RE: goats
Stephen Martin:
>>Are the broos in Prax predominantly goat-like? I think not.
>
>I believe Nomad Gods called them Goatking when it first came out.
I believe the latest version doesn't, which i'm sure you know.
RE: dogs and alynxes
>Dogs is a cultural thing, IMO, not a Darkness thing. [snip]
>To clarify, I believe the bias against dogs stems from History, not from
>the Great Darkness era. Thus, I think it has less of a mythical
>explanation, and more of a "this is just how it happened" reasoning. IMO,
>of course.
Putting a date for when the bias against dogs developed is hardly relevant, since you still haven't come up with any good reasons to have a dog-alynx animosity at all in the first place.
>>Yinkin is, as Stephen says, Orlanth's brother. So how come the
>orlanthings
>>honour Yinkin by enslaving him?
>
>In what way is he enslaved? The cats are free to come and go, but they
>can also be trained to guard the stead and herd.
If the alynxes are free to come and go, i find it hard to believe they'd stay and obediently herd your sheep if they happened to spot a juicy rabbit. Also, if you want to call them cats, then they should act like cats. Ever tried to train a cat to do anything?
>And I deny that it takes an allied spirit alynx to be
>trained -- does a dog have to be an allied spirit to be trained?
I never claimed what Stephen denies, but i can present an alternative answer. Which one of the alynx and the dog carries the mythological prestige? The alynx does. And how do you treat a sacred animal? By subjecting it to training and forcing it to perform at your command? In Far Point, you'd be thrown in the Hollow for profanity. Domesticating and training an animal and making it perform at command means that you turn the animal into a servant. Enslavement, really.
>I think alynxes are very common, as common as dogs or cats are in our
>society. Certainly they are not just for Rune Lords and Storm Voices.
If alynxes are sacred to the orlanthings, it really doesn't matter how common they are; you still can't subject the sacred alynxes to training willy-nilly, and especially not to herd sheep. So, you'd end up with a stead full of free-ranging cats that urinate on your bedroll and don't really perform any useful task, except bringing home an occasional rabbit - if they feel like it.
>>Taking it a bit further, i'd say that an alynx chooses a specific person
>to
>>be its companion. I doubt that an alynx would choose to bond with a
>lowly
>>shepherd.
>
>So now a dumb animal is going to choose who to bond with on the basis of
>their social status? And Orlanth won't send a sacred and mysterious beast
>to be the aid of a lowly, pious, hard-working cottar? They all go to the
>vain and boastful Wind Lords?
First, a slight restatement. Alynxes are sacred animals, and Yinkin is present in each and every alynx. An individual alynx is a dumb animal; Yinkin, however, is not. It is Yinkin, Orlanth's secret perception, who sends the alynxes to those deserving of it.
Second, i may be wrong, but i happen to believe that orlanthing society is a merito- or virtuocracy. If you are virtuous, you'll rise to fame and glory. Eventually. The heroes and leaders of orlanthing aren't virtuous because they're heroes; they're heroes because they are virtuous. As far as i can tell, humility isn't one of Orlanth's virtues. Piety and hard work are orlanthing virtues, and thus one may assume that most Wind Lords are pious and hard-working, in order to have become Wind Lords.
Of course there are profane and lazy wind lords, but i doubt that Orlanth would find them deserving of an alynx.
This is of course means that there must be at least one legend about the son of a stickpicker who is actually virtuous, but never gets the chance to prove it or be recognised for his true worth, until Yinkin notices the boy. Yinkin then mentions it to Orlanth who feels that the boy is treated unjustly and tells Yinkin to send not one but three alynxes as companions to the boy. The boy is then recognised for his true worth, and goes on to become [Harmast, Alakoring, Argrath, or some other hero figure].
>If I kept dogs, do you think any wild alynxes
>would come along?
Probably not, since you'd be pretty low on the worthiness scale for being a person who have to keep dogs, unclean creatures that they are.
I still doubt that an alynx would normally choose to bond with a lowly shepherd. And if there are oodles of alynxes around or indeed as common as household pets, why would it be a special thing to have one? Hint: it wouldn't.
>How boring.
Perhaps. And i'm proud of it.
I see some inconsistencies in your take on alynxes (as i interpret it):
Sergio has a novel idea:
>I came out with a purely 'biological' explanation: we may assume that
>breeding a broo is a painfull experience, if not deadly. Most of the time
>the female will die or get barren from it and will endure a very painful
>pregnancy. Now, supose there is an oddity, a species which females can
>breed broos like if they were normal pregnancies without the mentioned
>penalties. Supose that that species is goats...
I see a problem with this: the number of broos would increase with the ratio of goats in the vicinity, since any one goat can produce several broos during its lifetime while any other animal can produce only one, and that would be the end of its lifetime.
I think it would be too easy for the orlanthings to figure out that keeping goats increases the number of broos, which would lead to orlanthings killing any goat on sight. And we all know orlanthings do keep goats.
But if you, like Stephen, prefer RQ2isms like broo being goatkin, and orlanthings having no goats, then there's a theory to justify it.
I'll end this installment by applauding Daren Clark for his sparkling analysis of goatees. [applause]
Michael Raaterova
<.sig omitted on legal advice>
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