Out of the frying pan and into the.....

From: owner-glorantha_at_hops.wharton.upenn.edu
Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 12:46:03 +0100

Joerg of the Baumgartner Clan express a deeper interest in the existence of a frying pan made of iron. Here some examples: 1, Iron. Not Steel (Enchanted Iron). Iron is A, cheaper and B, has the extraordinary property of having anti-magical influences. This can be of great help in certain alchemical preparations of elixirs associated with the elements of Fire and Darkness, where you have the paradox that you need to heat the ingredients, but shield them from the metaesoteric thaumic forces. For this an iron implement serves well.

2, Vows. We know (?) that sorcerers make vows to increase their magical ability (and status among other sorcerers). Especially if the guy has some greater vow against the Earth (the element of copper) it may well be followed by smaller vows about not using copper, even as part of bronze items.

3, The writer is so used to thinking of frying pans as made of iron, that he included it without a thought. A interrogation made of the author's subconscious reveals that he in the actual adventure (the stories have happened in play, BTW - Harold and Richard are PC's) he just stated that Richard found a frying pan. He didn't state the material. Now, a function of Glorantha's metallurgy is that, at least in our group, we always remember that armaments are commonly made of bronze - the superior of the few iron/steel items the characters have reminds them of this. However, I constantly have to slap myself to remember that frying pans, chains, kitchen knives and suchlike are made of bronze. To this is related the constant flaunting of Glorantha as a game were you have a "Bronze Age" - as bronze, for me, is used in Glorantha _exactly_ as Iron was used in RW history, this is pretty silly - many cultures are also inspired by non-Bronze Age cultures, INCLUDING several stone-age ones.

Does this satisfy you? Hope so :-).

Erik Sieurin

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