Re: Gloranthan Cosmos

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 23:26:54 GMT


Peter Metcalfe gets all Velikovskian on us:

> Glorantha has two poles, the Sea of flame and Valinds Glacier.

OK, I'll be the straight man. Why is only one pole all cold, then? Anyone care for an equatorial Sea of Fire, and an undiscovered southern hemisphere? (Obviously this is where Brithos, the Godlearners, and all those odd socks and missing biro's end up.)

[Much jolly good, Greg's-arteries-hardening material snipped]

> Mastakos: Known as Uleria to the Dara Happans. [...]
> Its orbit is a problem and I haven't the afflatus yet
> to arrive at a satisfactory answer. My best idea so far is
> that there are two such planets orbiting diametrically opposed
> to each other.

Before I was Gregged by The Perfect Sky, I suggested that Mastakos might be believed by the Dara Happans to be two such planets, the Messengers to Above/from Below, whose names I naturally forget for the moment (but they are Messengers). (And part of the 10-somethings-or-other, along with the 8 Celestial sons.)

> Yelm: In days gone by, a disaster struck this planet and it was
> forced into a geosynchronus orbit above Hell.

Please, Gloranthosynchronous orbit! (Being in orbit around a small barbarian catering cult would be just _silly_.) Obviously, similar explanations yield a handy Golden Age, if one believes in the "no days/nights" interpretation of same).

> Lightfore. Details unknown to me as yet. Difficult to visit.

Clearly, broken off bits of Yelm, from all those High Energy Braking Maneouvers, accreted at one of it's Lagrange (or Trojan, or whatever, I forget (again)) points.

Alternatively: it's a _binary_ solar system, with the two stars varying in magnitude over time in highly confusing and unrealistic ways, due to unrationalised transfers of mass, or whatever, resulting in all that wacky GRAY "swapped places" stuff. (Lightfore is a White Dwarf -- yay!)

> Sky Dome: Pieced with Numerous Holes called stars.

Note that if one assumes Yelm orbits the Gloranosphere, then it is possible for the stars to be Actual Stars. Or vice versa, if the stars are on a fixed dome at limited distance, then G. _could_ be in orbit around Yelm, also given a translucent Sky Dome (hence no Aether, and the stars are actual lights, not holes). Planets are a Big Problem in scenario 1, probably OK in the second case.

(But as previously noted, you can't have an Actual Sun _and_ Actual Stars.)

> Bear in mind, that these findings were rejected by the God Learners
> as mass hallucinations [...]

Be fair, probably never all that "mass". ;-)

Trippily,
Alex.


End of Glorantha Digest V4 #294


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