The Strangers Tale - BRAVO!!! ++

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_spirit.com.au>
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 16:17:26 +1000


Having just read ANDOVER_at_delphi.com's (sorry, your .sig is familiar, but jest at the moment your name escapes me) The Stranger's Tale, I just HAD to respond immediately: the closest one can get to a virtual standing ovation.

BRAVO!!!! Insightful, thought-provoking and set in a form that is meaningful (and useful) to a player-character or campaign gm, and not just to a gloranthoran meta-historian/mythologian/mythtorian.

BRAVO!!!! And a really useful model for Digest discussions.

The old vellum scroll has really been buzzing of late. Martin's Omens and witches (yeah, I been catching up), Nick's (predictably) victorious eschatology of the Lunar Way, David's musings (C. - if a difference still exists), Pam's retelling of the Nysalora (aka Red Goddess) story (probably the best we'll get before Greg's version in Questlines II), the wonderful insights about Shargash running the show - thank you all.

The discussion about Hinduism and the Malkioni has been interesting. Bear in mind, however, that Hinduism is the strong explicit source of Greg's recent explorations of the Lunar Way. While in Canberra, I took Greg, Pam and Neil R. to a major exhibition of Lunar (Indian) art at our National Gallery. It was a lot of fun. Greg was wandering around, translating the exhibition display signs into Lunar cant. Often it was word for word.

Shargash is modelled on Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, the Destroyer, dancing on the the crushed body of ignorance and bearing in his hands the forces of Creation and Destruction. I know its dangerous to take analogies too far, but this image of Shiva/Shargash has for me been a key insight into understanding a lot of Greg's recent work.

Engage Trickster Mode:

And what's this about Sedenya being a child of Umutum? (Recent Lunar book draft). Coupled with Greg's answer to my question in the Lore Auction that the Red Goddess DOES have a sibling currently active in the Middle Air, it makes all this Lunar/Orlanthi twaddle about healing the world/vanquishing Chaos just so much rant. The reason Orlanth and Nysalora hate each other is nothing more than SIBLING RIVALRY!!!! And of course it is in the best interests of Both Lunars and Orlanthi to deny any connection. The darra happans running the show must be howling in their beards.

He he.

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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