> > The Telmori transform like all hsunchen into their animal form, not a half human form (this has been so since RQ2).
>
> Whuh? I recall the spells being things like "wolf head," "wolf legs," etc. so that one could achieve a mixed appearance by only casting some of the spells. Am I misremembering?
No your not, RQ3 Gods of Glorantha (1985) had a set of rune magic that allowed the transformation of individual parts: Transform Body (2 points), Transform Head (1 point) and Transform Limbs (3 points). I feel that this was a flawed RQ3 rules approach to a spirit based group. The rules appear to be a carry over from Trollpak (1982) in the cult of Aranea's spider transformation.
In HQ1 (2003) Hsunchen were portrayed as spirit based. The example, Puma People's transformation magic says: "All Puma People have Shapechange to Puma as an innate magical ability. To change shape, a Puma Person need only achieve any level of victory against a resistance of 14. The actual victory level indicates the speed of change, where complete victory results in instantaneous, complete change, while a marginal victory might only transform the hero partially over the course of a few minutes." This also implies that hsunchen have a possible mixed state of human/animal parts.
The RQ2 (1980) Lycanthropes section doesn't actually mention that there is a half human/ half animal form, it says "Lycanthropes can change form at will, taking 1 melee round to accomplish the change. On nights of the full moon, which happens once a week in Glorantha, the lycanthropes must change to its beast form and roam the countryside." and "The lycanthropes include bearwalkers, tiger sons, tusk brothers, and wolfbrothers". There is also some confusion in this section as it says they are all chaotic, immune to magic etc, but this is an early work.
The later descriptions of Bearwalkers, Tiger Sons, and Tusk Brothers mention no half'n'half form, however the Wolf brothers entry says "they are the classic werewolves".
So what is a classic werewolf?
Wikipedia says "A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope (from the Greek λυκάνθρωπος:λύκος, lykos, "wolf", and ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos, "man"), is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or antherianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature,"
So there are actually two types of lycanthropy: change to a full wolf or change to a hybrid wolf-like creature. Popular culture has undoubtedly influenced peoples thoughts, especially with film. It's much easier to have a person dressed up as a half-wolf than to have a real wolf, and werewolf films started early -1913. But there is this other older form - the full wolf lycanthrope. It's found in classic literature and mythology, with both Zeus and Apollo having wolf forms.
My bet is that Greg had the full body change forms in mind for Hsunchen, not the "movie" versions, and that the RQ and HQ rules were modelled to produce the hybrids, with no one checking back to see what was really going on. The "they are the classic werewolves" meaning literally that - from the classics.
On 3 Feb 2013, at 11:40, Eric Vanel <eric.vanel_at_...> wrote:
> -(those cursed) sujects to a Chaos curse which obliges them to become "enraged wolves" every wild days. As "enraged wolves", they can be
> assimilated to "werewolves" and can be half wolf/half human like the London ones.
In my Glorantha (along with Eric's), the cursed Telmori are those that can't change into full wolves on the full moon, but become the hybrids. Whereas normal Telmori become Dire wolves. Your Glorantha as well as mine may vary.
David Scott.
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