Peter's Wafflings

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 11:58:59 +1200


Sandy Petersen:

Accuses me of imposing: 

        


>        [...] an unreal structure upon the Praxian mythos. Godtime
>was non-sequential. Things could happened both _before_ and _after_
>other things. Cause-Effect could occur in reverse order.
        

I wasn't talking about Praxian Experiences of the GodTime, tho. I was talking about the sequence of historical events that gave rise to the scenes in the God Time.

Observations of reverse Cause-Effect IMO are caused by HeroQuesters themselves. For instance if Joe Hero went to the battle between Arkat and Nysalor and Gbaji and then travelled to the Sun-Stop, he will be amazed at how the battle affected the events of the Sun-Stop. For instance Arkat's usage of Uz Magics obviously caused the Uz to break away from the Second Council.

But this observation is equivalent to me observing how tailormade the events of the First World War were for the events of the Second World War to come about. However this viewpoint is not wrong. It's extremely valuable to navigate around the Hero Plane as most Heroquesters have little else to go upon.

> There was never a time when the Praxians didn't ride their
>beasts. And yet there was a time before they rode their beasts.

Is this quibble by any chance semantics based? (ie they weren't known as Praxians in the time before they rode their beasts)

>Comprehension of this is one step towards both RuneQuest Sight and
>the Kralori insight, both of which grant a deeper (but not clearer)
>understanding of the cosmos than Illumination.
        

At a cost of a lesser understanding of oneself, I presume? I'm still trying to grok your statement that the God Learners changed themselves to accomodate the demands of the cosmos and all I can get is the impression that they knew spells like Create False Trustworthiness. As for the Kralori Insight, I take it this is taught by Metsyla? Or does it come from somewhere else?

> In any case, the Praxian ancestors were never farmers. The
>Oasis folk are probably descendants of the Golden Age people and
>dwelt in huge gardens, mansions, palaces, and floating cities.
>"Farmers", indeed.

Considering the myths about Good-Old-Days-Prax where one could plant a seed and having to jump back, the closest description I could come up with at the time was farmer. With hindsight, Gardener would have been a better word. In any case, their lifestyle wasn't so opulent as you paint above IMO. They had to work for and look after the Giants who built the huge gardens etc.

John Brown:

>P.S. also if the five elemantal weapons in your game exist, do they
>have their own cults as well? which ones? what are they like? send
>writeups?

According to the God Learner Scheme of things:

Humakt is the Elemental Weapon Cult for Storm AFAIK. What the Others are is less clear. Lodril is known as the Spear God, but this aspect of him is often suppressed as Peasants carrying Spears is considered Revolutionary and a Bad Thing. The Bow God is supposedly a subcult of Yelm and the Axe Goddess is known as Babeester Gor in Esrolia. I don't have the foggiest who the Maul God or the Flail God are (most probably some long forgotten gods listed in Zzabur's Blue Book).

All IMO.

Andrew Joelson:

Me>> The Trolls think Arkat is a Great Guy because when he betrayed their
>> cause in Dorastor and turned into Arkat the Chaosmonster, none of them
>> were around to witness the event.

> Nah, you're confusing the guy with Gbaji again. Rememeber (as
>was recently pointed out), Arkat ruled Ralios for 75 years after killing
>Gbaji. He left the trolls in Halikiv/Guhan in a position of considerable
>strength.

I knew that and it doesn't contradict what I said. Arkat betrayed Chaos and his own basic nature in the final battle IMO. After that, the Ralians and the Trolls were the only ones who remembered him with the least amount of loathing so that where he headed to for retirement.

Bruce Probst:

>So far as I can tell, the only references to Teshnos are the bits in the
>Glorantha set, which mostly describes several cults that have never been
>written up, and a passing reference in the Dormal writeup, describing
>the establishment of the trading port of Dosakayo, which (of course!) is
>not located on any published map that I've found so far.

