Volsaxi, Kitori from Alex Ferguson on 1995-02-07 (Glorantha Digest Vol 01)

From: Alex Ferguson <alex_at_dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 23:09:13 GMT

Jeff Richard defends RQA4 mainly by contradicting it (no bad thing), and says with respect to his discussions with David Cake and co.:
> Actually, IMO opinion the independant status of the Kitori is not the
> main point of contention in our discussion, rather the contention between
> David and I revolves around the status of the cult of Orlanth and the cult
> of Argan Argar within the Kitori. It seems to be generally agreed within our
> little group that the Volsaxi are a tribal confederation initially founded
> by Tarkalor Trollkiller in the 1570's to contain the Kitori.

I'm not sure what is meant by "tribal confederation" (tribe, or confederation of tribes?), but I don't agree that the Volsaxi were founded around 1570. They've been part of the Hendriki kingdom at various times, and the Tarkalor timeline could certainly have been one of the occassions to have precipitated their breaking away from the Hendriki king, and making more independent political arrangements than immediately before.

> Furthermore, [Tarkalor] created the Volsaxi confederation (originally
> consisting of the Bacofi, the Kurtali and the Sylangi - and the Sun Dome
> Templars who received their land as a reward for the service they gave the
> High King) to guard Whitewall and defend against Kitori revanchism.

I'm (mildly) dubious about the Sun Domers being part of the Volsaxi at any point; surely they were originally part of Sartar, later becoming independent, rather than being part of Heortland. Or is this a suggestion that the Volsaxi, including the Sunnies, were then incorporated into Sartar?

> To repeat, the real source of contention has been whether Argan Argar
> or Orlanth is the source of male sovereignity for the human King of the
> Kitori. David believes that AA bestows sovereignity on the human leader of
> the Kitori, not Orlanth. I, on the other hand, believe that Orlanth Rex
> defines male sovereignity (kingship) as far as the Theyalans go [...]

As I said in response to David's ideas about the Kitori, this would lead to a very loose affliliation between what were effectively two separate tribes, worshipping entirely different gods, having completely different customs, etc. (David must now feel like "piggy in the middle" here...) The human Kitori being 95% vanilla Orlanthi, only vaguely allied with the trolls seems contrary to the flavour one gets from the darkmen described in KoS, and certainly doesn't square with Greg's idea that some of the Kitori are (paraphrase) "more than either (Uz or human) at a non-RQ level".

On the plus side, I did like the RQA idea of (formal) troll-human marriages. The given method of reproduction (amateur artificial insemination by donor) seemed a tad prosaic, though. Perhaps instead, a tribal spirit is summoned to do the nasty (cf. Cragspider's patented method for producing ukdo). At least, it's a handy explanation if your other-species spouse suddenly gets with sprog...

Alex.

End of Glorantha Digest V1 #129