goats and broos

From: Sergio Mascarenhas <sermasalmeida_at_mail.telepac.pt>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 12:03:19 -0000

Michael Raaterova:
> 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.

Yes, unless you forget something: IMO the greatest enemy of broos is not trolls, humans, or other non-chaotic races; it is broos themselves. If a big broo population develops along the lines you mentioned, sooner or later it would turn on it self, special in the case of more savage broos. That can explain why broos rape: it's not only a question of lust; the broo must rape in order to possess the female without the interference from another broo. If he is not quick enough he may have to fight for his conquest (my image here is voltures fighting around a carcass). And broos are unlikely to develop a society or economy centered on goats. Much easier to just walk around and jump on any she-goat they can find. Also, broos may look at goats not only as matting partners but also as food and victims. In this scenario, we can easely imagine that goats developed some kind of strategies to avoid contact with broos if possible. The conclusion is that you can see occaional outbursts of broo populations by breeding with goats but those outbursts will desapear quickly.

>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.
Why? The connection between broos and goats would be seen as an infestation and a sickness. If orlanthings noticed broo activity onthe surroundings, they would certainly protect more carefuly their goat stocks. If they suspected that broos had already infested the goats they would kill them. But the best way to avoid the problem is by killing the broos first. That's why people eat pork in RW west. Of course, some populations could react the way you said.
Remember the recent RW mad-cow desease problem? Some humans might even try to sell the suspected goats to other populations ("are my goats infested or not? Humm, might be... but on the other way, might be not. Let's sell the damn goats to X of clan Y..."). People do it in the RW, why shouldn't they do it in Glorantha?

Sandy:
>at the time it was not known how broos bred. Now it is common
>knowledge

What is common knowledge Sandy? I may be missing something but I'm not sure to share that common knowledge. So, can you please remember it?

>Broos usually
>have horns at least partly because they have links to other ungulates.
>Their horns might be sheep-like, goat-like, antler-like, antelope-like,
>bovine-like, etc. etc.

Now, my argument for goats beeing able to breed freely with broos could be extended to other ungulates - the (unexplained) links Sandy mentions. Even in that case, I would suggest that there is always some risk of something going wrong when an ungulate breeds with broos, and that that risk varies with the species. With goats the risk would be almost marginal; with unicorns it would be extreme.
BTW, Sandy can you be more specific on the links between broos and ungulates?

>>If a particular band of broos would impregnate only humans for a few
>>generations, what would be the result?
>A bunch of loathsome chaos monsters that tended to have human
>parts mixed in with their broo parts.

Now, Sandy which are those "broo parts"? How do you describe them?

Best,

Sergio

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