ODD AND INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT TESHNOS.

  1. Dosakayo IMO is on the Isle of Melib. Harstar converted it into his capital after the Kethalan Eastern Fleet was destroyed by the Kralori.
  2. The Teshnan Army is complete shit. Their last military action IMO was the complete destruction of Gio and its citizenry. Despite this being a city full of passive Teshnans, the army bungled the job to such an extent that two-thirds of the citizenry escaped the massacre and the City still stands to this day.
  3. Teshnos is described by the Praxians as a land of 'Beautiful Women, Weak Warriors and Very Strong Magicians'.
  4. During the First Age it was known as Feritola.
  5. The Keeper of Crystal Wisdom knows a secret pathway into a valley full of magical crystals near Diamond Mountain. It's guarded by terrible Dwarven Constructs which the Keeper also knows the way of slipping past. (Thank Eric the Viking for this relevation).
  6. Teshnos is afflicted by a famous lethargy. Although said to be caused by shaming of Hisgoranstor of Gach at the hands of some God of Melib,I have a hard time believing this. This is a land of Fire Worshippers and they are phlegmatic fatalists? IMO Hisgoranstor came back with some stoical virtue/geas (like 'Do not cry out when the Priest applies a blazing torch to various parts of your body'). Due to some massive widespread disaster, this virtue became reinterpretated as a belief in fatalism and Nothing can be done. Harstar is trying to extinguish this doctrine.
  7. During Sheng Seleris's time, I've heard that Sheng invaded Teshnos. IMO out of this disaster, came the fatalistic topor of Teshnos (Life's a bonfire and then you burn to death). OTOH It could even be the God-Learners who were responsible for this state of affairs.
  8. The Amazons are cruel. I think they believe that their night of Passion with Tolat is enhanced if they are wearing a necklace of male testicles (the more the better!). Some Scholar has argued that the resulting child should bear a strong resemblence to the involuntary donor and points to the fact that Aralithos the Sage was born two years and three weeks after Ching-Wen, a famous Kralori Sage was evilly set upon by these Amazons. The name of the scholar is unknown as the Palace Eunuch Ching-Wen ordered the scholar executed and his name eradicated from the records.
  9. Nils W. has had some ideas about how the Teshnans order their society. Basically it's Hindu-like with a caste of untouchables who do all the dirty jobs that would befoul someone's lifeflame.
  10. Iron is slightly cheaper than normal there. The Mostali of Diamond Mountain tossed all the Iron out of their Conclave when they went Octamonist.

>Also, has there been a formal writeup of the Yelm cult? I have a vague
>idea that I've seen one somewhere, but can only find the GoG summary.

White Wolf Magazine had one. However that description is really a description of the Dara Happan Yelm Cult. Somash IMO has a much simpler Cult Structure and probably different Runespells.

I do have a feeling that their magic would be slightly exotic rather than the standard RQIII magic. Their magic would be pyrotechnical in scope - they know how to manipulate normal fires and the Life-flames of themselves and others.

Frex, the Teshnans rarely need firemaking equipment as 'Ignite' is a very easy magic to learn and do. Most of the Fire Magics are known and taught by the Five Fire Gods although many more can be learned by praying to one of the numerous fire spirits that dot the land. Frex, worshippers of Calyz know how to arouse sexual fires as well as creating a cooking fire and a smelting fire. Other fires can be created like a Fire that is not extinguished by water. Common Potent Magics in Teshnos (ie Rune Level) would be stuff like Summon a Bonfire (non-movable), Self-Immolation and even Self-Incinderation. I believe the land's fertility is ensured by sacrifices to keep the life-flame of the land alive and well rather than conduct worship to an actual earth goddess.

I'm thinking that Argrath at the battle of Milrain (in KoS) had a hundred Teshnans (courtesy of Harstar) who knew how to immolate themselves and did so scaring the bejesus out of the Lunars.

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