Bijan Sub-Glacier, Uleria

From: Stephen Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:17:51 EST


Peter Metcalfe
>If you do want a serious explaination for why the Ice is depicted
>as it is then my guess is that the Ban is still in force along the
>boundary of Winterwood and would normally be a thick wall of fog.
>However it's extremely cold and so the fog appears like Ice and all
>the modern mapmakers think that Valind's Glacier has advanced during
>the Closing. Your players will discover this error ('The Glacier's
>GONE!!!!')and then be the first people to enter the land of Bija
>since Snodal created the Ban.

Brilliant explanation for Bija (which only appeared on the map in Cults of Terror, IIRC). However, that map shows no Glacier at all -- surely it couldn't be _that_ far north?

A subtly different suggestion -- perhaps the Glacier has _receded_ during the Ban of Fronela? Outsiders wouldn't know it until the Ban started to recede, and even then it would take decades for most civilizations to discover it.

The main reason I prefer this scenario isthat a recession of Valind's Glacier seems more likely to me than an advance, since we know for a fact that the temperature in northern Genertela has been getting warmer over the last few centuries, thanks to the Lunars. This also has the advantage that most published maps are accurate for most of history, instead of having to say that most of them are accurate only after 1575 or so.

Allen Wallace
>Priestesses are not prostitutes. Anyone who has made even a cursory
>research into RW temple prostitutes has discovered these women are
>prostitutes owned by the temple, to call them priestesses is demeaning
all
>the way around.

Although I am sure this is true more often than not, I think you are focusing too much on the word "prostitute." Of course Ulerian priestesses are not whores. However, it is an established fact that many of them commonly have sex with many men, over time. This is an exploration and evocation of Love and Life. It is not sex for pay, it is Love for Life, with a little donation often thrown in, of course. But if you can accept Chalana Arroys requiring money for their healing, Ulerians charging doesn't seem too far off to me.

I am reminded of certain New Age religions in America and elsewhere, where the priestess regularly and frequently engages in sex with the worshipers. One such woman has boasted of having sex with over a thousand men in just a few years. And she does not view it as prostitution, but as glorifying her goddess.

I think this is the proper way to view this aspect of Uleria. And of course, this is only the way Uleria is worshiped among the Orlanthi. I am sure Ulerian temples in Dara Happa have MUCH more to do with Fertility than with Sex. They would have to, or there would be none of them.

Finally, keep in mind that it is possible Uleria is not universal -- what we have is a very GL cult write-up. The orgies of Surensliba at Dorkath could very easily fall within the RQ3 Uleria cult write-up from this pov.

Martin Laurie
>The only duck to appear in my campaigns is on a plate with an orange
>shoved up its arse.

Ew, Martin, that is like, _so_ gross. They taste so much better when the orange is stuffed in their mouth!

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

- -----------------------------------------------
The Book of Drastic Resolutions
drastic_at_juno.com

Thus, Bija would be a New Land, IMO, filled with only a few nomadic humans and trolls who have moved to populate it in the last few decades (such as the Neechan you mention later). And the Grotarons, of course, got to have those Maidstone Archers chasing their imaginary mammoths. This is also a good land for people who want to transplant the excellent but non-Gloranthan cults which were published in Different Worlds eons ago, Enuk Manamee (a nearly-frozen fire god) and Taigaluk the Hunter.


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