Power Greya Twoeyes.
Howdy Folks,
Greg and Pam Carlson and Neil Robinson jumped on the plane for Alice Springs this morning; so my three and a half week adventure that was RQ Con Down Under is finally winding down. Like MOB and Andrew, I thought I'd share some impressions and tidbits before surrendering to a few days of happy exhaustion.
RQ Con was truly a meeting of the clan; happy, relaxed and with a true
cooperative spirit. It was a chance to meet, to put faces to Digest names,
to chew the cud or chew the scenery, roleplay, brainstorm and plan future
projects. MOB and Andrew have already mentioned those who deserve special
thanks; I'd also like to mention our international guests, in particular
David Hall and Kevin Jacklin (whose work for HOTB was prodigious and
inspiring), Nick Brooke, whose energy levels were astounding, David Dunham,
Lewis Jardine and the other international attendees and far travellers
(Dave Cake and the sandgropers, Rob Macarthur, The Taswegians, Kiwis etc.)
who did so much to make the con so enjoyable.
MOB played mc and host perfectly. Andrew Bean's energy in the days before the con made it all possible, and he STILL had time to put together an inspirational costume for HOTB. The local Melbourne convention fraternity gave tremendous support.
The disappointments were few and far between: the dastardly raid on our canteen, (which happily, failed, cause the local Blue Elmali were alerted by a silent spirit alarm), the relatively low proportion of female attendees (at least compared to other Oz cons), and the absence of Sandy, who could not be with us because of work deadlines at id. He was missed greatly.
THE ENTEKOSIAD Greg released a new work especially for the con, the Entekosiad ('Stories of Entekos'), a collection of pre-Solar, Darsenite and Pelandan mythology. It concentrates on tracing the influence of female goddesses before the final(?) manifestation of the Red Goddess. The manuscript recounts the stories and insights uncovered by Valare, a Lunar 'T&Jer' (Travel & Journeyer - a Lunar term for Heroquester), who quested to understand the relationship between her Red Goddess and the Dara Happan Dendara/Entekos. There is also much Lodrilite lore within.
And then there was the arrival of the RQ Con II book, a fine collection with the familiar bright yellow dragonewt cover so similar to Questlines :-). The harmony Rune in action, or a sign of just how reliant we all are on the genius of Dan Barker? I understand FREE INT has also featured Dan's dargonewts on the cover.
RANDOM MEMORIES / TIDBITS / PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS In no particular order...
Greg's open-air heroquest seminar at dusk. Communal POW (of worshippers/ supporters left behind) is important in heroquesting, however WILL cannot be shared in the same way. Most hero cults model themselves closely on a god, but the hero retains some Free Will in order to differentiate him/herself. E.g. Sartar modelled himself on Issaries. The other planes are grey and featureless only to those who do not have the correct perceptions. Heroquesting is 'my belief system against yours', a test of how in tune your belief system is with the universe.
HOTB characterisation - Dennis Hoover's magnificent Lunar Provost, Marion Anderson's Vingan Tamara Threeslice, Nick's reprise of Temertain, Andrew Bean's Ratsbane, Trev Ackerly's Jubba the Hood, Peter Tracy's Groblop Grimlips, the Geo's crowd, the doomed lovers' suicide leap, Paul Heinz' vampire... and Harvar Ironfist. My personal campaign nemesis, wonderfully portrayed by Phil Anderson.
Modules! Lots of modules! Damned fine modules!
Full crunch and slo-mo trollball; one of the best games I've seen for a
long long time, featuring a special appearance by Neep the trollkin
heroquester, aka Su, Wes Nicholson's 4 year old daughter. Them defeated Uz
(Oz) 14-13, but the giant referee can't count.
Greg's address, where he told the full story of the many incarnations of the Red Goddess for the first time. Her dismemberment, descent, illumination ('Life is suffering, but suffering is not life') and gradual reascent is a beautiful and moving story, partially inspired by the Sumerian myth of Inanna. (By coincidence, my Musik of the Spears heroquest was inspired by the same source - I cannot recommend the Dianne Wolkstein / Samuel Noah Kramer translation of Inanna too highly). I nearly converted to the Lunar Way during that address, but ultimately saw sense :-). On the flight home, I was inspired to write 'Why I Am Not A Lunar', which I will post sometime soon.
The thunder and hail storm before HOTB which lowered temperatures by 15 or so degrees! Rain dancing with Nick Brooke and others in the hills of Far Point/Yarra Glen as a near-tropical thunderstorm bucked down from on high.
Orlanthi storytelling. Listening to the various tales and songs and poems was great, each one I heard was excellent. Distracted by organising and my seminars and module, I hadn't prepared a tale, but grabbed my rattle anyway and improvised a section from Taroskarla. I look forward to hearing the tape, just to find out what I said!
The Lore auction. Sartarite initiation is into the Orlanthi PANTHEON, and there is a SINGLE initiation; no separate ceremonies to celebrate cult initiation and adulthood. Elmal's fire powers were stolen by Zorak Zoran. The Red Goddess DOES have a living sibling currently active in the middle air (tease, tease). etc!
HOTB: That early moment in Geos when it looked like Vamastal Greyskin of the Sambari actually had all the Orlanthi (save Tamara Threeslice) on side and united. He talked of freedom, he talked of lifting the Lunar Yoke, he talked of the common traditions of the people. Everyone was united, committed, inspired. It was very un-Orlanthi. So in my role as referee dragonewt, I shouted from the back of the room, 'And when the land is free, who will be king?'. The rest, so they say, is history.
Random Chaosium things: The Lunar Book is not a collection of myths but a novel. It will tell the life-story of Greya Two-Eyes, an early H&Jer who taught Hon-Eel to be a mother and ultimately became her enemy. Still at least 12 months or so away.
Don't hold your breath for Heroes of the King.
The 'Mythos' print run is 80% pre-sold. Greg sees it as a strong model for a hero-quest game.
After the con, some of us were lucky enough to be guests of Andrew's
parents at their farm in the Victorian countryside. They were wonderful
hosts, and very patient with our bizzare conversations as we dove deep into
Gloranthan mystery, pulling together ideas and planning future projects and
modules. I then hosted Greg in Canberra, where he appeared this weekend at
CanCon, giving several wide-ranging seminars that strayed from industry
gossip ('Whatever happened to Gary Gygax?' to the truth about ducks
(twagic, twagic - I cannot repeat it here) to the relationship between
Glorantha and Greg's personal shamanic practice.
There was tremendous energy and inspiration at RQ Con: it certainly bodes well for our collective future. I'm sure that a lot of what came out at the con will be shared on the Digest in the weeks ahead.
And yes, there will be a follow-up book with transcripts, stories etc.
Cheers
John
... a flying arrow, a crashing wave, night old ice, a coiled snake, a bride's bed talk, a broken sword, the play of bears, a king's son.
Havamal 86.
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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #350
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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