Bell Digest v940906p5

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Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 06 Sep 1994, part 5
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From: 100270.337@compuserve.com (Nick Brooke)
Subject: Kallyr
Message-ID: <940906075721_100270.337_BHL48-1@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 6 Sep 94 07:57:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 6072

Glen Bailey:

> Is there any other information about Kallyr in other books besides KoS?

OK, then... This is cobbled together from WF#7, "Sartar High Council", and 
subsequent editions of "Dragons Past", with a bit of opinion thrown in:

_______________
KALLYR STARBROW

Kallyr is a famous warrior, a chieftain in the Kheldon tribe, and an 
Orlanthi priestess and heroquester, who is well placed to become the next 
king of Sartar. She is a very strong and proud woman, always trying to 
maintain justice and prestige for her tribe. She is also haughty and 
volatile, easily lapsing into fits of shouting and accusation. Those who 
oppose her plans are accused of being fools and cowards; those who propose 
active alternatives come under suspicion of being Lunar collaborators and 
rabble-rousers hoping to force her hand. This looks like a fear of rivals, 
possibly rooted in her insecurity about her claim to the throne of Sartar 
(apparently a tenuous connection). Obviously she is not an easy woman to 
work with, alienating potential friends and making enemies easily.

As a powerful heroquester, Kallyr is known to have visited a star, gaining 
a marvellous magic crystal which holds power and spells and can lead her 
(or her soul) back to that star at any time. I'd presume she wears this in 
her forehead, despite the Tolkienesque images this conjures up: the name 
makes it too obvious...

The uprising known as "Starbrow's Rebellion" in 1613 was an unmitigated 
disaster for Sartar. The results of the hasty and ill-prepared insurrection 

were a genocidal tax on Duck heads, and the replacement of an incompetent 
Lunar governor with the supremely able Tarshite general Fazzur Wideread. An 

heir to the kingdom was found in the Holy Country -- Temertain the Fool -- 
and installed as a Lunar puppet, setting back Kallyr's own chances of ever 
becoming King.

For a woman with Kallyr's pride, this must have been almost unbearable 
humiliation, and it is unsurprising that we hear little of her for a decade 

after her surrender and acceptance of Fazzur's insidiously gentle peace 
terms. I see her as the brooding type; in the aftermath of defeat she 
probably blew her top and lost all but her most dedicated supporters.

Good role models: Boadicea; Elizabeth I; Margaret Thatcher (!). She could 
probably use her sex to shame and inspire her followers -- "a better man 
than any of you", "body of a weak and feeble woman", etc. Obviously very 
insecure and temperamental. Anyone who's stayed with her through thick and 
thin must be a *real* fanatical loyalist, probably emulating her leader's 
every gesture and attitude (think about Arkat's "shadows").

Contrary to popular rumour, she is *not* a Duck.

____________________
The Golden Metcalfe:

> I think Naveria is actually the wife of Yelm.  Given that Dendara is the
> bright face of the Earth brightened by Yelm (and Gorgorma is the dark
> face - look at the moon for what I describing), Dendara would be the
> daughter of Yelm and when Yelm married her in Naveria (IMO this explains
> why the land goddess Naveria is seen as the marriage aspect of Dendara)
> this would fit the myth.

"Faces" of the Earth? Dendara as Yelm's daughter? What on Glorantha is this 
man saying?

Unless you are a devotee of the Max Muller school of myth-interpretation, 
there's nothing explicitly "Solar" in the Red King's story. The popular 
identification of the Red King with a (or *any*) Dara Happan emperor is a 
figment of the Net. Find one who fits the myth.


> I should really explain my earlier posting and state that my belief is
> that the Dara Happan cult of Yelm is actually worshipping the Sun through
> the paths of Murharzarm.

Perhaps the Dara Happan for "Yelm Imperator" is "Yelm Murharzarm"?


> In many ways this begins to parallel all the stories of the creation of
> man I have seen.  The Galanin are descended from Lofak, the Jenarong are
> from Dara Happa whereas the Hyalorings are from Genert's wasted land.
> Are there any other sources of horse that we don't know about?

REALLY BIG warhorses arrived in Peloria with the Carmanians. These may have 
been descended/bred/improved from original Galanini non-Solar equine stock. 
Another of the Really Scary Things about Carmanian cavalry...

(Stirrups, we believe, were introduced to Peloria at the end of the First 
Age. Kastok's secret weapon against the nomads, perhaps.)


On the flexibility of mythology: I'd rather be able to tell a coherent and 
plausible myth about Antirius, another about Yelmalio, a third about Elmal, 
without having to work out what each of them "means" in terms of the other. 
Any more than the author of the Tain intentionally harmonised Queen Medhbh 
with Madhava (or whatever her name was) from Indian mythology. Yeah, there 
may be common cultural root-elements; but the quest for One True Story can 
only serve to limit the number of stories told. If it's a good myth, and I 
know who tells it, I'll use it.

The various strata of mythologies in Dara Happa are loads of fun, because 
they were all collected together and edited with a purpose in mind. So the 
strangest things in the Glorious ReAscent were consciously chosen for 
inclusion. "Many of the old statements, alas, do not meet with the rigid 
criteria for inclusion in this True Book."


A big question remains: what is Truth? Over to Greg, from the Dara Happan 
Book of Emperors.

: Several documents exist which all claim to be True Lists of the emperors
: of Dara Happa. They all pass muster when probed by the Knowledge Cults'
: Truth spells. Yet they do not always agree with each other. Truth?
: Scholars explain this discrepancy in one or more of several ways:
:
: 1. By justifying and associating the lists until their (modified)
:    versions correlate. (common to the Knowledge cults)
:
: 2. By defaming the ancient authors as deceivers, etc., capable of forging
:    a spell which can conceal falsehood; (or forging a falsehood which can
:    fool a Spell.)
:
: 3. By questioning the Knowledge Cults' abilities to tell the Truth, even
:    going so far at times to call them "shysters and liars unto the degree
:    of lawyers."
:
: 4. By philosophizing about Truth. Olovanus the Wise says that if the
:    Maker has enough confidence and Truth then it will always be so True.
:    Etc.
:
:    Occasionally engaging in the Truth Contest. This method has entirely
:    dismissed many other lists, especially the "Alkoth Emperors", the
:    "Secret Nysalor Emperors", and the "New Paladins" (all of which, none-
:    theless, maintain popularity in certain places).

Confusing, eh? Then again, the inevitable plurality of Truth (even the 
Truth Rune itself!) is described in one of the oldest Gloranthan myths, 
"Uleria and the Boggles".

(On the other hand, how can that myth possibly be True?)

====
Nick
====

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