Brief Musings on Light, Sound, Time & Pregnancy

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_spirit.com.au>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 19:49:42 +1000


Howdy Folks

DONNER UND BLITZEN Totally bewildered by the bendy light problems, I'm slowly working my way through a Gloranthan (meta)physics teaser of my own. What if, (in Orlanthi lands at least) you hear the thunder BEFORE you see the lightning? That is, what if the speed of sound is (under normal magico-enviromental conditions) FASTER than the speed of light?

I know that in our universe, fiddling with c would lead to tremendous changes in universal process at the field (and therefore, every other) level (radioactivity, gravity etc.), but I'm prepared to ignore this for the Lozenge. What would be the effects of a much slower c at the level of overt phenomena?

I'm not suggesting that this is universal phenomena, but rather that the relative speeds of light and sound might VARY over different regions, perhaps reflecting the realative mythic power of Storm and Fire.

Why bother? Well apart from the wonder quotient (and this phenomenon WILL overtly manifest in game play to a much greater extent than light theories) I see potential for a strong mythological rationale and a whole host of new spells.

Comments most welcome.

TIME AND PREGNANCY I deal with the year translation problem by assuming that time runs subjectively and objectively a little slower in Glorantha: an hour is a little longer if you will. So a year is a year, metabolically.

Menstrual cycles? I use the following myth: when Umath first separated the Earth from the Sky, the force of his mighty feat set Earth Mother ringing. This vibration still persists, a gentle humming that extends over 28 days. Many of Her children (and I mean this in the most general sense) are sensitive to this Earth-Cycle; it manifests in magic, ritual and in fertility. And I believe that Earth-calendars based on a 28 day cycle still persist in parts of Pamaltela and among certain of the hsunchen.

Pregnancy is a little more difficult, as I discovered when i was doing the hunting and herding calendar for Questlines. You can't usually do direct translations because of Storm Season. Add the extra six weeks! Most animal breeding seasons (humans are one of the few exceptions, though even human birth patterns retain a springtime blip) have evolved so that young are born in the safest and most secure environment. For Sartar and surrounds this is early to late Sea Season for most, late Earth to early Dark for trolls and cold-aligned creatures, etc.

I'm attracted for mythological reasons to the idea of human pregnancies lasting a full game year, though again with room for regional or mythological variations. Lots of room for imaginative exploration here!

Cheers

John
Spirit, Wisdom....Strongbow!


    ... 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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