For me Glorantha is a game setting first and foremost (I also use it as a playground for my studies in sociology and myth). Thus, very abstract or irrelevant threads (gods' self-awareness and rotten fish frinstance) should be discontinued more quickly or carried on via personal email. Of course, what people find interesting varies widely. The recent postings on conflict levels in Prax, Trollkin Features and John Hughes' Far Point stuff are very good examples of things that should be contributed, and so are my own postings on the aspects on gods (otherwise I wouldn't have posted them (the skald thread lived too long though)).
So people should contribute stuff like explaining how the societies and cults of glorantha function and their relations with other groups, and so on. Anything that makes the world more real is welcome, like fiction. It is a game setting and the object of the digest should be to explore and explain this game setting. Whether gods are self-aware or not is totally inane, as most people already have their own opinions.
No posting should be allowed to claim to be the Truth of Glorantha, as there is no such thing. Personal truth, yes, but not claims to absolute Truth.
I'll propably take some flak for this, but that's OK.
Another thing. If it's possible it would be a good thing if the existence and address of the digest could be printed in the official glorantha products and in the gloranthan magazines, as Tales and Codex. I didn't have an easy time finding the digest and I think such help would be very welcome for other gloranthaphiles with net access.
And now for something completely different...
Jeff Richard wondered about orlanthi tribal kings and their households.
As orlanthi society isn't ruled by hereditary rulers, the chieftains
should be more on the lines of the celtic ones - eloquent, smart, able
and just. If you haven't amassed the status and renown necessary to get
people to listen to you and see the wisdom of your ways then you are not
leader material among the orlanthi.
This also means that the chieftains are leaders and not rulers. They have
to get the consensus of the clan or tribe to be able to lead, as they
don't have the military might or societal power to make them obey (and if
they tried to be rulers they'd soon have a major uprising to deal with -
lokmaydism is not tolerated).
I think the majority of the orlanthi see their chieftain as the best of them and most able to lead. To be recognised as the best and most able, you need wealth, renown, prowess and personality (not necessarily in that order). You don't have to be high in cult ranking, but you propably already have high rank, to have all this renown. The chieftains's function should be to mediate in conflicts among his people, to be first speaker at the allthings/moots, to lead the people in war if the thing has agreed to go to war, and to redistribute the surplus of the clan to those of the clan who needs it and to support his fulltime warriors, the huscarls. Doubtless, there are other functions that I haven't thought of.
The chieftain is the head of the clan ring, where he listens to the advice of the Lawspeaker and the Godi and the other ring members.
The chieftain could lead some of the yearly clan or tribal rituals (at least those that have primarily secular purpose - like war preparation rituals), as the welfare of the chieftain is a symbol of the welfare of the clan. If the chieftain is unfit, the clan will suffer. In Far Point there is a festival in Fire Season around Orlanth's holy day where the clan chieftain is tested in different ways - drinking, fighting, archery, riding and so on - to insure that he (or she) is fit to be chieftain. This is more or less only a physical test. The mental abilities of the chieftain isn't tested during this festival. And it actually isn't necessary. If the chieftain isn't smart, eloquent and charismatic enough a new chieftain will soon be elected.
The chieftain isn't revered the same way that a holy person or hero is. On the other hand, the holy person or hero doesn't get the respect the chieftain gets. Of course, a hero can become a chieftain quite easily.
A tribal king must be more politic than a chieftain, as on a tribal level there is bound to be oodles of conflicts between the clans, but i'd think that otherwise it's basically the same.
I'd love to see other views on this topic, as this could become an interesting thread indeed.
Salvete,
Michael Raaterova.
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