- In WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com, Jane Williams
<janewilliams20_at_...> wrote:
>
>
> --- sinisterecho <sinisterecho_at_...> wrote:
>
> > Donald Oddy wrote:
> > > Of course there is also the question of
> > > whether purple is as expensive a dye in Glorantha
> > as it was in the
> > > RW. If so then it is an extravagant display of
> > wealth even for a
> > > single garment.
> >
> > I would say there are plenty of marine snails [Murex
> > brandaris or the
> > Spiny dye-murex]in the highlands of Sartar.
> > Tyrian purple anyone?
>
> What an interesting place for marine snails to live.
> I'm sure there's a myth behind that.
>
> Seriously, there's no real reason why the colours that
> were rare and expensive in RW history need to be so in
> Glorantha. There's different plants, different
> animals, and a lot more magic. In the RW, dying wool
> blue was a problem, as most dyes weren't colour-fast.
> In Glorantha, you don't dye it at all, you ask a
> Helerite nicely and they shear a blue sheep.
>
>
Predatory Murex snails, a myth about them, and their use as a dye
appear in Trader Princes. The Prince of Fay Jee has imported at great
expense a priestess from the Right Arm islands of the Murex Lady to
start up a dyeing industry to go with the existing indigo plantations.
Sadly, Fay Jee, being on a river estuary, is very much not the right
environment for these snails who love deep, clear sea water. They
flourish in several other places such as in the Manirian or Wenelian
Islands. No doubt some enterprising merchant-adventurer will realize
this and become very rich (or very dead after ticking off the Sea
Tribe).
Jeff