OOP stuff:
Personally I HATE people who say that a perfectly good idea is "wrong"
because something that's been OOP for twenty years contradicts it.
Especially when they don't bother to tell us what said OOP item actually
said on the matter, just that we're wrong. A quick precis would not
breach copyright, or how would book reviews ever get written?
That being said, if we restrict our discussion to stuff currently available for purchase, we're sunk. King of Sartar is out, to start with. We can't just ignore the OOP stuff, but perhaps we need to start taking a different attitude to it?
Suggestion for future use: whenever you quote *anything*, assume that at least half your readership do not have the document you're referring to. Now phrase things so it still makes sense. And make sure that if an article has been printed in several places, you at least refer to the most recent, not the oldest: Wyrms Footprints, for instance, which is still in print, not some issue or other of some fanzine that vanished before most of us had heard of Glorantha.
Oh, and if you catch me breaking the above suggestion, please tell me so, loudly and rudely.
Death v. Fertility
I think this is something that again, will vary from one Glorantha to
another: in the "new age" Glorantha, it does make sense to me that
Humakti, Babs Gori etc are infertile, despite what any cult write-ups may
say on the matter. One point I always try to remember is that in
Genertela, Genert is dead. The well-spring of life and fertility just
isn't there, and as a result, making things grow is *hard*.
Guy Hoyle suggested some "practical" aspects of this:
>Babeester Gor worshippers would either have their vaginas sewn shut, or
>perhaps practice clitoridectomies.
..while I'd leave it to those more qualified to comment on the male
"operation", having the vagina sewn shut without a LOT of extra
precautions would leave you with a lot of initiates dying horribly.
Clitordectomies, while not quite as bad, would still leave the victim
much less fit to fight than they were before (probable kidney damage, to
start with). If you really want to know the details (you don't), I'd suggest
reading about the places where this kind of thing (on a lesser scale) is
actually practised in the RW. There's a magazine called "New
Internationist" that specialises in being shocked at all the horrible
things that go on in the world: useful, if disgusting, reading if you
want to know what it's really like to live in third-world conditions or
under what is effectively religious dictatorship.
>Either way is gross.
Yes. But the men get off lightly. I'd go for magically imposed
infertility in both cases myself: Glorantha is a magic-rich universe, it
doesn't need mere physical mutilation for this sort of thing.
**Weapons, re-enactment
For some reason some people seem to have got the idea I'm some sort of
authority on this. I'm not, no way, not in the slightest. I've tried it a
bit (and been very bad at it), which is a step ahead of those who haven't
tried it at all, but we seem to have much more experienced people than me
out there. Listen to them. (But if they use rubber swords instead of
steel ones, add a pinch of salt).
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.ukhttp://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/index.shtml
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