unified council and more con tidbits

From: Harald Smith (617) 724-9843 <"Harald>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 09:07:00 -0500 (EST)


  Hi all--   

  Having survived the long flight home, I can report that RQ Con II came off   well. I particularly want to thank Eric Rowe, Shannon Appel, and any   others involved in pulling the thing together.   

  Lots of new goodies out, including the following:   Lords of Terror (from AH) - all the old Paulis Longvale writeups, the full   cult writeups of the chaos gods (incl Krjalk), a new range of passion   spirits, and a lot more on illumination, Nysalor, and Gbaji. Haven't had   a chance to review in detail though. The cover shows a battle between   Halgrim (or maybe it's Oddi the Keen) and Ralzakark.   

  The Fortunate Succession (from Wizard's Attic) - this is the Dara Happan   Book of Emperors and includes many maps and all the imperial writeups   (incl. the Red Emperor). There's about 110 pages total.   

  The Broken Council Guidebook (not sure who will sell any remaining copies)

  The Guidebook To Sog City (from ?) - the guide for the How the West Was One   game. This overview of Sog City helps further the creation of Fronela.   

  Codex 3 (from Mike Dawson) - about a third of this is from my Imtherian   material, plus there are a range of small Lunar articles, Sandy's Dragon   Magic, and an Amazon story from Martin Crim (and a few other pieces I've   forgotten).   

  New Lolon Gospel 1 (from myself) - lots of background on the gods and   mythos of Imther plus the hearthmother cult and other miscellaneous pieces.   

  And a host of other products that I can't remember.   

  Saturday morning featured Greg talking about anything we wanted to ask.   There was a lot of discussion on heroquesting and illumination, though I   didn't jot down any notes--hope the transcribers can do a good job!   

  Saturday afternoon and evening I participated in How the West Was One. The   prophet Notslor had called the 7th Ecclesiastical Council together. I   played the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sog City (USC) and had to

  keep the university from experiencing too many difficulties while we hosted   the council. The only major difficulty from my standpoint came after   Notslor exploded and was taken up into the heavens. One of my faculty (the   Head of the Necromancy College) absconded with the sacred relics to his   tower and the ecclesiarchs wanted the relics back. Eventually, I   determined that peace had to be maintained to protect the interest of the   University, so I entered the tower with several churchmen for protection   and retrieved the relics. These were eventually carried forth by the army   when they (along with two Arkats) marched to battle against the Kingdom of   War. The united army achieved a glorious victory. Unfortunately, the   Rokari walked out of the Council, so the unity of the church was not   achieved. I however, was able to find funding for the new College of   Business Studies and Performing Arts, and was able to make a trade   agreement with the Lunar Ambassador to ensure that all trade with the Lunar   empire passed through the new college--a major coup in my mind.   

  Sunday morning saw seminars on Malkionism (led by David Hall and Mike   Dawson) and on Imther (led by myself). Good discussions in both sessions.   

  The highlight Sunday afternoon (and well into evening) was the Broken   Council. I played Speaking Wheel, the last of the Gold Wheel Dancers. We   had four major phases in the game, each divided into Inner Council session,   main phase, and god-building phase. I did far better than expected. Early   on I made an agreement with the Dara Happans which allowed me to stay on   the Inner Council at a critical point--thus I got to define two myths   relating to the God's birth (the weather--based upon a Gold Wheel Dancer   myth of creation by the Celestial Court; and the father of the god--which   I named as Aether (the mother turned out to be the Blue Moon)).   

  The Dara Happans, upset by strong troll influence and the fact that the   gender was determined to be female in the first phase of the god making,   walked out of the Council for the second phase. This left me as the sole   light representative during the creation of the childhood myths. While I   did not create any myths here, I again kept my place on the Inner Council,   thus maintaining unity and harmony in that key area. The only decision   which I objected to was to establish a dragonewt nest in Dorastor.   

  During the third phase as the Inner Council met, we learned that the Dara   Happan Emperor had been assassinated. This had splintered the rest of the   Dara Happans and the only light person they could compromise on to remain   on the Inner Council was myself. The third phase of godmaking was the   phase of travel and I contributed no myths here.   

  In the final phase, the dragonewts were acting up (the Inhuman King wanted   to be warlord of the council so he could have blood), but we refused their   main petition. Since they had already established their nest, they now had   some 15,000 dragonewts in Dorastor--we moved in troops to protect the god   project. After deliberations, I met with Dara Happan allies. I   transformed myself into a fiery singing trumpet and was placed by my allies   into the god itself as part of the blessing myth. The now united Dara   Happans were able to define the final myth (the myth of the inner self).   Somewhere around this point, the Only Old One was assassinated by the Blue   Moon.   

  So, in the end, She Who Is He was created. Though I don't have the full   myth here, the god(dess) was born in darkness under Kero Fin to Aether and   the Blue Moon. At the time of birth, a swirling matrix of runic powers and   elements was visible to all before a sunburst cleared the sky. The baby   was female.The child grew and was aided by Gonn Orta who used a great   hammer to break open the way for the god(dess). The god(dess) later   acquired a boon companion who was a dragon, sometimes black and sometimes   golden. The god(dess) brings the blessings of the Paradisial Aviator and   the blessings are of peace. The god(dess) brings curses to her foes which   cast her enemies out of the world machine into the junkyard of chaos (one   of the dwarven myths that was included). The god(dess) is a figure of   transformation and appears as a different entity on different days (all   races were included, even the Gold Wheel Dancers) and achieved the unity   of the world.   

  Interestingly, the Council really never broke. So unlike the original, we   did achieve a Council of Unity and a god(dess) of transforming peace and   harmony. It was a very interesting LARP with many subplots. I'm sure   others will add their stories later.   

  I can't say anything about Monday since I had to fly back yesterday. But   altogether the Con was a lot of fun. (And now I have a ton of reading to   do to catch up on all things Gloranthan!)   

  Harald             


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