>> I also notice that while the Vingkotlings have distinct myths >> about being on an island and separated from Tada's realm by >> water, the Praxians have no such information. At least not in >> publications so far. There's the arrival of Seolinthor and Zola >> Fel, and that's all they know about water invading.
> Working from memory, but I think that the mythic age maps
> showed no significant water incursions into Prax or the Garden.
Sort of. It shows dry land considerably east of Grizzly Mountain, making all of Kerofinela plus Kethaela an island. There is a bridge of drowned trees between Kerofinela and Genert's Garden. The only forest in the region would have been the ancient Redwood forest of Prax.
There's nothing wrong with the animal nomads being largely unaware of this. Other than the Eiritha Hills, there is nothing this early that ties them to Prax, and this could be before Eiritha was buried, with all the nomads and their gods happily wandering through the Garden.
(Note: read "gods" as "great spirits"...)
> I would note that there are exactly zero explanations of why
> there is a giant cliff facing the ocean along the entire shore,
> or wht the Praxians have zero stories about the ocean, depsite
> having an enormous coastline.
Water appears to be something of a taboo topic, other than coming from a water hole or oasis. Praxians cannot swim, and I wonder how well their herd beasts can.
The Orlanthi have the myth of Worcha and the Trembling Shore which helps explaining some of the sawed-off nature of that coast. The Beast Nomads might once again claim absenteeism.
According to one story, the Founders followed Storm Bull down the flanks of the Spike into Genert's Garden. The flanks of the Spike is a little defined area, basically everywhere in the Middle World might qualify. This could well mean that Storm Bull mated with Eiritha somewhere in the region of the Paps and then the pair of them and their offspring wandered off into the Garden.
For the Tada-shi Eiritha played an entirely different role. They were a group of different peoples following the lead of Tada, living happy and productive lives amid the Redwood savannah of Prax. Since their distant and degenerated offspring, the oasis people, still practice agriculture at the oases, I would assume that they did so already in the Golden Age. Given the redwood reliance on forest fires to spread its seeds, I would assume that they practiced migratory slash-and-burn agriculture, leaving the burnt areas to recultivation by the forest when the soil deteriorated after a while. The Eiritha of the Tada-shi would have been a bringer of fruit, possibly in seasonal cycles.
Tada was the defender of Prax. He killed Basmol, tricked Death by hiding Eiritha under the Eiritha Hills. He also made peace with Vingkot by giving him his daughter as Summer Wife.
I wonder what Death exactly it was that Tada tricked by moving Eiritha underground. The Vingkotlings have distinct memories of both the Greatway area of the Eastern Rockwoods and the Rockwoods west of Aggar being drowned for what would be a few generations of lesser mortals by huge standing waves. Neither Kethaela (with the exception of the Mirrorsea Bay) nor Kerofinela were drowned, and parts of Saird remained dry as well.
The lands east and west of Kerofinela are Halikiv, Dagori Inkarth and Prax, with parts of Maniria, Peloria and Balazar affected, too. Maniria and Peloria have extensive flooding myths, so no problem there. The dwarfs and trolls might not have missed the dry surface as long as they would remain dry and safe belowground. The Tada-shi would have noticed, though.
Tada could simply have led them onto the shores of Kerofinela. Lots of other peoples lived there, some accepted into the Vingkotling tribes (the minority groups like Nalda Bin or On Jorri), others coexisting with them like the Aramites. As migratory farmers, leaving an area for a while would not have been a major break in their pattern of life, and Tada always knew best. Leaving their holy places (the Oases) and their goddess buried would have preserved them from the wet death that covered the land.
> I think there is a storm-age story there that, as Peter points
> out, is quite lost, but could be found again by intrepid
> heroquesting.
I think the Zola Fel riverfolk ought to know something about this. Whether they tell any outsiders is a different question.
> My own version of it would include the giants either raising
> the land or raising the cliff as a wall, erecting guards (like
> the remaining sentinel), and Seolinthur being the only one who
> made it across the wall.
If the cliff has anything to do with the floods (the early one of the rivers, and the later one of the seas), the Spike would still have been rising up from the lands of Prax and the Garden. The Sshorga/Oslira River apparently just dug a river valley, with tributaries leaving north (Seolinthur and Zola Fel) and west (Faralinthor), with Oslira continuing north past Kerofin Mountain.
There is an obscure myth about Orlanth taming the Oslir, introducing irrigation farming to his lands. And possibly breaking its back, placing the headwaters of the Oslir in the Skyreach Mountains rather than allowing the canal from the Sshorg Sea to continue. This is in line with the many Storm God slays Dragon and frees the rain myths the Orlanthi tell.
Your proposed connection between Ronance's snakes drawing his chariot and the dragonewt roads is one possible interpretation. Another would be the identificaton of serpents (or dragons) as rivers rather than as earth creatures. If the Praxians associate dragons with rivers, the death of Seolinthur along with Genert gives a good explanation for the absence of dragons between Kerofinela and Kralorela. Zola Fel had Labrygon establishing the draconic link, and possibly condensating it in the Puzzle Canal.
> That might be where the Elf Sea came from, I suppose. (Or is
> there some origina story for it?)
The horse nomads claim their origin there: http://moondesignpublications.com/page/ancestors-lenshi-kings http://glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Hurfor_of_the_Starlight
but one can also assume that the flooding of Peloria played a role, too.
> I would simultaneously jettison the notion that Seolinthur
> had any kind of loyalty to Genert: I would make him a conqeuered
> entity of some kind. It would strongly imply that Seolinthur had
> a draconic nature.
In the Kralorelan tradition, Thrunhin Da is a dragon, and Sshorg is her brother. To the Vithelans Harantara is just another somewhat tame outsider deity (aka antigod) of the water persuasion.
Personally, I find it hard to reconcile big flying reptile shapes breathing fire and resting in the shape of mountains with being cognates for rivers, like Krisa Yar and supposedly Sh'hakarzeel. There must be some other kind of dragon, too.
I have no such problem with sea serpents that refrain from either flying or breathing fire. Noxious non-fiery breath certainly as an option. This kind of serpent rests in the shape of a river, but may rise from its bed in flood and destruction. This kind of dragon includes Thrunhin Da, Enkoshons and Aroka (basically the kind Heler likes to enter), and may be extended to Seolinthur, Nestendos/Sshorga/Oslira and Zola Fel. With Aroka possibly being just another pronunciation of Sshorga.
> But I see no reason why anyone would want to write anything
> definitive about this. It is something that ought to be left
> open to MGF.
I think that the activities of Lorenkartargan/Labrygon in Pavis, constructing the Puzzle Canal, are tied into this.
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