Pterodactyl keets

From: Dave Pearton <pearton_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 14:34:10 -0800 (PST)


Sandy mentioned that there were chaos tainted Pterodactyl Keets in the East Isles. While I like the idea that there are Keets who did not contribute to Theya's net and consort with chaos, etc, I don't like the fact that they are Pterodactyls.

Consider that all other keets are based on bird analogues, eg ducks, albatrosses, puffins (?) and flamingos whereas the Pterodactyl is a reptile analogue (it's been a while since I studied that era so I forget what the flying "dinosaurs" were called). While this does serve to distinguish them I don't feel that it has much mythical or logical justification. I fail to see why just one tribe of keets should be saurian, particularly in view of the fact that RW evolution has no parallel in Glorantha. Also, the dinosaur-like creatures are generally associated with things draconic, not chaotic.

There are plenty of extremely nasty sea-birds that one can use, the Frigate Bird springs to mind. This is a particularly nasty peicew of work, much given to stealing eggs and killing the young of other birds so I think they would be very good models. They also look the part - black with a bright red pouch at the throat.

Of course the change to pterodactyl keets could have occured after the association with chaos but given the saurian-dragon connection I'm not altogether happy with that explanation.

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