> Quite a few messages have been doubled recently...
Probably due to Compu$erve's new mailing software, which is much less user-friendly than the old package and makes it quite easy (it seems) to accidentally double-post. Both David and myself are hardened Compu$erve users wrestling with this new set-up, which is the most likely common factor in the recent duplications. No action by Shannon is necessary. (BTW, if you're on Compu$erve and haven't yet installed the release 3 software... don't!).
> There are no native dogs in Prax, or very few IMO.
Prax Hounds appear on the price lists in Pavis, and Brother Dog and the Unsleeping Dog are native spirits: I think you're wrong. Ask Sandy: IIRC he posted something about what dogs are used for on the Plaines a couple of years back.
And what's this rubbish about "Elmal being less martial than Heler", eh? Elmal is the Loyal Thane Guarding the Light, who possesses his own weapons and military gear, fought Orlanth when they first met, and is left to guard the stead in Orlanth's absence. Heler has none of these attributes, and is *known* not to be a warrior (he never carries weapons). Are your unstated theories running away with you?
FWIW, I *still* don't see much that's "Elvish" about the Sun Dome Templars, and remain unconvinced. Find me one good reason; just saying that "Light Sons sound Elvish to me" ain't good enuf. Especially if it leads you down the blind alley of positing a non-martial (Light Priests only) Elmal cult at the core of Monrogh's militant Sun Dome Temple in Dragon Pass.
A straight question: just what is there about the Praxian Sun Dome Temple (as described in "Sun County") that makes you leap up and cry: "Aha! A clear sign of elvish influence!"? If we have to bin one of the few recent RQ supplements in order to entertain your theory, I suggest a rethink is in order.
_____ _________
Peter "No Pigs!" Metcalfe:
> As for the Mralot worship in Balazar, you forget the fact that
> the worship of Mralota may have _diffused_ from its Manirian
> homeland by the actions of the EWF or some other polity to have
> arrived at Balazar in the third age.
Balazar is said to have stolen a magical idol of Mralota "from dragons" (EWF?) for his people, since which time (the late Second Age) pigs have been raised at the citadels only. Balazar was a foreigner who nicked stuff from all over, so we can't be sure how far away this Miss Piggy statue came from. But it does look unlikely (with the Votanki anti-pig prejudice) that they're native Balazaring beasties.
> We have records of Ernalda from the First Age and before. What
> we do not have is details of her being worshipped as a Pig Goddess
> nor do we have records of her being called Mralota. Finally we do
> not have hard evidence of Mralota being worshipped in First Age
> Peloria...
... or indeed of Mralota being worshipped in Balazar at all until the late Second Age, when all of the available evidence suggests that she is just as foreign to the Votanki scene as Citadel Kings, the Cult of Yelmalio, and Balazar himself.
I'd agree with Peter: what with Harand Boar-Dick, Aram-Ya-Udram, Ramalia, the Sacred Pigs of Ernalda, the Tusk Rider homeland (future empire of Tusker Jon), Wenelian Boar Worship (OK, my own addition to fit the matrix), etc., it seems we're looking at a Manirian home for piggery.
Cadwyn the Page-Boy once warned a visiting barbarian against casual sex with Esrola Priestesses at a banquet in Durengard: "They say 'All Men are Pigs', and they have magics to prove it. Those who trifle with their affections are shape-changed into sacred swine, which are kept in a muddy sty at their temples and fed on swill, until the time comes for a Sacrifice..." (Cadwyn was my first character in David Hall's Greydog game, and this happened in my first gaming session with his group. The old ones are the best, eh?).
> I understand Jeff Richard will be running one of his Orlanthi
> mini-LARPs. These are rules-light, and a lot of fun. Maybe I'll
> find some woad anyway...
Aw, gee, guys, looks like I'm going to have to cancel my run of "Tarsh War" after all... :-)
(Don't worry: if enough players manifest, so will my run of the game. If not enough folk turn up for a second run, I will use knees, elbows, eye-gouging and *teeth* in order to get a place in Jeff's freeform session).
Re: Mralota
> It's less likely that Balazar stole her idol from his own lands (he
> wouldn't need to steal it)
Balazar was a foreigner, not a Votanki. But it does look unlikely he nicked it from the now-pigless Votanki, what with Yalaring's prejudice an' all. Of course, common sense rarely derails Stevie's theories, so we may be in for the long haul with this one...
> The biggest problem with RunePower is stacking.
OK, quick fix time. Max. points of any Rune spell stacked in one RunePower casting equals the square root of (POW plus magic points expended to cast):
POW+MP points stacked
1-3 one
4-8 two
9-15 three
16-24 four
25-35 five
36-48 six
49-63 seven
etc.
So a POW 18 Storm Voice who *really* wants to fry the End Of Scenario Monster can zap it with a single six-point lightning blast (cost: 18 personal Magic Points; if he has over a dozen MP stored he could maybe up that to seven points?). Or cast any number (up to his max. RunePower points) of four-point Lightnings without breaking a sweat. You see how it works. If you don't like this particular math, invent your own table (or just round it differently, or forbid the use of magic points to boost Rune magic). It's pretty easy this way, and seems to fit the RQ2 paradigm (i.e. that *nobody* stacks more than four points at one go).
I think, apropos of Dave Cheng's recent suggestion, that "sacrificing POW for RunePower" and "spending time learning new spells" are two distinctly separate activities, else what's the point of it all, eh? It should be harder to "learn associate cult spells", probably requiring an associate cult temple and priest for a whole week or so.
> I was wondering if anyone out there had some ideas or examples
> of "Flowery Orlanthi Language" that I could incorporate into my DI?
How's about this?
Stale wind, curse of existence, (let's) be gone!
Help us out and let us flee;
You are evil, we adore you,
As we lie and whimper behind this Lightbringer Temple door
while the Lunar Army assembles outside to kick our
butts at the start of the next gaming session...
'zat useful? There's lots more Orlanthi 'Poetry' on "Staves from the Storm Voice" (from GoG), also in "Wyrms Footprints" and "River of Cradles". It doesn't have to scan, rhyme or make sense, and there are *bound* to be lots of cowardly running-away verses (bloody barbarians, never stand and fight like real men, scarper for the hills at the first sight of a Red Cloak, mutter mutter).
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