>Anyone see any problems with this account?
>- --
No -- looks pretty brilliant to me. Though I think some of that
accumulated POW has to stay with the Pharaoh on earth, otherwise he's a
bit of a push-over?
Also, since I'm a firm believer in the theists of south-central Glorantha recognizing a division between Body, Soul, and Intellect (which can correspond to Self, World, and Society), I think the Soul becoming an angel is fine. But what becomes of the Body? Does it become a guardian of the Holy Country? The City of Wonders is said to have a "Constant Guard", which I took to mean that it was a bunch of guards who shared a sum of abilities. Like in the old Taran books, when one is killed, the others get stronger -- the total of their stats, for example, are always the same. This seems a good place for all the old bodies.
Jose.Ramos_at_Univ-Angers.fr (Jose Ramos) Trait away
> If your uncle is tired of the embarrasment you are for him, the
>test could be something like: "Orlanth defeats the Five unkillable
Beasts".
>And the coaching would be a bit incomplete: "Oh, I forgot to tell him
that
>the third can be beaten only by singing lullabies. Well, we'll see how
he
>manages (evil chuckle)".
Don't forget that Orlanth usually succeeds at the tasks set him by the Evil Uncles, see King of Sartar pgs. 64-65. And note that most of these Evil Uncles got seriously beat up during the Godswar, though clever Orlanth didn't do the deeds himself. He's a pretty smart god, after all.
Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu> Yelmalio = little yelm?
>Jean Durupt said that he thinks that yelmalio is the beams of light that
>emanate from Yelm's eyes. That made me think of the etymology of
Yelmalio,
>which I believe to mean "little Yelm," much as Orlantio is "little
Orlanth"
>in Imther. So if Yelmalio is a part of Yelm, and is labeled "little
Yelm,"
>then what part suggests itself? The same part that Osiris and John Wayne
>Bobbit lost forever?
This reminds me of the run of Broken Council, where the Dara Happan faction won the final spot on the God, the one they could decide what it was. They made it a penis (since the God was a Goddess at the time). Could _this_ be the true origin of Yelmalio?
On Stars
Having a star appear is NOT an automatic mark of becoming a hero. For example, Argrath, in Hell (KoS pg. 32) did not _get_ a star, he was _offered_ a star. So, sometimes the star is not automatic. Sir Ethilrist seems to have expected a star to appear for him (see A History of My Black Horse Troop), but many of the Dara Happan heroes don't have stars, as far as we know, anyways.
So, I would suggest it is part of the culture -- for Ethilrist, a Westerner, the stars are not gods or spirits, so having them as marks of heroes seems appropriate to me. In Dara Happa, they are ancient gods, so not having them mark heroes seems appropriate. To the Orlanthi, they would be an automatic result of some quests, but merely an optional stop or option for a prize in others.
In other words, an Orlanthi doing the LBQ can have a star as his prize, but he can get something (maybe anything) else instead. However, an Orlanthi doing a Pole Star quest would probably get a star specifically, since that might be the whole point of the quest.
Personally, I don't think Praxian heroes would seek, get, or even expect stars.
The other, more difficult, question, is of what other cultures do to explain the stars which all of a sudden appear. When Ethilrist finally became a Hero, I'm sure he got his star. What do the Orlanthi and Dara Happans say this star is?
Greg has said to me that both Sartar and Pavis did get their own stars at some point. What do other peoples say about those stars? Did the Fonritians, for example, have a hero who was invested at the same time as Pavis, and so they claim that star for him? Did Sartar's star go out when Boldhome was conquered (Greg said no when I asked him, though I won't hold him to that) and, if so, what do other cultures say about the hero _they_ associate with that star?
I prefer crystal spheres and pinpoint holes, myself.
Brian Tickler
Legalese
>Here is a revolutionary computer game that was released with a language
>built into the product to make it expandable by the players themselves.
>This remarkable capability makes the game Quake very similar to a RPG in
>that players are allowed to change or add to the game and are encouraged
>to do so. Now let's suppose for a moment that Id Software came out with
>a press release tomorrow that said: "All Quake owners are hereby
ordered
>to cease and desist in using the Quake C language to add to or modify
>Quake". What do you think would happen? I'll tell you; class-action
>lawsuit for breach of contract.
We're not talking about _developing_ material, we're talking about _selling_ it. And, if one of those Quake developers tried to _sell_ their expansion sets, they would be infringing on id's copyright and/or trademark.
Drastic was the first publication to need approval and, believe me, being an "insider" was not particularly helpful. I cut some material at Chaosium's request, though I admit that not much in this line was requested. And I credit that more to my knowledge of Glorantha, than to my "insider" status -- I specifically did not include material I suspected would not be approved -- why make it harder on myself than I had to? Even so, I almost scrapped the entire thing, a day before it went to the printer's, over the copyright issue.
>Some people have hinted that any show of displeasure with Chaosium's
>current actions would be a disservice to the Glorantha community
Not quite -- I said that anyone who ignored these requirements and _published_ something without permission would be doing a disservice. As it was, I had some serious problems with the copyright issue, which were worked out with some discussion between me and Chaosium.
I want to point out again that Chaosium issued that statement because they _do_ need to protect their ownership of Glorantha. If they don't start doing it, they might not be able to in the future, as the Marion Zimmer Bradley example posted awhile back shows. I very strongly support this move by Chaosium.
>What is not clear right now if whether Chaosium will apply this standard
>fairly across the board. Obviously Tales, Drastic Resolutions, and RQ
>Adventures are all shoo-ins are far as approval goes, but then what?
Not by a longshot. Tales currently does not require approval, as they are (currently) meeting Chaosium's requirement. Drastic will _always_ need approval, because I have no intention of ever taking subscriptions, even if by some miracle I could publish twice per year. And, I have far too many opinions about Glorantha for Greg ever to give me rubber stamp approval -- I have more problems than Tales, for example, because I make more assumptions about Glorantha, more decisions about how I think things are, than most people.
And RQA is probably dead. Even so, it never had _any_ relationship with Chaosium at all -- none, zero. It did not rely upon Chaosium material (though I asked Greg a few questions once for John), didn't deal with major Gloranthan issues most of the time, etc.
And I really am not trying to be offensive, Brian, but you are beginning to sound paranoid -- if anyone at Chaosium even reads the Digest regularly (Shannon, maybe, but that's probably it), I seriously doubt they are going to "mark" you for speaking up.
Gee, I'm not caught up yet, but that'll have to do for now.
Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com
- -----------------------------------------------The Book of Drastic Resolutions
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