>Can anyone point me to references on the distinctions between beast-
>men and hsunchen? There don't seem to be many deep references on
>beast-men; the most information I've seen is in stuff on scorpion
>men, who aren't necessarily representative. It seems as if (to go
>from the Bagog description) that beast-men are tied to both Beast
>and Man, while hsunchen are only tied to Beast, despite appearing and
>acting much more 'man'-like.
Hsunchen despite worshipping beast gods are more mannish than the Beast People. A simple rule of the thumb is that any creature which bears a resemblence to a human being (ie dwarves, trollkin, orlanthi, orges) would be considered to be based on the man rune by the God Learners. Although various sources imply the opposite for some races (ie RQII speaks of Ores being tied to the chaos rune, and giants to the disorder rune) they are still 'man-rune' races.
This is not to say that all 'man-rune' creatures are directly descended from some archaic homonid (or denzien of the Monkey City). Elves for example are probably mandrake roots that have undergone selective breedings so that they look like humans for reasons only known to Aldrya. Dwarves are reversed-engineered imitations (and it shows IMHO) of the original humans by the Ancient Mostali.
>I suppose the big question, mythically/ecologically speaking, is
>why Glorantha contains both types of beings in more or less the same
>regions and ecologies.
They aren't. The Beast people dwell in two regions: Kanthor's Isles and the Beast valley where no Hsunchen live.
>The [Beast People and Hsunchen] clearly related (Bagog offers spells
>to gain a scorpion's carapace and claws) but not the same (Bagog
>doesn't offer Become Scorpion).
Bagog is seemingly related because she was originally a divine scorpion who fell to chaos. But we do not know what gods the *proper* beast people (centaurs, manticores, minotaurs and satyrs but not broos or scorpion people) worship or their mythology. The avaliable information - that the Beast People worship Arachne Solara tells us bugger-all. Hopefully the upcoming 'Book of Belintar' will tell us more (although I shudder to think what horrific relevation a la Elmal/Yelmalio can be contained within it).
>And while I'm at it, are dragonewts really just a kind of dragon
>hsunchen (probably not)? And does that make newtlings newt hsunchen
>based on a dragonewt rather than a human model?
The situation is much more complicated. The Dragonewts of Dragon Pass were never originally humans and have no relation to the man rune. They are said to be cousins to the newtlings and so it is my opinion that the dragonewts (of Dragon Pass) are Newtlings who turned to worshipping Dragons and thus became draconized in some remote age.
The Dragonewts of Ralios were originally Lizard-Hsunchen who became Dragonewts in obscure circumstances when Nysalor was born. In doing so they received help from neighbouring dragonewts (who migrated from Dragon Pass).
The Kralori know of Dragonewts and claim descent from the Dragon-People who appear to be dragon-hsunchen. The Kralori are highly civilized humans, however. The local kralorelan dragonewts are assumed to be the same as the Dragon Pass dragonewts but I have my suspicions they are radically different.
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