Nonetheless, she is considered the wife for most peasant women. Consider the ancient Greeks. Hera, Zeus' wife, was goddess of housewives, but Zeus wasn't god of husbands.
>Who was Lodril's wife?
Asrelia.
anonymous
>Greg Stafford is the Crimson Bat of the RuneQuest community
An enlightening surmise.
Rich Staats
>well trained, disciplined military folks follow orders to retreat
>and surrender
This is an ideal, not always reached even in modern times. And there is a darker, flip side to it. "Well-trained, disciplined military folks" presumably are expected to _not_ retreat, and to _not_ surrender, when so ordered. However, in this much more typical situation (which is also more like the DI Humakti dude's situation, since I don't recall anyone ordering him to retreat), we see numerous examples of soldiers failing their leaders, from Wainwright's surrender in the Philippines against MacArthur's orders to Von Paulus' surrender in Stalingrad against Hitler's orders to J. Johnston's surrender of the Army of Tennessee to Sherman against Jeff Davis' orders. Note that neither Wainwright, Paulus, nor Johnston are blamed for their surrender by most military commentators. (Though Paulus does get blamed for his failure to break out from Stalingrad - -- because he was _obeying_ Hitler's orders!)
Anyway, my point is that even in modern times we have heaps of examples of folks disobeying their orders. And while a soldier is supposed to surrender when he's told to, if an officer told his men to obey an obviously wrong order, you're supposed to disobey. Even the Nazi army ordered its men to disobey illegal orders. That's why William Calley's men aren't off the hook for the My Lai massacre.
In Glorantha, with widely variant warrior traditions, the option of disobedience is even more present. I have always assumed that Orlanthi war leaders engage in lengthy orations to their men before a battle to whip them up into a frenzy and give them confidence. Presumably the Lunar army, more harshly disciplined and composed of professional careerists (unlike the Orlanthi "summer soldiers"), simply orders its men into combat.
I picture the Yelmalion phalanxes as less harshly disciplined than the Lunar armies, but the soldiers do not prize individual courage and action. They obey because they wish to do so, and because they fear the reaction of their peers should they not.
> Personally, I picture the Humakti and the Yelmalians as both
>representing very professional standards within the brotherhood of
> arms.
"Yelmalio trains soldiers, Humakt builds heroes" But of course the various Humakti temples vary enormously in their styles. Some are outright hiring halls for mercenary units, while others serve the local clans (who send their Humakti thanes there for worship services).
Rich gives an example in which he himself was angry at one of his lieutenants who refused to leave his men when injured. Clearly any good Sword will care for the health of his men, and if one of them is injured, he'll send him out of the fight, rather than let him die. But if the tactical situation is different and he needs that man, he's perfectly willing to let him die. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Humakti are more willing to let their men die than a modern American officer.
Interesting side note on surrendering (nothing to do with Glorantha, so just bleep over it if you don't care about soldiery):
Before World War II, the US Army engaged in a lot of military maneuvers, and helped perfect their style of warfare. These maneuvers were highly successful (especially the one in Louisiana, where Generals Patton and MacAuliffe came to fame) in most regards. Except for one. Whenever a unit was surrounded or its situation was otherwise hopeless, the referees decreed that it was out of the battle and it had to stop fighting. The result: the soldiers in the US Army were. in effect, trained to surrender. And as a result, US soldiers in the early part of the war tended to surrender more than other armies (except the Italians!) when they were surrounded. They had been taught to do so, after all. *sigh* (Note: this was not the case when fighting the Japanese, who were known to be non-signators of the Geneva Convention.)
Truls Parsson
>My sources implies that the white moon is about to rise for the
>first time. [when I had stated that it rose once during the Godtime]
Hmm. Perhaps I'm getting it mixed up with the Blue Moon which also rose once (visibly) in the Godtime.
You know, come to think of it, the White Moon may only be a Potential recognized by many cultures. I know that the East Islanders expect it to rise someday. But for now it dwells in the land of dreams, where it counteracts the evil influence of the Black Moon (which everyone hopes never rises). Note: the East Islanders are NOT dualists.
>Earlier you mentioned the White moon as the psychopomp of the East
>Isles now you say this is Yelm's primary function.
I misspoke. Yelm is Lord of the Dead in the East Isles, not really a psychopomp. The difference is partially semantic, I suppose.
IT'S TIME FOR A MONSTER! DUOCANTH (Kralorela)
The duocanth is vaguely reptilian in nature, with a mottled hide. Atop a short dumpy body is a crescent-shaped head, with eyes spaced evenly around the outer curve of the crescent. The beast's shark-like mouth is just below the crescent rim. Around the base of the body sprout six boneless limbs. By tradition, three of them are termed "tentacles". These three are long, muscular, and ridged for gripping. The other three are termed "tails". These three are shorter, stouter, with a cluster of spikes near the end, plus a stinger-tip. The scales on the duocanth's body are huge and spiny.
Duocanths are amphibians, able to breathe both air and water.
characteristic average STR (6-15)d6 21-53 Move 2/6 swimming CON 4d6+6 20 Hit Points 21-37 SIZ (6-15)d6 21-53 Fatigue 41-73 INT 1d6+12 15-16 POW 3d6+12 22-23 DEX 3d6+6 16-17 hit location (d20) pts tentacle 1 01-02 6/7 to 6/13 (.33) tail 1 03-04 6/6 to 6/10 (.25) tentacle 2 05-06 6/7 to 6/13 (.33) tail 2 07-08 6/6 to 6/10 (.25) tentacle 3 09-10 6/7 to 6/13 (.33) tail 3 11-12 6/6 to 6/10 (.25) body 13-18 9/11 to 9/19 (.50) head 19-20 9/7 to 9/13 (.33) Weapon SR Attk Damage Bite 5 35+17 to 23 1d6+1d6 to 3d6 Tail smash 5 50+17 to 23 3d6 + 2d6 to 6d6 Sting 5 15 + 17 to 23 1d6 + 2d6 to 6d6 + poison Tentacle 3 50 + 17-23 2d6 to 6d6
NOTE: the bite receives half its damage bonus.
Each round, the duocanth can use its tails for either a smash with the spikes, or a sting, but not both. A successful sting injects poison with a POT equal to CON.
The tentacles do damage equal to the duocanth's damage bonus. Once a tentacle hits, the duocanth can choose to hang on, doing no further damage with that tentacle until a second tentacle also lands a blow and clings. At that point, the duocanth can begin to constrict the victim with both tentacles, just like a walktapus, doing normal rolled damage to each location, with armor only counting until it is broken through.
DEFENSES: A duocanth's thick, fluted body scales actually act as a swordbreaker -- if a weapon hits the duocanth's torso hit location, and does not obtain a special or a critical hit, then it is automatically caught in the duocanth's scales and follows normal swordcatcher rules. The duocanth can only concentrate on one weapon at a time in this fashion, and if more than one weapon are potentially caught, it must choose which one it is actively using its dermal muscles to restrain.
SPECIAL MAGIC: Duocanths are creatures of the water. Each has its own lake, pool, river, or bay which it is tied to. When within its lair, it has all the full strength and powers listed above. But the further it roams, the weaker it becomes. In general, the smallest duocanths can roam further. Thus, a STR 6d6 duocanth might be able to travel several kilometers from home with few adverse effects, while a STR 15d6 duocanth may only be able to wander a couple of dozen meters. There are legends of even more amazingly powerful duocanths, even more restricted to the water.
Duocanths are capable of any type of magic. Normally they use Kralori mysticism, mostly specializing in water magic.
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #174
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