselves > from missile fire. As a result, their enemies steal all their > herds, but the Morokanth can track them down and steal the herds > back at night, which leads to back and forth raiding--and the > question becomes "who gets tired first?" If the night raid involves stomping over the entire campsite, and enslaving a prisoner or twelve, the hapless minor tribe should get fed up fairly quickly. The morocanth aren't likely to be much fun to pillage themselves, so there would be the likelihood of coming off worse in the "trade", and/or getting stomped in a stand-up fight. Alex. ---------------------