Re: Mermen & The Wild Healer of the Rockwoods

From: Sandy Petersen <sandyp_at_idgecko.idsoftware.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 95 11:45:17 -0500


Mike Cule
>How the Wild Healer of the Rockwoods survives is beyond me...

        The Wild Healer is in the western, less troll-infested Rockwoods. Also, the Wild Healer mostly heals broo.

Ian Gorlick
>Nils Weinander and David Cake have both referred to cetoi as being
>close to cetaceans. I tend to think of them as closer to pinipeds
>(seals, sea-lions, walrus), more like celtic silkies than classical
>mermen.

        As close inspection of "Critters of Glorantha" will show, there are two types of cetoi: the ouori are very much just the way you say -- pinniped-like. The ludoch are, however, quite cetacean-like, with dolphin-like tails. The ouori are certainly able to wriggle around on land (and did so, in my campaign), but I don't think the ludoch can do much landside maneuvering. Sitting on rocks to comb their hair is the best they can manage.

>Cetaceans in Glorantha are, like the cetoi, descended from the
>mating of air and water deities; but the cetaceans take after their
>marine parents more.

        Strictly speaking, even most Piscoi are descended from such matings. The difference is whether the mating was forcible or voluntary (Piscoi = rapine, Cetoi = love).

Now I'm inspired to figure the relationships of all the mermen in classic God Learner fashion (note: I won't stand by any of these -- they're merely a starting point for reflection).

CETOI

	Ludoch = cetaceans
	Ouori = pinnipeds
PISCOI
	Dwerulan = agnaths (lampreys, hagfish)
	Gnydron = sea monsters
	Malasp = bony fish
	Ysabbau = placoderms
	Zabdamar = chondrichthyes (sharks & co.)

And Now It's Story Time

THE MOK SIANG
        In olden days, so long ago that to doubt a tale from that time would be impious [1], a mandarin ruled an island. The mermen [2] murdered his fishers, spread disease to coastal villages, and whistled up storms and fog to plague his ships. But all these problems were known to him of old, and his folk were able to survive despite the plots and toils of the mermen.

        One day, his fishers captured an enormous and most loathly mer-beast. They brought it before the mandarin and he questioned it. The mer-beast laughed and said that at last the island province was doomed. "What do you mean?" asked the mandarin. The mer-beast laughed and said that the underwater folk had at last placed upon the island the Mok Siang which, interpreted, is "the thing that destroys". The mandarin destroyed the monster, but its words remained.

        Now the mandarin now sought to find and eliminate the Mok Siang. Fearing lest the Mok Siang lurked in the island's woods, he ordered the hunters, charcoal-burners, and woodcutters to comb the forests and swamps. Fearing lest the Mok Siang took refuge among the Eagle Women [3], he ordered the mountaineers to force them away from their homes and slay them if need be. Fearing lest the Mok Siang dwelt in houses built by hands, he ordered the townspeople to watch for one another carefully and report. Fearing lest the Mok Siang drifted in the world of magic[4] he caused his wise men to search the seven planes.

        The Mok Siang's effects were soon found, though it was not. Evil beasts raided the farms. Famine swept across the island. Storms destroyed the fleets of white ships. Criminals and bandits spread throughout the populace. The only success were the Wise Men, who reported that they had discovered that the Mok Siang dwelt in the mandarin's palace.

        The only newcomer to the mandarin's palace was his new son, born just the day before the mer-beast had been caught. Was that the Mok Siang? The mandarin did not have the courage to slay his son, but sent him away from the island in the last remaining boat. Then he waited hopefully for the terror to end.

        As he sat in his decaying palace, listening to the cries and screams of his people in pain and terror, a huge mer-beast, even larger and more loathly than the first, flopped into his empty alace. "What is happening?" pleaded the mandarin, at wit's end.

	"The Mok Siang has destroyed you." said the horror.
	"I did all I could." explained the mandarin. "I sent my  
hunters, charcoal-burners, and woodcutters to seek the wilderness..."

        "And so they did not hunt, make fuel, or cut wood. Evil beasts multiplied, the people could not cook, make furniture, or build homes."

	"I drove away the Eagle Women," wailed the mandarin.
	"And so they could not foresee the storms which wrecked  
your ships and cleaned your harbor." [5]
	"I had every man watch out for his neighbor," cried the mandarin.
	"And so no man trusted another. Friendships were broken.  
And your judges were kept so busy dealing with accusations one against another, the criminals were left free to riot."

        "I even sent away my own son," mourned the mandarin, lost in sorrows.

	"And so you have no heir. Will civil strife add to worries?" 
	The mandarin stood up to his full stature, summoned the  
last vestiges of his glory [6], and glared at the monster. "I command you, thing of the deep. Tell me, where is the Mok Siang?"

        "YOU are the Mok Siang."

[1] the Kralori have a sense of humor
[2] these would, of course, be Zabdamar.
[3] probably Wind Children
[4] the spirit plane?
[5] i.e., of visiting merchants, further ruining the economy. The  
implication is that the Eagle Women's foreknowledge normally allowed the ship captains to take steps to preserve their boats against bad weather.
[6] a magical aura that most mandarins can summon when acting in an official capacity, and which varies in power, energy, and color.

End of Glorantha Digest V2 #86


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