> This got me thinking about the Decamony and Mostali governing councils.
> We know the Nidan council (decamony) seats 9, but little else. Here are
> my thoughts on the leadership and councils of the Mostali.
> Nida - The Nidan factory has been through many tough times, often worker
> units from Slon and other factories had to be sent as replacements. The
> Nidan council was originally modelled on the Slon council, but with
> all the new units factionalization and metal favoritism became rampant.
> The council voted the tenth to be an empty seat, and thus it has remained.
> It is therefore still a Decamony, but with only 9 elders.
Just after I had written the letter I found myself thinking "hey, a
Decamony means there are 10 members - wait aren't there 8 traditional
metals + Iron gives 9......" and things became more confusing after
that. Now, is the tenth mineral DIAMOND or CLAY? The octamonists
rejected "the innovations of Iron Dwarves and Diamondhood". The REAL
tenth mineral, however, is Clay, the material of the dwarves (as
opposed to the Mostali). Diamond aint as much an extra mineral as a
state of other minerals, since I think of them as Clay Mostali who
has reached the abilities of True Mostali.
So the original Mostali council was 8. Then comes Iron and Clay - the
first to defend the World Machine as things got rough and the second
to repair it once it was broken. A true decamonic council thus used
to include 1 True Mostali of each of the Eight Ancient Minerals, plus
an Iron Mostali, plus a Clay Mostali qualified enough to count as a
True Mostali (ie a Diamonddwarf).
With the lack of True Mostali, you exchange them for Diamonddwarfs.
Thus you end up with 9 specified Diamonddwarves and one that can come
from any caste.
> Diamond Mountain - A hole full of Octomonists. Of course, they have a
> council of 8, ruled by one representative from each of the 8 true metals.
Interestingly enough, these hyper-conservatives sits next to the
hyper-conservative human Kralorelans. Is their Stasis in the air in
this part of the world, or what?
> Kingdom of War - Despite their newness, they also have a true
Decamony......
If the KoW still is dwarf-run, I suspect they do not have a ruling
council - just an Iron Boss, like the Iron part of a decamony without
the other metals. And then I think LDoaH, if he is nonhuman, may not
be an Iron Dwarf or even an Iron Mostali, but a dwarven war-machine
of hyper-complexity - perhaps the "computermind" of the literal Doomsday Machine.
Maundering off the subject: I think that many dwarven states do not resurrect their subjects (though I suspect those bio-manipulating Vegetarians regularily clone their Irons so as to not loose their experience, and have a mechanism that transplant the mind of a dying Iron to a new body). However, I think they can "record" the memories and experiences of dead dwarfs on monstrous plates of gold covered by an arcane and intricate pattern of metal threads, covered by gems of various kinds. Some dwarfs who have enough status will do so automatically due to special spells. (In game terms, this pattern might act more or less as an Ancestor Spirit Binding Matrix.)
When I think of it, KoW may have been an unplanned event. Those guys under the ban just found this marvellous jeweled tapestry, found it had mighty magics, and some unhappy shaman ends up possessed by Iron Man himself or something like that. Thus every time LDoaH is killed, he is rebooted to the tapestry and takes on a new body. NOW we have a cliched quest to stop KoW: A, Find out from them Dwarven Buggers about the Tapestry of War, B, Find the damn thing (which means sneaking through KoW country), C, Destroy the damn thing. Hmmm, sounds like good AD&D stuff. Haveta test it on my old Kobold Gang of Young Unexperienced players sometime.
Erik Sieurin
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #244
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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