Gloranthan versions of Earthly Phenomena from g.willoughby_at_ic.ac.uk on 1995-08-07 (Glorantha Digest Vol 02)

From: g.willoughby_at_ic.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 07 Aug 95 14:41:52 +0100

High all,

I thought that I'd link some of my professional life with my Gloranthan interest and make a list of some of the more interesting atmospheric phenonmena and some specualtions on their Gloranthan equivalents (if any). The format is: name, brief description, terrestrial explanation (if any), Gloranthan explanation (if any).
These can be used in several ways, they can simply be viewed as "natural" interactions of the Gods as allowed by the Compromise or they can have their own dieties and myths or they can be signs and portents or any combination. If anyone has better (or just different) RQ explanations, please let me know! If you found this enjoyable/interesting or have anyother comments please tell me.
Graeme

Rainbows

Probably one of the best known phenomena, this is a semi-circular arc of six or seven colours and has usually inspired great awe and wonder in every society that sees it.

RW: Formed by light passing through water droplets - the light is scattered into its component colours, with Red on the outer band and violet on the inner. The whole effect forms a greater or lesser part of a hemisphere depending on the position of the observer and cloud cover etc. As well as being associated with storms, "permanent" ones form near waterfalls where the spray forms the rainbow (I have a beautiful picture of a rainbow taken by me near a waterfall in Norway)
RQ : I'm very surprised that there isn't a rainbow myth already in Glorantha write-ups, one suspects that there should be some thing about it being a sign of the Compromise i.e. Strom and Light working together. Alternatively, the Pure Light of Yelm is being sullied by the scummy Storm Gods.

Secondary rainbows:
RW: Sometimes, when the conditions are very good, there can be seen a second rainbow inside the primary one. This is a "second order" bow and it's quite rare to see one. The colours of the secondary bow are reversed - the violet band is on the outside, near the violet of the primary and the red band is on the inside. There presumably are tertiary, quaternary and higher orders of rainbow, each inside the previous one and much fainter, but I've never seen one - or heard one described for that matter. RQ: These quite rare events are definitely protents, usually that Chaos is breaking through, threatening the compromise, the reversed inner bow indicating Choas of course.

Moonbows

A silvery "rainbow" is seen at night.

RW: A very interseting and rare version of a rainbow, a moonbow is a rainbow formed by moonlight. The moon has to be bright - usually this means full or near abouts and it has to be night, otherwise the moonbow is drowned out. It is formed in exactly the same way as a rainbow and so should look the same, and if a photograph is taken they do look similar. However the light is not enough to trigger the colour sensors in human eyes so the moonbow appears to be a silvery cresent across the night sky, instead of several colours. RQ: Well I'm not sure that the red light from the Red Moon could be split into any of it's components or that the light from the moon is bright enought to form one anyway - perhaps it is in the heartlands. Perhaps Moonbows are red in the Lunar Empire. Probably realted to the Moonbow Legion (now defunct).

Mock Suns

There appears to be up to 3 suns in the sky at once!

RW:In storm clouds there are small ice crystals which are perfectly hexagonal. Sunlight refelcts off these crystals to either side culmnating in the appearance of two "mock suns", also called sun-dogs, one either side of the real sun. These are very realistic, people have had heart attacks from suddely seeing 3 Suns in the sky. If your vision is restricted somehow so that you can only see one of the mock suns you would not know it wasn't the real one. These are supposed to be more common than rainbows but since most people don't look at the Sun often, they aren't often reported. People who do look at the sun often are usually trying to navigate by it - sailors and small aircraft pilots - and these people have often been caught out by navigating by the wrong sun.
RQ: Three Suns! Two of which a false! I think I'll leave that to other more distinguished members of this list.
Aurorae

Commonly known as the Nothern (or Southern) Lights, these moving sheets of light can be seen *every* clear night in the arctic and antarctic circles. As one progresses towards the equator they become less and less common. RW: They are formed by energetic particles emitted from the sun (the Solar Wind) crashimg into our atmosphere. The Earth's magnetic field channels them to the poles where they interact with the upper atmosphere to produce these lights. Particularly intense bursts can cause "magnetic storms" which can burn out satellites and cause widespread communication blackouts. Vikings said that the lights are refelctions off the arms and armour of Valkyries when the claim the souls of warriors.
RQ: These are sylphs and minor wind spirits moving the air around - they can be seen from any sufficiently high ground and in areas where storm worship is strong.

The Green Flash

Sometimes (very rarely), just as the Sun sets there is a green flash. RW: The atmosphere spreads the light from the Sun out slightly ("dispersion"). What we actually see is a slightly smeered out version of the Sun. This effect is largest when the Sun is at the horizon, since the sunlight has to go through a larger column of air. AS the Sun sets the "red" image sets first and the "blue" image sets last (though still within a few seconds of each other) this manifests as the Sun suddenly becoming green/blue for a second or so before it sets - the green flash. This is only visible where one can see an uninterrupted horizon - i.e. over an ocean, conditions need to just about perfect.
RQ: this is the splash made when Yelm hits the Oceans.

St Elmo's Fire:

There is sometimes a glow from the tip of a ship's mast or the wings of an aeroplane.
RW:This is static electricity caused by the friction of the ship or plane throught the atmosphere. The glow is the static discharging. RQ: Sprits are taking an interest in the Ship (good or bad omen depending an the circumstances) the glow is the mundane manifestetion of the spirits. Ball lightening:

Very rarely in a plane or ship a glowing ball moves around burning things it touches - it then dissapears in any of several ways - exploding, "melting" into a wall or simply just dissipating.
RW: Whilst it's probably related to St Elmo's fire nobody actaully knows what causes this!
RQ: Looks like Lightning Boy is having some fun.

End of Glorantha Digest V2 #51

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