> Perhaps there is no Inhuman King [on Teleos] because none of =
> the [local dragonewts] has made it that far yet?
Still leaves unanswered the question of how the local dragonewts are reborn without an Inhuman King. I had always understood the IK was necessary to dragonewts' rebirth, in Dragon Pass at least. Perhaps this forces the 'newts of Teleos into their unusual mode of existence, avoiding entanglements with the material world? Or perhaps there *is* an Inhuman King somewhere on or in the island, but (sensible fellow) he's never revealed himself to the humans.
Re: Stephen's Dinosaur =3D> Dragonewt "theory" obfuscation:
> ... I am sure there is stuff I have missed here ...
An unbiased reading of ES p.18 makes it apparent that the orthodox view, presented in rules-speak, is that dinosaurs *are* descended from dragonewts. The only doubts and quibbles thereon are *internal* to Glorantha: God Learner speculations about origins; human philosophers' interpretations of the *precise* emotional imperfections that create specific dinosaur "species"; and a Commentary by a selfevicent Gloranthan loon (Garstal "Bury me in a Dunghill near the Dragon's Eye" Shavetop, our premier observer of dragonkind)
The plain sense of the text is that dinosaurs are descended from dragonewts; any obfuscation or uncertainty is in the details. Of course there are human myths associating dinosaurs (earth-shakers) with various Gloranthan deities -- but taxonomic aetiological myths are known to be dodgy in the detail, and often mutually contradictory (cf. "King of Sartar" on the origin of horses).
Quibbling about whether older stories, prior to "Elder Secrets", present us with different "One True Versions", or similar ones, or mistaken interpretations of the same source facts, is a bit of a waste of time. The material in Elder Secrets is presented as Gloranthan scholars' "more accurate considerations" -- are we to assume a boxed set of Gloranthan Secrets contains *deliberate* misinformation ? Yeah, Gloranthan dragons are obscure -- but when we get some plain facts about them, it'd be wasteful to ignore them.
> There are lots of dragonewts in Kralorela, but no mention anywhere
> that I know of of any dinosaurs there. Why not?
Because the Kralorelan Inhuman King destroys emotionally-imbalanced dragonewt eggs? Because mystical Kralorelan dragonewts are "betterbalanced" than those from rough'n'tumble Dragon Pass? Because there are usually very few dinosaurs anywhere outside dragonewt strongholds, and only in backward, depopulated or war-torn areas (Teleos, Dragon Pass) can the dinosaurs breed among themselves long enough to create herds and stable populations?
My favourite: because all Kralori dinosaurs (emotionally-disturbed dragonewts) are exiled to a small island, somewhere off the coast of Vormain. Of course, some of them retain their magical draconic powers (as noted in Elder Secrets), and attacks on Vormain's cities by giant fire-breathing reptilian mutant dinosaurs are justly feared...
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Nick
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