>I read a little Elder Secrets recently and noticed the following:
>There seem to be no Gloranthan equivalent to zink.
Well, IMO, there is. Bertalor in Elder secrets identifies a Lo-metal which is said in the rules to be a solid form of Quicksilver. Personally I think every human metallurgist in Glorantha thinks of Lo-metal as the Solid Form of Quicksilver whereas Bertalor actually meant some other metal by it. The trouble is that Zinc is such an ugly word and I hate to see it said in Glorantha.
>However, there is
>a metal/alloy in Glorantha close enough to be "translated" as "brass"
>- - the metal of the Brass Dwarves. Earthly Brass is copper+some zink.
>What about Gloranthan Brass, and what about its magical abilities?
An interesting factoid, I just came across. I'm told by my encyclopaedia that the modern alloy of Brass came into use in the sixteenth century and that formerly any alloy of copper (especially one with tin) was called brass. Thus it says 'it is probable the "brass" of the ancient times was of copper and tin.' This means the fabulous Brass Mountains near Carmania probably produce bronze for the humans instead.
The Dawrves, IMO, on the other hand probably do use Brass (Cu/Zn), it's just that they keep it out of human hands with a great deal more success than their other trade secret Iron. Its uses are unknown to humans.
>However, there are no zink mines within human reach -
>perhaps some brass mines, but no zink. This is because zink is rare -
>it is the bones of some god that either did not die very much, or was
>swallowed by Chaos whole, or something like that.
I think it's Lodril's metal. The main reason for its rareness is that stupid humans have no need for it and don't know how to extract the metal for the ore.
>2. Gloranthan Brass is the Hot Gold I theorized about earlier - the
>metal of Fire as gold is the metal of Light. You get Brass by
>separating the Hot and the Light Gold alchemically, thereby producing
>the Enchanted, glowing gold as well.
I did post a piece sometime ago to Henks Daily about my speculations on metals and how they corrode (ie how to make Silver from Gold). It was in a form of a document written by Ifmenel of Valsburg (try searching the archives using 'ifmenel'). It may give you a few ideas. It's a wee bit dated as I wrote it before I was on the net. Sandy did a followup about the secrets of 'Gronze' so you may want to look at that too.
Andrew Joelson:
>> Well they won't actually phrase it like that. They view the Moon's
>> Redness as imperfect as Yelm's obedience to the cycles of Night and
>> Day. Something which is magnificient enough as is but will be Even
>> Better when the World is restored to its Proper Form.
> Still never heard of it. What's more, I don't see why anyone
>should think the Red Moon will change color.
Okay, cites time:
G:CotHW Genertela Book p30 Prophecies of the Hero Wars: A Pelorian Moon Story 'The worshippers of the Red Goddess believe that the Red Moon shall transform into the White Moon when acceptance of the Goddess has spread over the world.'
Fortunate Succession p68 'When the Broken Ring is mended again and its vile influence of the skies is neutralised, then shall our Moon rise yet higher, purged of its ungainly hue, and assume Her true form at last'
>The Red Moon was known during the GodsTime, and was Red then!
A Moon was known during the Godstime. The equivalent diety appears to be Verithurusa/Jernedeus whose colour is White according to the Glorious ReAscent.
>The Seven Mothers quested to
>restore the 'Red Moon Goddess', not the 'Silver, but Slightly Tarnished
>Goddess'.
You may have a point there. The Pelorian Moon Story is dated about 1300 ST, 70 years after the Red Goddess was born. The Seven Mothers may not have been in full posession of the facts. (The FS I quoted above dates from 1621 ST).
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