MOB on Ducks, Swamp Water, Linguistics

From: Stephen Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 23:32:20 EDT


To All (MOB in particular)

I put the word official in quotations not because I accept everything Sandy says and does as official, but because most people seem to. I will say that I do give Sandy's statements and ideas more weight and credence than anyone else's, as a general rule, though there are specific exceptions, as this Duck thang proves.

As to why I put the word "article" in quotes, that is because I do not view this as a single article. It is not one article by two people, it is two separate articles mashed together in a way I found confusing -- the typefaces were not _that_ different from each other. And the mixing of the two tended, I think, to give Martin Crim's views an implied validity by mixing them in with Sandy's. That was my impression, anyways. And I singled this article out because it is the only one I know which is presented in this way. I would much have preferred that Mike Dawson give us Sandy's views, and then Martin's a few pages earlier or later.

As for that article presaging Drastic, that's because I took some of what Sandy said and included it in my article, with his permission.

Simon Phipp
>But Undead walk under water, reach up and pull the little Duck under,
STR
>vs STR and the duck loses and eventually drowns. Obviously, this doesn't
>apply to Vampires.

According to the original information in Cults of Terror, Swamps were not anathema to vampires -- it is only running water they have to avoid. So, a vampire could also stalk ducks in and near the marsh.

As for linguistics, I shoudl have been clearer -- I was _not_ referring to most of the RQ1 and RQ2 naming. Except that most of the deity names had more thought than you apparently realize -- ever notice the similarity between Umath and Humakt, Chalana Arroy and Arroin, Yelm and Ehilm, Worlath and Orlanth, Vingkot and Vinga, Maran Gor and Babeester Gor, Esrola and Asrelia, Sramak and Zaramaka, etc. Note that the name Ehilm is older, in Greg's writings, than Yelm. Even Mralota and Ernalda can be shown to have a common root, if you want to. Greg has always been aware of linguistic links, IMO, though he has not used them consistently or heavily until the last few years, in his work on Peloria. And 90% or more of the names in GRoY and Entekosiad were specifically designed with some sort of linguistic consistency in mind. Peter Metcalfe can give more details than I can on that point.

My point was that you can trace the movements of some peoples from the names they are given. Not the stupid, Hobbitish names some of the older ones have (most of those were not made up by Greg, anyways), but the Gloranthan names.

And, as I said, linguistics is not an exact science in the RW. Why would I suggest that it is in Glorantha?

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

- -----------------------------------------------
The Book of Drastic Resolutions
drastic_at_juno.com

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