Peter Metcalfe
>There is another document apparently but it is only available to those
>who have partaken of Greg's Wastebasket (he says sniffily).
Rather his to do list. Once upon a time a couple of people had a discussion about the nature of Orlanth even Greg listened in for a while, and he gave us a tantalizing tidbit titled "the People of Harmast". Essentially lots of names with short notes attached, giving a _very_ rough outline for the Orlanthi roots in the Darkness. It had all the children and tribes of Vingkot listed, though, which was published somewhere recently, I seem to recall, though I can't say where (I tried to find it in Wyrm's Footnotes). Another thing included was the lineage of Heort, printed in KoS. I think most of it was digested for Broken Council, written around that time.
[midget cattle]
>>Ever wondered why it takes eight oxen to make up a plow team? If the beasts
>>were Scottish Highland bull size, two would be enough, maybe four, but
>>eight? There is no kind of light plow eight modern-sized oxen would not
>>break in no time short.
>Amazing. One obscure phrase in the Report of the Orlanthi and Joerg
>transforms all the cattle to stunted midgets.
I'm just applying real world historical facts to Glorantha. Sorry that this is news to most of you, it was to me when I read it in the excavation reports on Hedeby (and they are a boooooooring read, when it comes to size and frequency of chicken legs - I gave up halfway through that). There is anecdotal evidence for the lesser size of Germanic cattle elsewhere.
>As if the proposal
>to have Elves as hive minds weren't alien enough. If the cattle
>were really all that small then why aren't the Orlanthi hooking up
>ordinary sized *horses* which could do the job better (even without
>a horse collar)?
Because a horse using a yoke was even less effective. Horse collars are somewhat recent developments.
>Methinks the team implies rotation of the oxen
>on the plow rather than a full component of oxen.
Four full-sized oxen would ruin any light plow, too.
>[A tangle of quotes violating rule #2
Noticed that, but too late. Sorry.
>Joerg posits that the Hyalorings must have had contact with Prax in their
>formative stages because they know Peaceful Cut
>What makes you think that Orlanthi herders and butchers don't
>use Peaceful Cut?
Rather: Who makes me think that: Sandy Petersen, in direct conversation about this.
>Have you ever tried to slaughter an animal
>in an agitated state?
Yes, though only fish. Usually you calm the victim by a blow to the head, or similar.
>IMO *every* human culture [...] that slaughters animals for
>food knows Peaceful Cut (or a variant thereof).
Once I thought so, too, but I was told otherwise, and digested that information.
>Since the cults
>of Voriof and Barntar have not been written up yet, I see no
>reason not to assume that the Orlanthi do not know Peaceful Cut.
I don't believe Barntar has much of a slaughtering tradition, his cult is that of the grain farmer. What oxen are slaughtered in his name are as sacrifices (eaten nonetheless), IMO.
Voriof as the boys' cult won't have many slaughtering rites, either, but I suppose mutton is a far more common fare than beef in Orlanthi stew. Dunno who does it, unless it's the clan godi, or household head.
>>There might be some myth how horse-Eiritha betrayed Paps-Eiritha, or
>>Mother-Eiritha, and was excluded from the circle of Eirithas (Sable-,
>>Bison-, etc.).
>But there *isn't*. Look at the origins of the Zebra-Tribe - there
>is no myth about any mythical contact between the Pure Horse
>Tribe and the Praxians mentioned there.
Fine. So how comes the resistance to accept the horse, except in bondage? When or where, and most of all how, was this caused? I don't buy the whole stuff as reaction to the Pure Horse tribe invasion.
>>I'd have gone straight through Tork. There was no mad sultanate there,
>>then.
>But it has a reputation of being Chaos Haunted. Valare Addi
>remarks that a Chaos Horde made the pass there.
After being turned by the Unity Battle, yes, for the same reason: Tork offered the most convenient way east. And the "Hyaloring migration from Nivorah" occurred before the Unity Battle.
>Why do you
>think Jannisor Moonchaser imprisoned the Mad Sultannate there?
Because a chaos horde successfully went through it before? Come on. Jannisor succeeded because he found a willing ally in the earth forces at home there.
>The Hyalorings/Jenarongs would be near annihilated by the time they get
>to the alleged safety of the Redlands.
After crossing their own river, at their own centre of power, and marching through an open gap of a non-militant people? By whom would they have been annihilated? The advancing ice?
>How do you think they manage to
>set themselves up as a nobility in Pent? They lost whatever strength
>they had to 'impose' themselves on the Pelorian Cities
Were the Nivorah people ever dominant anywhere in or north of Alkoth? I doubt that. So what strength had they lost? Esoecially if their "city" was a pure Plentonian fiction...
>- what makes you
>think the Pentans are going to lie down and let the refugees walk over
>them?
The same effect the Pure Horse tribe had in Prax, only among people sufficiently similar to be absorbed. At least some of them, the Jenarongs and a couple of other rider folks obviously weren't subsumed.
>Perhaps there was no contact between the Pentans and the Praxians?
You don't want it, I still do. Let's disagree. Your evidence is as bad as mine.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #317
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