Having managed to start of a minor civil war in Sweden, I will continue only with a Glorantha Emphasis...
[Kralori Writing]
>>I think that before
>>that they used some kind of primitive pictogram system (like that found
>>in Shang Dynasty Dragon Bones in China). This pictogrammic style would
>>be found in Vormain, Bliss in Ignorance and the East Isles
>Well, the Shang texts are not primitive pictograms, but the direct ancestors
>of modern chinese characters, many of them are still recognizable.
Zounds! My habit of aliteration got the better of me!
>I have
>just finished an excellent book about chinese writing from Shang to modern
>days, how the signs developed and what they originally depicted. So,
>pictograms, yes in a way, primitive, no not at all.
<enters telepathic mode> the...book..is..Tecknens Rike...by...by... Cecilia Lindqvist... <exits telepathic mode>.
Am I right or am I right?
Seriously the Book was translated (from Swedish) into English as 'China, Empire of the Written Symbol.' Author is still Cecilia Lindvist. As Nils is from Sweden, the book he had read would be in swedish and the chances of two books on the origins of Chinese Ideograms in Swedish are very slim indeed. I have read the English Translation and find it excellent.
>Some thoughts on writing in the East Isles:
>Literacy is not widespread, most people don't need it.
>Islanders are generally kind of conservative, so I think they have a
>very ancient pictogram writing, called Vithelan writing, which originates
>from ancient Vithela, before it was fractured into the East Isles. This
>fits well with Peters Old East pictogram theory.
Considering we've both been reading the same book, I am in agreement here.
>Greg Fried thought up a more modern writing used by those who need a
>more practical scipt. It's called dragonscript, because the writer dons
>special 'claws' an all fingers of the primary hand and use these to
>scratch the signs on wax tablets. Dragon script is complex and expressive.
There are Dragonnewts in the East Isles? Or are these the Sorn (Evil Bird/ Pterodactyl folk?)
Pam Carlson:
>>As for the origins of writing, Murharzarm of Dara Happa is stated to have
>>invented clay tokens to solve the Remembering Problem. Written Laws came
>>later although still before the Great Darkness.
>Clever guy, that Murharzarm.
I'm pretty sure, it was one of his hanger-ons that worked out the actual details and Murharzarm took all the credit.
>To be fair, when GROY was written in (about
>300ST or so), Plentonius mentioned one of the woundings of Antirius was: "An
>emperor wrote down the law and then used those writings to kill a friend".
>(As close as I can remember it.)
>This implies that the DH's of Plentonius' time still distrusted written
>laws. Presumably they were just coming out of an oral and somewhat flexible
>legal tradition.
It sounds to me like a collection of dirt on the Anaxial dynasty that ruled during the Storm Age. Nothing can, in Plentonius's eyes, be better than Khordavu. The actual tradition of Lukarius as the Liar who wrote down written laws seems to me to come from something the People of Birin (Captial ElzAst) would say. Their city state was trashed by the other cities after the latter had discovered written laws so it seems to me the Birini would be against the concept of written laws or constitutions for that matter.
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