Ignoring the fact that that Man Rune stuff is godlearner nonsense, everyone knows you heal Mostali with Repair spells...
Anyway, why I'm really posting is the current thread on Mostali procreation.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my take on Dwarven procreation (Mostali cannot procreate).
The Iron project was only a limited success, despite the physical, tactical, and mental superiority of Iron Mostali on the field of battle, their enemies grew and multiplied faster than they could be built. That, combined with the destruction of Mostal's original construction chambers, placed the Clay project on the schedule.
The original construction chambers were incredibly complex and detailed machines that the Council of Metals was unable to duplicate fully. The formula for each Mostali would be pre-mixed and then poured into the machine for hardening. The machine then carefully programs the parts of the Mostali for its future position in life. This process takes several years, even when you have the chambers.
The solution for the Mostali was to take a shortcut. They would build mini-construction chambers that would assemble a proto-dwarf, which while still taking years to grow, they could make without the original chambers and more importantly, they could make many of them.
Now Mostali themselves are sexless, but the many things that were growing and multiplying so quickly had sexes. So, the Mostali thought to incorporate this in some mechanical way. How they did this was to build a full, adult male dwarf(quite a project without a birthing chamber) for each of the castes. Then they built many Clay Pots(female dwarves). The female plays no role in the production, they are just the container. The male (after proper instruction and preparation) creates a miniature version of himself, but in a unformed state. This is inserted in the female where it is nurished for several weeks. The proto-dwarf is then expunged and put in a growth tank to complete the maturation process. This varies by caste. Females do not have castes and must be constructed separately(or bought from a factory with them).
[As a note, this explains the paucity of female dwarfs and the fact that even such abberent places as Pavis can continue to exist.]
Once the maturation process is over, the young dwarf enters society. Whereas with true Mostali, the construction chamber did all the proper finishing, Glorantha is the finishing chamber for Dwarfs. This is why they must adhere so rigidly to their routines(and true Mostali need not). The constant repetition of the same action (turning a screw, hammering out a pot) is the fine tuning that eventually completes the development of the now Mostali(though since it is actualy a male, Mostali from Dwarfs do have differences from original Mostali). If the repetition process is halted, the dwarf parts begin to atrophy and they die. If they do reach Mostali status they can now vary their behavior since they are completed, but they are now so used to their previous behavior it is unlikely they will ever deviate.
Ack. Getting too long for me. I'll try to do Mostali nomenclature and naming conventions later.
Stay tuned for an interview with Isidilian in RQA5(Snake Pipe Hollow).
Isidilian = 341-000-02-2202-502
Dwarf Mine = 1650-03724-0-341-235025
eric
Powered by hypermail