Me>>The Emperor of Kralorela at the moment is Godunya who
>>ascended to the throne at the age of seventy-three and has slowly
>>been going senile over the past centuries
>Senile? Where did you get that from?
Prosopaedia: 'In his rare public appearances...'. What type of leader do we know of that makes 'rare' public appearances? The first thing that pops into my mind is: Old, Sick Communists such as Stalin, Brezhnev, Deng Xiaping, Mao Tse-tung, Kim Il Sung (the younger Kim would also qualify but he's not old) etc. Which gives a plausible explanation for Godunya without relying on the hoary old wise emperor.
>The emperor is a _dragon_ in human shape. Do they really go senile?
Correction: He is _said_ to be a Dragon in human shape. We have never seen him in draconic shape. Even the prosopaedia distinguishes between what is happening to him and what his supporters say. I'm not denying that he has imposing spiritual powers just that I'm pointing out that Godunya has a side that is all too human. It worked well for the Red Emperor and so it should work for Godunya.
Godunya has been a belt-buckle salesmen for seventy-three years before the Exarchs elevated him to be the Ruler of All Things. He was probably ignorant of his destiny beforehand and was utterly bemused at his elevation. Since then, everything he remembers has been changed. His wife and kids are all dead and the Imperial Clan are but strangers to him. Hsin Yin, where he lived a happy life, is now a strange bustling metropolis; the old landmarks were destroyed long ago by Sheng Seleris. He is virtually one of the few people who remembers dimly the Old Days and when he tries to speak with the other Kralori who were around in those days, he finds they have nothing in common. He has been waiting for release for so long that he has difficulty remembering what he is waiting for.
If a freeform was ever run for Kralorela then Godunya would be a quiet chap who sat in the corner reminscing about the past while his courtiers plot against each other. Once in a while, he would come up with some demented plan (Sink the Pharaonic Fleet! Hold a funeral for the Outside World!) and everyone would fall over themselves to obey.
Of course if you just want Godunya as being an ageless dragon-in-human-form, then I can't stop you. But I do feel Kralorela would be a less interesting place if you ignored the human side of things.
Elements:
Me>> The Lune manifestation has been around for 400 years. The
>> Selene has been around even longer since the dawn of time.
>> The scholars who made the five elemental cosmology should have
>> cottoned on by now.
>Read my post, the _Orlanthings_ haven't seen lunes for
>very long. The lunars haven't been around their parts
>for more than 100-200 years.
Selenes are not summoned by Lunars alone. Trolls can and have summoned them around the Orlanthi ever since the Dawn. And the Orlanthi have known of Lunes ever since the Kingdom of Tarsh was founded. IMHO that's more than sufficient time for the orlanthi to become aware of the existance of Lunes
>What's a spectre in Gloranthan context? I have never
>heard of those.
Illusion elementals.
>I have to make an excursion here, since I had an idea
>the other day. In the common rune system Light and
>Heat are components/sub-runes of Fire/Sky. So, I
>have toyed with looking on the Light rune as representing
>the Sky and the Heat rune as elemental fire. The
>"complete" rune would then be for sky gods with an
>elemental fire connection.]
But completeness is really a matter of definition. One could claim that the Light Elemental is the pure elemental and that the salamander is really an gross corruption of this. Put a caucasian, an african and an aborigine together. Which one is the purest form? You cannot make a definition that will be objectively true for everyone in either case.
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