Bunch of stuff.

From: MSmylie_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 14:28:08 -0400


Hello all.

First off, I'm a bit mystified by what happened to my Seasonal Festival calendar over the weekend, as I doublechecked and I had, in fact, sent it to the right address at the Wharton server; whatever, I'm just glad it arrived.  A couple of catch-up notes -- I'm glad that Nils and Nick E. liked the ritual calendar suggestion as an addendum to Nils' YAHQS, hope they can come up with something, and appreciate Nick Brooke's general confirmation of seasonal/sun progression in Glorantha (though the spring equinox occuring in the middle of Sacred Time actually kind of screws up my thinking; oh well).  Michael Raaterova posted a bunch of good stuff on calendrical festivals, and I think that we're probably pretty close to general agreement on most of it; however, as Michael and I seem to be carrying on what amounts to a two-way conversation I will restrict a point-by-point breakdown of our differences to private email soon, assuming that's okay with Michael.

I agree with David Dunham that the Lightbringers' Festival occurs during the Sacred Time, but my own interpretation of the _RoC_ write-up is that the Storm Season holy day (celebrating Orlanth's birth, I believe) is actually a close second to the "most holy" rituals of the LBQ. I guess this might be a bit like trying to decide which is more important, Christmas or Easter, so I will concede the point.

Simon Phipp commented on the calendar idea:

>That is what the God Learners used to do. First of all you look
>at some cults, then you take their Holy Day festivals and work out the
>important parts, then you add those things which you think should be there
>and finally impose those festivals onto other cults.

Hmm; actually, just as a side note, the process was actually closer to the opposite. I had a number of festival and ritual calendars written up based mostly on RW calendars (Celtic and Old European fire festivals, the Athenian and Roman cultic calendars) and looked for the most seasonally- and farming-based festivals I could, thinking that they would be the most 'Orlanthi' in feel. Having established what I thought made the most sense as a seasonal progression, I tried to figure out which gods would figure most "naturally" in each festival's myths. Orlanthi calendar first, Orlanthi gods/cults second. God Learneresque, yes, but I am uncertain of a better way of going about it; if Simon or anyone else has any suggestions I'd be glad to hear 'em.

>Generic festivals are all very well, but I perfer to have specific festivals
>for each cult. So, Ernalda, Asrelia and Aldrya all have High Holy Day
>festivals during Fertility Week/Earth Season and are all Earth Cults, but
>their festivals would be very dissimilar.

For the most part, I tend to agree. In the first place, the suggested calendar was Orlanthi in nature, and the festival calendars of the Esrolians, the Aldryami, the Dara Happans and Lunars, the Praxians, etc., would presumably all look different; I'm not even sure if similar festivals and holy days would necessarily occur on the same exact calendrical dates in different cultures (now _that's_ God-Learneresque). Secondly, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I didn't necessarily intend for the calendar to _replace_ a schedule of cultic holy days, though I suppose it could, rather that this was meant to be a public calendar of events rather than a private (initiates-only) calendar -- the calendar arose out of a discussion of pantheon initiation, so I was trying to figure out how a broad community can participate in a form of collective worship. Finally, each festival should ideally be broken down into a more detailed series of constituent events, which could presumably include separate holy day worship ceremonies spread out over several days. Simon's points are appreciated, thanks.



Okay, so here comes the somewhat touchier part where I shoot myself in the foot --

Watching MOB delurk to slam David Boatright, I was initially going to avoid commenting at all, particularly in that as a _non_established poster who regularly makes lengthy reference to RW scholarship I assume that I am someone that contributes to the "pedantic, academic esoterica" that leaves MOB cold -- and, incidentally, if it was my reference to Finley's _World of Odysseus_ or recent digressions on comparative religion that made Jane Williams, or anyone else, choose to avoid posting to the digest, then I heartily apologize. To be a bit defensive, I'll admit I'm lucky enough to have a pretty decent personal library to which I can make regular recourse, but in general I'm willing to post such references in part because a) the digest seems a reasonably literate bunch, if the number of .edu addresses and doctorates is any indication, and b) most of the stuff I refer to can be found in any decent bookstore or library, which, as a side note, is _not_ the case with most items of Gloranthan ephemera unless you happen to be a regular attendant at Cons willing to drop a load at an auction.

Anyway, MOB and others have slammed David for his negatism and "defeatism" as regards the future of RQ. Some have noted, frex, that recent converts have a broad sampling of material to purchase, and frankly I would tend to agree that the sum total of support material now available is considerable without even bothering to include nonAH products.

OTOH, I think David has a pretty good point about the glacial pace of official (or even non-official) RQ products, particularly when looked at from the perspective from long-time players. While there's little question IMO that there's been a Renaissance of sorts (and high praise to those responsible), on a certain level over the course of close to two decades this is a strictly recent development -- for a long time, 'new' RQ/Gloranthan material was little more than repackaged reprints (frex TPak, TGods, SPH, ALane, etc) which should have come out largely _as_a_matter_of_course_. As much as I like my brand new _Wyrm's Footprints_ (even with the blank pages/printer's error) and the idea of a BUTTS package (shot down now, I gather), most of it is, after all, 10 - 20 year old material being recycled (even if it is necessary, and I agree that it is) and kind of hard to find.

Further, David's key point, after all, was "At Greg's address, he put the final nail in RQ's coffin," with the emphasis on _RQ_. It seems reasonably obvious that for some time now (since the sale, I guess) RuneQuest and Glorantha are _not_ the same thing in the minds of many of its designers and players (even the separation of the rq-rules and glorantha digests illustrates that pretty well). As David was presumably not the only person at the Con (and several posters have made veiled references to Big Things which were revealed about the future of Glorantha and RQ), it should be a relatively simple matter of determining if this is accurate. Having emailed David, I will accede to David's wish to avoid posting his report publicly, but presumably those that were at the Con know what David is referring to and if anyone thinks he's misinterpreting Greg's _specific_ comments, then let the rest of us know.

Oh well. Back into the woodwork, I think. Mark Smylie

Quick p.s., David Cake asked:
>Has anyone else thought of using Cerebus for a source for
>Gloranthan stuff? I think my Yelmic campaign will drawn on it fairly
>heavily for inspiration, High Society and Church and State at any rate.

Way back (like '83 or 4) a friend of mine insisted on playing the 'last of the aardvarks' in a Prax campaign I ran; we came up with a small ancestor-cult of the aardvarks (which included a Cerebus hero-cult) which he was attempting to revive, but then again that was before RQ3 and the temple size rules. That was also before the revelation of Cirin's 'ethnic' identity; personally, I would go with Cirin _is_ the Red Goddess, and yup, she's an aardvark, and -- here's the tricky part -- _so_is_Argrath_. Hence the persecution of the ducks becomes a case of misinterpreting prophetic visions, confusing feathers with fur and beaks with snouts :-).


End of Glorantha Digest V3 #82


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