Re: sandy's maunderings from Sandy Petersen on 1995-02-21 (Glorantha Digest Vol 01)

From: Sandy Petersen <sandyp_at_idpentium.idsoftware.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 12:31:26 -0600

Guy Hoyle
>I just remembered reading about an ancient contraceptive made from a
>plant called Silphium, which was so effective that the plant was
>wiped out from excessive demand.

I hadn't heard about Silphium being used as a contraceptive. It was also very important to the ancient Romans as an herb for their foodstuffs. Sadly, it only grew in one area of Libya, and all the Roman efforts to cultivate it elsewhere failed. It went extinct centuries before the Roman Empire did, and they were forced to substitute asafoetida for it in their cookery.

>I think that some cultures on Glorantha must expose unwanted
>children.

Here is my take on this:

PRAX: killing a slave's children is perfectly acceptable (this despite the fact that the child of a slave is _not_ a slave, by Praxian standards -- if the child lives to grow up, he joins the tribe). Some Praxians kill unwanted children by selling them to the Morocanth (of course, this doesn't always result in death). I also do not think the Praxians kill the children of tribe members, just slaves (and not all slave children, just those it would be inconvenient to raise).

PENT: they used to expose undesired children, but ever since the Nights of Horror this has not been done. At that time there were so many women available to tend kids that it wasn't needed (plus they needed to build up their strength), and the custom of keeping all kids alive has been maintained.

KRALORI: Infanticide is considered an evil crime. Nonetheless it is practiced.

DORADDI: unwanted children are given to an Oasis to be raised as orphans. Life there is not always good, but it is life.

FONRIT: Infanticide is widely acceptable.

ORLANTHI: I don't think they kill their kids -- the strong Earth connection would prevent this, I feel.

LUNARS: unwanted kids are almost certainly sold into slavery, not killed.

MALKIONI: Infanticide is a crime against the Invisible God. Oppressed peasants do this in secret.

TESHNOS:periodically the ruler of a city or land decrees that the land is too populous, and permits the destruction of unwanted infants for a period of time (five years, ten years), after which it once more becomes illegal. Infanticide is voluntary, when legal. Note that Teshnos also practices euthanasia, killing all people over a certain age at times when the lord feels this is needed, too.

> EAST ISLES: the White Moon

>Is this the white moon of Lunar fame?

The White Moon is not just Lunar. It is also known by the Orlanthi, for instance.

>If not where did they get the idea of a white moon, as there hasn't
>been any in the sky as far as I know.

But there HAS been. It rose once, during the Godtime. Its existence is thus known across a wide range of cultures. Though of course there's plenty of cultures who don't know about it.

>Maybe the Lunar idea of a white moon came from the east isles?

I doubt it.

Mike Cule

Thanks for the info on the Reformed Hrestoli Church. Though you have cruelly wiped it out of existence in your campaign, I have not, and shall not.

>all this discussion about logical proofs of the existence of the
>Invisible God is irrelevant. You can't really build (as experience
>has shown on Earth) a logical proof of the Supreme Being.

Okay. In the first place, the fact that we cannot build such a proof of a Supreme Being on Earth has little to do with Glorantha. In the second place, the fact that we have not developed such a proof hardly means that we can't. It just means we haven't. (Side note: I do NOT think such a logical proof is possible. It's part of my theology.)

> I'd like to know if anyone has developed the details of Keet
>culture.

I'm working on an East Isles pack, and the keets are an integral part therein. They're the most numerous non-human race out there. Here's some keet facts for you.

The keets are _not_ all in duck form, though the majority are. In fact, they take the form of a wide variety of seabirds. One of the more important keets living today is a doomsaying prophet -- he's an albatross keet.
When the word "keet" is used by itself, a duck keet is always referred to. If the individual is not in duck-form, then it is graced with an additional name, as: flamingo keet, albatross keet, puffin keet, etc. Note: it's best not to brood too long about the flamingo-men. That way lies madness.
Here is the keet part of the God War. Before the Gods War, all the East Isles were part of the Vithelan continent. Then came the enemies of Vithela -- Beater (Xamalk) and Gulper (Uralog), ruled by Tyram, the Anti-Sun. Beater smashed Vithela into thousands of tiny islands. Then Gulper began to swallow them down, one by one. Theya, the Goddess of Dawn, then saved the islands by weaving Theya's Net, a webwork of communication that connected all the isles, leaving them separate, but with an essential identity. Gulper found he could not swallow the islands anymore, because they were all part of one great whole, too big to eat. So he called upon Beater to smash them apart, but Beater could not do so, because all the islands were already separate and individual. So the chaos gods were thwarted and the East Isles became what it is today. The keets? Theya's Net was a network of communication. It had to connect all the various islands. To do this, Theya took the gift of flight from the keets (it was voluntary on their part), and used that to connect the islands. The fact that all the islands are as One and yet are all multifarous is directly thanks to the keets' sacrifice.
There was one tribe of keets who did not participate in the saving of Vithela -- the Pterodactyle keets, now known as Sorns. They are evil, tainted by chaos, and represent the main chaos species encountered in the East Isles. They, of course, retain the power of flight.

NOTE: more about the White Moon and the keets will be available in an upcoming Codex, I hope. At least, Mike has agreed to look at our submissions for same.