Who quotes my menses musings:
"so following the RW model. . . one per season"
Her reply:
"Don't you mean one per week? Or rather, one per moon cycle, choosing an appropriate moon?
Or one every 28-30 days, because that's the way the human body works?"
No, that's not what I mean!
In the RW menses are effected by the moon. A woman on earth doesn't have one period a month she has one every 28 days (approx.) more or less because of the RW moon. We don't know and can never know whether women six thousand years ago all had their periods within a week of a full moon. That would certainly have given them a reason to watch the moon and perhaps to create a calendar that matched their "SEASONs".
People used to use a calendar that had 13 months each 28 days long. This is a LUNAR month. it has nothing to do with the length of RW months we use today or the length of seasons on Glorantha.
This RW cause & effect is nonexistent on Glorantha. Trying to tie Gloranthan female cycles to the RW model is unimaginative and sterile. It ain't the way woman would work on Glorantha! There's no "earthly" reason for it.
Using the RW model that woman experience fertility once each "cycle" (a period of time as yet undetermined on Glorantha) could be used to explain the length of a season. Wouldn't that be a neat reason for the length of a season? The seasons existed long before the Red Goddess rose into the sky. She and her moon can't be the basis for a woman's period, however womens' periods could be the basis for the length of a season and the length of a year! Why not?
Complaints about RW females being "perpetually available" and that one season per year would adversely effect population are ridiculous as other people have pointed out. Sexual availability has nothing to do with ability to conceive. RW women can't have more than one child a year regardless of how many seasons they have.
I think that the one menses a Gloranthan season works very well! I believe that reflecting on how it would effect humam behavior and society would be a good exercise. I'd be fascinated by what evolves from this theory. I doubt it would make human's unrecognizable for player characters. I think the change is negligible yet important for Glorantha lore.
Comments?
Has anyone ever had to deal with this in a game?
I suspect nobody cares,
but if asked, everyone would like to be able to answer a player's question on this topic.
Paul Harmaty
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dragons live forever, but not so little boys
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Powered by hypermail