Re: Argraths; Pentan EWF Pavis from Nick Brooke on 1998-02-03 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 17:44:38 -0500

I recently chatted to Daniel Fahey about Argrath(s), and one of his fine notions was this:

: ... every other man in Sartar is named Argrath. This means that
: the fire-lighting was the result of thousands of "Argraths" trying
: over a period of years to re-light the flame. Each put in his point
: until there were enuf points that whoever the next person was who
: tried it would succeed. This could have been Kallyr. That means
: that she did light it, but that an eighth of the population had
: added points to it before and so it could also be truthfully said
: that "Argrath" lit it. "I'm Spartacus!" I don't like this idea.

I *do* like it, if only to illustrate the absurdity you can get to when a "multiple Argraths" theory gets taken to extremes.

Or, if the "Spartacus" parallel doesn't bite, how's about this:

"I'm Argrath!"

                "No, I'm Argrath!"

                        "I'm Argrath, and so's my wife..."

Andrew writes:

> The EWF hired Pentans to fight the Praxians? This is certainly the
> first I heard of it.

Reread the history section from "River of Cradles" (originally "Pavis"): the EWF brought the Pure Horse Tribe from Pent into Prax. RoC p.8 (and timeline p.6); Pavis Common Knowledge p.6 (and timeline p.5). They won the battle of Necklace Horse in 620 ST, were locally dominant thereafter for hundreds of years, presumably started "losing it" around the time of Jaldon Toothmaker's Waha revival and Animal Nomad resurgence in the tenth century, and went belly up at Alavan Argary in 1250 ST. Cf. also "King of Sartar" on Alavan Argary p.192f. The Pure Horse People who got out from under the Black Net escaped to Dragon Pass and were "remade" by Ironhoof into the Grazer Tribe -- though this is deliberately made obscure in KoS, which introduces the "split centaur" origin story to muddy the waters.

> The EWF helped Pavis build his city? If I ever heard this, I had
> forgotten it (entirely possible).

Pavis was educated in the EWF, and his city was allied to it throughout the Empire's history. The Old Pavic language is related to Auld Wyrmish, the language of the EWF, and priests of Pavis wear EWF robes on holy days. Source: Pavis cult, Pavis box, RQ2 rules (sub languages), etc.

Interestingly, the construction of the City of Pavis can easily be seen as a Man-Rune parody of the Draconic Creation Myth -- the dismembering of the Faceless Stone Statue and use of its body parts to build the urban "microcosm" of the City. Must be something sinister in there we can use... :-)

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Nick
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