> Dwarf food. They eat something in cans, don't they? I once got extremely
> confused when i was asked in a game what it tasted like. At the time i
> suggested a mixture between cat food and cement mix. However, this seems
> somewhat clumsy - after all, i've never met a mostali. Am i right, or does
> anyone else out there have any ideas?
Dwarf tinned food comes in four varieties, if I remember correctly:
Alpha Red Beta Yellow Gamma Green and Monthly Stew
in decreasing order of tastiness (to dwarfs). Persistent Rumour has it that Alpha Red is recycled Dwarf, Beta Yellow is Troll, Gamma Green is Elf, and Monthly Stew is whatever ingredients the Quicksilver Dwarfs had handy when they were making up that batch. It all probably tastes vile to humans -- after all, "real" food tastes vile to dwarfs. (Except, I suppose, veggie dwarfs. OTOH, I think human veggies probably fake the joy they get from lentils...).
As for your question about Walktapi, the answer is "obviously not". They aren't indestructible, after all.
> Could the 'world machine' and malkionism (in its gods of glorantha
> incarnation) be the same thing?
What, you mean that both are minimalist short-form cult writeups for sorcery-users? Yes. But it's a silly question.
> They both seem similarly mechanistic, as if one was worshipping 'the laws
> of nature' or instrumental reason, rather than deities.
That's because Gods of Glorantha primarily provides game *mechanics*. I'd suggest browsing through the Mostali writeup in "Elder Secrets" and the Malkioni sect writeups from Tales #13 and Loren's "Splintered Sects" WWW page (link from within his Carmanian material), plus sundry archived stuff here, rather than taking a 'de minimis' approach to the world. The Malkioni don't think they're Mostali; the Mostali don't think they're Malkioni; followers of the two religions don't look or act the same, or claim to use magic in the same way or for the same ends, so it does look as if the only meaningful answer is "no" (on any other than an Arachne Solaran 'Pan-Gloranthan-Unity' unrecognised-by-the-worshippers level, if you see what I mean).
I'm not being entirely fair, because I have very little time for the Malkioni "What the Wizard Says" section of GoG: it seems way too mechanistic for a pious, social Wizard addressing his believing flock, though I suppose it's OK for an impious Sorcerer teaching his apprentice how to use magic. Without a social dimension, there *is* no Malkionism. I want to see rules for Wizardry, not Sorcery: writeups that address the needs and interests of Common Folk, not the hyper-educated philosophical/theological elite of Western society: "What the Village Priest Says" would be far more use in my games.
> The attitude that some people implied that the other tribes had towards the
> morokanth. I agree that the human tribes will have a great dislike of them,
> but IMG the tribes will treat them only a little worse than they would any
> other tribe of Prax.
I incline to agree. After all, all Praxians hate all other Praxians anyway, so where's the beef? As with Western Heresies, the more similar two (peoples/religions) are, the more they have to fight about. As the morokanth live rather differently and prefer different areas of the Plaines, probably they generate fewer conflicts with other Animal Nomad tribes. (Which may mean that Praxians' instinctive or irrational hatred of the morokanth is greater, because they have fewer 'rational' reasons to compete/conflict with each other).
> It was also implied that morokanth would eat sentient humans. I would dispute
> this, this would be in direct violation of the covenant and I believe that
> they go out of their way to avoid this.
I'd concur. Evil morokanth might eat sentient humans. So too would the Cannibal Cult, or bad-ass Gagarthi bandits, or Ogres, or just about any starving denizens of Prax, likely including other Animal Nomad tribes: remember that most religious prohibitions are to stop you doing things you just might do otherwise (Yelmic cross-dressing).
I believe (anecdotally) that the morokanth penchant for martial arts and eating dead sentient humans derived initially from player character actions in games at Chaosium, rather than from well-considered background material. The morokanth martial artist was hilariously *unusual* (not typical), and the morokanth and the troll PCs ate someone else's dead character more as a sick joke than as a serious commentary on Praxian dietary mores. But I could be wrong. Certainly, I wouldn't place too much weight on either piece of evidence.
> It is possible that the Hill of Gold quest (not HoG, please) came from the
> elves, but it is well known from ancient Dara Happa and pretty-old Imther.
I now incline to believe it's a ritual combat ascending a Ziggurat, part of a failed attempt to hold the Ten Tests and create a new Emperor during the Great Darkness, in which every participant (Zorak Zoran, Orlanth, Inora, Elmal, Yelmalio, Shargash, Antirius, sundry others) was trying to become "King of the Castle". But when I say this, I *don't* mean that this is the "one true answer" - -- rather that this is how this myth/event would be seen by a Dara Happan scholar trying to fit "Yelmalio" into his scriptural history.
I doubt humans have picked up much from the elves, though examples are welcome. I particularly doubt that the remarkably un-elvish Cult of Yelmalio (Sun Dome Temple) owes anything to them, although we know they have a reputation for being "elf-friends" (Flowerbringers, Sunripeners: is it any wonder?). The Aldryami cult, whatever we call it, isn't going to be a cult of uptight repressed phalangites, is it now?
___
Pam reminded us:
> Things we consider _normal_ on Glorantha already have a magical base.
> Enslaving the natural forces of the world beyond the accepted covenants
> - like trapping an undine for use in a landlocked waterwheel - will have
> dangerous repercussions.
Thanks! This is one of the things we were working towards at the HeroQuesting seminar Down Under: the world likes to get back into balance; actions create reactions; you can't buck the cosmos.
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