Blue Meanies from Cheiron on 1996-08-02 (Glorantha Digest Vol 03)

From: Cheiron <cheiron_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 12:47:12 -0700

I hope I'm not double posting this. My server (curse them) crapped out in the middle of typing this up, so I'm trying again. Anyway, here goes:

Lately, there's been some debate on the whereabouts of the missing Blue Vadeli. Personally, I always wondered if the enslaved Blues of Pamaltela might be the shattered remains of the Blue Vadeli caste. Off the top of my head I remember they once controlled a vast Empire dedicated to Artmal and the Blue Moon, but couldn't these be distorted rememberences of (or even God Learner misinformation about) the Vadeli sea domininence? I always thought it would be fun to run a Pamaltelean campaigh where the characters were oppressed Blues struggling for freedom, keep it going for a while, then, when all looked darkest, have a bunch of Red Vadeli show up, bow down to the lowly Blue PCs and pronounce them masters of the seas.

On a side note, one of my oldest RQ characters was an Esrolian from a region known as "New Vadeli," inhabited by "descendents of refugees of a lost people." Now this was ages ago (15+ yrs) and I had no idea who the Vadeli were. One day the GM (who was an RQ II playtesters and part of the Chaosium house campaign) casually mentioned that my character (and everyone else from New Vadeli) had blue skin. Now, I'm still running this character (off and on) and after 15 years of RQ he is by far my most frightening character. (You know the type, Sword of Humakt, heroquester, seven feet tall, three uses of Sever Spirit, could fight blindfolded and still crit more than he fumbled. Shit, I think I've just unmasked myself as a brain-dead power-gamer. Can I just add that he has a fascinatingly complex personality and richly layered history... and of course, Onslaught would kick his ass, but it's probably too late to redeem myself.) Anyway, while he's by no means a Macheavellian manipulator of events, he's a pretty good strategist. Makes me wonder if that original GM (who I have talked to in years) knew something that I didn't. :)