As always, pardon me if there is some source of this information that has already been provided. I have been out of the game for a long time. However, Google only revealed the recap of information on Simon Phipp's site (http://www.soltakss.com/dragon2.html).
Back in good old Wyrms Footnotes 14, the famed Dragonewt issue, a particular piece of material culture was introduced, the Korff. This appeared to supplant the Klanth as the main warrior's weapon. As I recall (since I don't have access to WF14 anymore), the article noted that the Klanth was more ceremonial, and that the Korff was the day to day tool for a Second Stage warrior Dragonewt.
Now, the article also introduced other new material culture, including the Gami sword catcher, the Utuma short sword/dagger of small martial but great ceremonial and spiritual importance (since the weapon also reflected an important self sacrificial or suicidal act), a long bow, and the Chokins and Samarins (throwing stars and darts). All of these made up the very impressive warrior's kit at Second Stage, and, to some degree, would carry over into successive stages.
All in all, very interesting (and great art which I had some of), and the idea of having the central hand to hand weapon as a kind of dragonbone katana as opposed to the more ceremonial Aztec style Klanth was intriguing.
Fast forward to RQ3 and the materials in the Glorantha book (AH RQ3 book 5). Dragonewts get featured prominently (with a great picture, although it did not appear to show Dragonewts as properly left handed), and all of the material culture discussed in WF14 is reintroduced, except the Korff. Similarly, when the majority of the information from WF14 is republished in Elder Secrets, the Korff is no longer in the description.
Fast forward to Glorantha the Second Age and the seminal publications of Magic of Glorantha and Dragonewts: Guide to the Eravsshar. I still have not absorbed all of the information in these books, but two things strike me. First, the centrality of the Klanth is firmly established as the weapon of the Second Stage, and it is also highly influential as a desired status symbol among the Wyrmsfriends in EWF. One intriguing factoid from Magic, is that sometimes (though less often) Klanths are made from dragonbone. However, these are not referred to as Korffs in the text.
I would say that the Korff is totally lost, except for a stray reference in Dragonewts: Guide to the Eravsshar under the discussion of Second Stage.
So, why does this matter?
Well, material culture is more than just the things themselves. Items are also infused with meaning. In WF14, the Klanth was described as an important ceremonial object, and the Korff was described as an important quotidian object. Both, this being Glorantha and Dragonewts, would be suffused with spiritual meaning and importance. However, the idea that two weapons with similar functional attributes, but with significantly different construction would play significantly different cultural roles, particularly for a Warrior Dragonewt is an interesting idea.
Given the seemingly eternal and transcendant nature of the race, I would assume (always a danger) that, to the degree that anything is "stable" for the Dragonewts, the material culture would be very stable. While unpredictable in the eyes of other inhabitants of Glorantha, the Dragonewts don't seem innovative in their inscrutability. I think the most surprising thing that happened to them was EWF, where humans and others came so close to comprehending them and yet failed so spectacularly that the Dragonewts had to erradicate them. However, unlike the shifts and influences that we see in the archaeological record for human cultures (and that I believe we would see similar (though certainly not the same) traces of if we excavated Glorantha), I don't think we would see such material culture change over time for Dragonewts.
Dragonewts are all the same spirits, reincarnating over and over, and all on their personal and collective spiritual journey. Presumably, they formed their material culture pre-Time, and have carried it over, replicating it again and again the way they learned to do it the first time. My understanding is that, unless a Dragonewt is severed from the reincarnation cycle, they do not adopt the ways of other cultures/races (such as the use of shields), and thus, I would see little chance of cultural influence or drift that would appear int he material culture.
Thus, if Dragonewt culture is so unnaturally stable, we would not likely see the kind of fashion or fad that would bring to prominance and the change in meaning for important material implements, like weapons, that you can see in other far more fluid societies (just consider the changes that Dragon Pass Elmali make in "converting" to Sun Dome Yelmalians; I don't think you could see that in Dragonewt culture).
So, my rambling point is that either there is a Korff or there isn't. While it may have been a trial balloon in WF14, there seems to have been a firm decision against it in all subsequent publications. However, there is some underlying tension. For some reason, a reference was not edited out of Dragonewts: Guide to the Eravsshar. Not sure if that is just one of the famous editing issues that has always plagued and will always plague Glorantha, or if there is still some question as to whether the Korff/Klanth dichotomy is still out there?
However, it is a question stuck in my mind (among many others more or less trivial).
So I throw it out there.
Is there a Korff or not for Dragonewt culture?
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