This is a powerful argument. I must say that I didn't think about the likelyhood of the transmission of a sikness by a broo when having contact with goats. The key point is that this doesn't apply only to goats: whenever a broo contacts a female regardless of the species the broo can transmit a disease. The longer the pregnancy, the more likely the disease may kill the female before the birth of the broo (I am assuming that the pregnancy of a broo takes as long as a normal pregnancy of a child of the given female but I'm most likely wrong and the time required for a broo to develop may be independent of the host).
Contrary to Pasanen, I think that this argument is supportive for the special relationship between goats and broos, even if you don't accept my argument that << goats would be immune to broobirths lethal effects >> (in Pasanen words): the most likely result of a broo inoculating a creature is that the given creature dies of disease (agravated by the pregnancy) before giving birth to the broo. Since goats are very resistent, the chances that the host will survive long enought for the broo to be born are maximized. This seems to me a very good explanation for the relationship between broos and goats by itself.
And when you say << You never know that the goat has gotten illness >> if it's your herd and you are a good herder you will certainly notice something unusual about your goat; if you are speacking about wild goats you hunt, you face the same problem with anyother species you hunt, from deer, to wild pig, etc.
Trotsky:
> So why have a Command Goat spell? That such a spell is known to the
> Orlanthi implies that goat is a reasonably common food.
I think that there is a common agreement by now that Orlanthi herd and eat goat.
> Yes, but if there is a strong link between broo and goats, then you have
> more broo if you keep goats than if you keep sheep. As I don't think the
> latter is impractical in Sartar, and people clearly do keep goats, I
doubt
> there's a link.
You are forgeting a couple of issues in your analysis: - - as I said in a previous message, there are places unsuited for herding sheep or cattle. In such places all you can herd is goats. - - unlike you seem to think, it's easier for broo to attack your sheep flock than your goats and it's easier for the herder to protect his goats then his sheep. Why? Have you ever seen the incredible places where goats can go? Goats are very agile, much more then sheep or cattle, so the herder only needs to conduct his goat flock to some hard to access place to protect his goats. He can't do the same with sheep or cattle. To protect sheep or cattle effectively he must close them which increases both the work and the cost of keeping the herds.
> Back to Odayla again: if there are no wild sheep or cattle (apologies if
> that isn't what you mean by 'savage') why does he grant spells for
> Command Wild Sheep and Command Wild Cattle?
I always had the sentation when reading RQ3 Glorantha materials that there
was always a lot of untested and 'beta' stuff thrown in. I may be wrong but
I think that a lot of information contained, say in te gods' descriptions,
had not been carefuly worked out. Anyway, this brings another question:
when we are talking about goats, sheep, cattle, etc. but we must distingish
three different situations:
- - domesticated animals: these are the herds; humans make everything they
can to protect them; the exact technique will change from place to place
based on the localgeography, the likelyhood of broo infestation, the type
of herd, etc.
- - wild animals: humans don't control them and if they want to avoid any
contact between these animals and broos they would have to exterminate the
species. This happened in RW (and is happening all the time). The problem
is that IMO humans are unable, at least in DP, to conduct such a policy
(not enough people, not enough central coordination, etc.). IMO also, of
all wild animals, goats are the better prepared to protect themselves from
broos, as much as they are the more prone to give birth to broos when they
are infected.
- - animals herded by broos: IMO the only resistant enough to be in such a
situation are goats. For reasons I stated before, this is unlikely most of
the time when we think about feral broos.
Conclusion: humans will have and herd domesticated goats; they will hunt
wild goats; and they will kill on sight and destroy broo herded goats.
> I see no reason to suppose a link between goats and broo
> other than the obvious folklore one.
<< Obvious folklore >> ??? Sorry Trotsky, I see nothing obvious about folklore. When you look deeper to folklore you find some reasonable explanation to it most of the time. If the folklore links goats to broos it's because people know better. What they know is that the only occasional herds owned by broos are goat herds; broos live in high and hard to access places, the same places where you find wild goats (aflter all, both seek those places for the same reason: protection). Most of the time broos are born from goats showing goat features. In this case, folklore reflects a normal pattern of events.
Best,
Sergio
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