Ducks, VRML, feminism from Jane Williams on 1997-07-30 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Jane Williams <janewill_at_mail.nildram.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:26:59 +0000

Ducks
Sergio said:
>In fact, if ducks survived the chaos frenzy,
>it was not only because they did find some powerful friends, but also
>because the river was open to offer them shelter wen they needed.
I certainly wouldn't argue with that. Might I suggest that the chaos-cleansing powers of flowing water (c.f. Cleansed One sub-cult of Zola Fel) might give the ducks a positive advantage against Chaos? And that their link with Humakt might have been strengthened by their using this power to help him against Undead?

And on duck Issaries initiates: given that they now control a boating trade route, do they have a sub-cult of Issaries Boatman? Humans can join it, but it's mainly for ducks?

Simon Phipp said:
> Do you know about Duck Pond and Duck Tower - serious treatment of Ducks
I have copies of these on loan, and found that while the locations described were quite good, they didn't seem to fit anywhere specific in Glorantha. There was very little Duck background in them, just descriptions of abandoned Duck sites. Has anyone managed to find locations for them that make sense?

VRML
Philip Hibbs said:
>Hey, I've just worked it out! RuneQuest Sight is actually a
>mistranslation, the original is 'RuneQuest Site', which was a
>God Learner VRML simulation of the God and Hero Planes.
Funny you should say that. I was in the process of working out the hyperlinks and Javascript needed for a small VRML representation of a HeroQuest :)
If the GodLearners did that for even a small fraction of the HeroPlane, then I have the deepest respect for their coding skills.

Feminism
Sergio Mascarenhas came up with some interesting ideas, some of which I'll have to think about. Specific immediate comments: >3. But the ascent of the red moon was a chock to barbarian women in another >sense. They perceived it as the obscene exposition of a secret to be kept >only to women: the secret of menstrual cycles. (I suppose that women's >physiology in Glorantha is the same as that of women in earth and they have
>menstrual cycles). If female physiology is the same as on earth, the
menstrual cycle takes four weeks, not one. Speeding it up that much would be a very major change, believe me. In fact, your comments about being stuck in the "red" phase seem like a fair description of the results.

Your comments on Ernalda's possible marriage to the Red Emp. seem to me to be back to front. Marriage to Ernalda, as head of the Earth Pantheon is the Sacred Marriage. Her husband becomes King of the Gods by virtue of being married to her. The problem would not be her being "second" to earlier wives, but the Red Emp. replacing Orlanth as King. Of course, the Lunars may have a slightly different view on this :)

What did women do against the Lunars?
I assume you're referring to something other than the various women who took the warrior path, since that's traditionally male. I don't have any definite answers on this one yet, but there are some areas it might be worthwhile looking into.

The Esrolians. The Building Wall was raised, presumably by them, against a Lunar army. In the early 1620s a lot of the anti-Lunar action was taking place over there, with all sorts of Earth alliances involved: Red Earth, Old Earth, Warm Earth, you name it. If you can sort out who was allied to who, when, and why, you're probably well on the way to a solution. Convincing people to act together is very much a feminine solution IMO.
The FHQs. Take a look at the FHQs in the 1620s, too. "Single Matron Woman" was killed fighting in Esrolia (probably against Broyan and his army). The Grazer King seems to have been killed by his own followers shortly afterwards and as a result. The next Grazer King was Jandetin, who was very anti-Lunar: the next FHQ is more difficult to sort out. She is said to have encouraged warbands: and we know that those warbands were raiding the Lunars. She is said to have sent vendref in migration: where? What was it she did to her son, and why? And while we know she had something to do with the Brown Dragon, what was it? Personally I suspect that the *Brown* Dragon had strong Earth connections, and that it was largely due to the FHQ that it was summoned, though she died as a result of the ritual used. Her quarrel with the majority of the Grazers was that they would have preferred her to lead them in war as her predecessor had done, rather than using more indirect methods.

Does that give you a starting point?

Jane Williams                     jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/index.shtml

End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #82

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