What with the recent (well, not so recent, but...) discussion about ducks, I've been thinking more about their trickster figure.
Beginning with their very inclusion in the game, ducks have been the quintessential comic figures of Glorantha. As others have attested to on this digest, their effects on the game can even be seen in the "real world." (To paraphrase: "Glorantha? Isn't that the place you can pretend you're Donald Duck?") And since they are ALREADY such comic and scapegoated figures, it seems to me that the duck trickster figure shouldn't be the "duck for ducks." But, if he's not a duck and he isn't a comic figure to the ducks, then what is he?
In RQAF #1 John Castellucci cast Weasel as the durulz trickster in Sartar. Until now I had accepted this (even to the point of writing about Weasel in my "<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/pmichaels/glorantha/stories/wnh.html">Weas el and Hueymakt Make a Trade" story) without really figuring out exactly _why_ this fit. Now, thinking about it, John's choice suddenly makes perfect sense to me.
On a mythic level Weasel is an important figure to the ducks because he is their natural predator: ducks feed Weasel with their bodies, thereby becoming him. He is in many ways the "other side of the coin" of ducks. Ducks are communal, Weasel is solitary. Ducks are civilized, Weasel is uncivilized. Ducks are diurnal, Weasel is nocturnal. Ducks live above the ground, Weasel lives below the ground. Ducks hide, Weasel seeks. (Note that this sort of inversion is typical of trickster figures.)
He is also important because he takes the ducks seriously when no one else
will. Ducks are made fun of, laughed at, made the butt of jokes, and
scapegoated by EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. Only Weasel never makes fun of them.
He may chase ducks, hunt ducks, torment ducks, kill ducks, and eat ducks,
but he always takes ducks seriously. Only Weasel treats the durulz with any
respect, entering into the hunter/hunted bond with them. (Note that being
"the exception to the rule" is also typical of trickster figures.)
I'm not sure Weasel is actually worshipped by the durulz, but stories are definitely told about him and there are probably both rituals to ward against him and rituals to appease him. Some of these rituals might border on worship at times though, such as when there is a famine so severe that ducks turn to "eggicide" to survive. The ritualized behaviors of duckish outcasts may also fall into this category. (Weirdos! Psycho ducks! The duck equivalent of Frank from "Trainspotting"!)
Although humans and trolls may find Weasel somewhat humorous, for ducks he's the bogeyman. Slick, fast, and sharp-toothed, he's scary like a Woozel or the weasels in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" A strong and prosperous duck community may laugh nervously at him, but it's like our society's laughter at the guy who wears only black and has had his teeth sharped. ("Weasel: The Massacre" anyone?) A weak and impovershed duck community will find only fear and panic in Weasel.
A cult description for Weasel is at the end of this message.
Of course none of this will stop a duck from worshipping that
oh-so-typical-human, Eurmal. In such cases the duck Eurmali will receive
even more ridicule and mistrust than usual, _especially_ from other ducks!
But this is a rare, given how unlikely it is that a human Eurmali "priest"
will actually initiate a duck into the Eurmal cult (as opposed to the
"initiation" being a long and drawn out joke designed to ridicule the duck
even further than existence already has).
I might as well mention a bit about the Dead Man shrine here. It is a
trickster shrine that appears only to Eurmal initiates in or near Duck Point
(and only when there are no ducks around to see it). The shrine appears as a
dead (almost always human) body, which the Eurmali will somehow immediately
recognize as being the corpse of a fellow trickster initiate. The initiate
will have to make a POW roll to keep from going towards the body and touching
it. (The corpse itself can easily be looted, buried, or whatever.) If he
does touch it, the initiate will immediately discover he knows the spirit
spell Hiccup. He will also discover that every duck who sees him starts
hiccupping. The trickster is usually helpless with laughter when he is
finally lynched by the hiccupping duck mob (who are always furious with
indignation and pain). His body will later reappear to the next fool to
enter Duck Point, as the new Dead Man shrine. (The mob will also usually try
to lynch anybody else who is laughing too, which is pretty hard for a human
not to do when listening to 20-40 hiccupping ducks. Local humans know to
"head for the hills" when they hear more than one duck hiccupping!) If the
trickster does manage to escape, the last Eurmali body will continue to
appear as the shrine. Most of the time leaving the Duck Point area is enough
to remove the curse (which can be seen as the cost for learning the spell
instantly, or just the cost of being a trickster), but not always.
Well, that's my two quacks worth on the subject.
Peace,
Peter
Weasel is a spirit connected with the runes of Illusion and Beast. Few recognize him as an impishly murderous incarnation of Trickster.
Summoning:
A spirit summoning ritual is used to contact Weasel. Known foci of power include a bloody duck feather or a piece of duck egg shell. Weasel's shrine is a large rock on the northern edge of the Upland Marsh.
Worship:
Weasel is well known as a spirit who hunts ducks, and as such is frequently worshipped by humans and trolls who seek to kill ducks. He teaches such hunters the Spirit Magic spells Silence and Detect Duck. He will teach one point of spell per duck or duck egg offerred. As duck hunters rarely have their prey before the hunt begins, he is willing to teach the spells to hunters anyway, providing they agree to pay him later and leave him some collateral. The only item Weasel will accept as collateral is the hunter's penis. (Female hunters are SOL for this "special offer.") They do this by placing their member into a crack in Weasel's rock, and when they turn away they are missing their penis. Weasel will return it (by a reverse process) only when the hunter has returned with one duck or duck egg per spell point learned. Some people (usually tricksters) have been successful in learning the hunting magic for free by fooling Weasel with a fake penis. Duck-hunting Weasel worshippers are NOT considered Trickster initiates, and may not automatically sacrifice for magic at any other Trickster shrine.
Trickster initiates who worship Weasel may also sacrifice for the Divine Magic spell Remove Penis on a reuseable basis. To learn the divine spell the trickster must bring Weasel a pretty young female of the initiate's race (between 14 and 22 years old, at least APP 15) for Weasel to have sex with. The woman does not need to be a willing participant. Note that occasionally Weasel will get confused (or maybe just hungry) and treat the woman as if she were a duck.
Description:
When initially summoned Weasel usually appears as a normal sized ( if somewhat Disneyesque) weasel. If offered a duck/duckling/duck egg, or a woman, he will transform into a giant slavering crazed weasel who immediately jumps on his victim.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #134
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