Now, to important things: Coffee!
As we know coffee comes from plants. It surely is some kind of arcane plant, considering the various effects of this blessed drink. And who, pray tell me, are the guys who know all this about arcane plants? Why, the Aldryami, of course! Since we know that coffee comes from Pamaltela (following RW parallells, and suggestions from St Pete the Antipodean), we'll have to look at the Aldryami of the dark (?) continent. Since I currently have no damn idea of what happened to them during the Darkness, I'll make things up as I go, following the cues of St Michael (who isn't one of the apostles - might he be an angel?).
Thus: As mentioned before, coffee contains the essence of darkness, and he who partakes of it becomes able to face the night. When the Darkness came, one of the great Yellow Aldryami Ancestor Bushes sacrificed herself, taking Darkness within her, givin her berries this marvellous ability. Thus she was able to help the elves to keep awake during the great darkness, especially the Brown ones. The substance is probably spread all over the world, especially to the north, where it was found that coffee does not only help against darkness, but also against cold.
The humans of Fonrit and the Sedalpists, engaged in various wars against the nonhuman races, and stole the secret of coffee. They use it in various rituals against the non-humans, and most of their despised Knights (Murderer! Outcast! Unclean!) are addicted to the stuff, gaining the same horrible wholly red eyes as all elves have during their long winter vigils (replacing the normal strange elven eyes).
The dwarves accquired the secret and quickly replicated the substance synthetically, tho dwarven synthi-coffee lacks the soul of the Real Thing. It is the reason Iron Dwarves can work/fight for days and weeks without sleeping, and the reason their eyes glow Terminator-like in the dark.
Since primal coffee contains the base passions of darkness and the real joy in life, it is no wonder the Brithini, who have given up all joys in life to gain life itself, consider it a "foul brew". The Vadeli probably drink coffee, but considering their vileness, they are probably inclined by caste to drink some horrible mutation like (shudder) - espresso? cappucino? CAFE AU LAIT?!?!?
Neither is there any wonder that the foul Aldryami-slayers of Kralorela hate the thing. It gives their elven foes night-powers to use against their powers of day gained through the glorious Sun Dragon.
(Insert Capitals In Any Pompous Way You See Fit Into The Above)
Erik Sieurin
PS: To tie this into an existing thread on the list, I'd like to
mention that Lord Death on a Horse does not drink coffee. DS.
PPS: Valind took my leeks - where is Kalikos Icebreaker when you
really need him? DS.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #222
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
Powered by hypermail