Re: Vadeli Fleets, Sunstop from Nick Brooke on 1998-02-18 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:13:07 -0500

Peter writes:

> There's no prohibition IMO against building fleets [in the Western
> Ocean, in the First Age], as the Vadeli had them too.

I've always believed that the nastiest thing about the Vadeli "today" is that they have unfettered access to the world. In the First Age, the Waertagi kept them pent up in their Islands, doing the dirty work of the Brithini for them. Any Vadeli fleet would have been short-lived and swiftly sunk. In the Second Age, the Jrusteli wiped out the Waertagi

but they share the same background (in Malkioni, Brithiniderived scriptures) as their precursors, and had no desire whatever to "let the Vadeli out". And for most of the Third Age, the Closing of the Oceans has kept them locked up where they can't do much harm.

It's only now, post-Dormal, that the Vadeli are out and about, roving the sea-lanes without an opposed naval power strong enough to strike them down -- especially not, since their apparent alliance with the monstrous Red Corsairs of the Neliomi Sea -- and the birth of the second Vadeli thalassocracy encroaches moment by moment.

Which is to say, I believe any "fleet" in the First Age in the West was either Waertagi, or else it was some rubbish swiftly sunk by the Waertagi to preserve their monopoly.

I agree about the date Peter suggests for Arkat's birth. He was born at the Sunstop in 375 ST, fought Gbaji for the first 75 years of his life (including Brithini Horal training, plus time spent in Hell "to regroup", as those naff "mercenary" T-shirts have it), ran his Dark Empire for 75 years thereafter (in retirement, some of the time), then went to his current home in the stars.

> After all, the Brithini of Arolanit are not having babies right
> now yet they are going to be involved in some battles in Seshnela.

When was the last time you looked, Peter? :-)

BTW, Heretical Sunstop Theory:

The "Brithini Having Babies" theory is rubbish. What happened was, the Sunstop was a unique break in the drone-like routine of normal Brithini existence. Everyone stood around wondering what to do, until Menena inspired her daughters with a way to take their menfolk' s minds off this unprecedented problem. Nine months later... =

"Le Petit Mort" is still celebrated as "Menena's Timeless Moment" in Seshnegi brothels, FWIW. ("Did the sun stop for you, darling?")

> [Brithini] have a normal sense of time and can grow bored and/or
> impatient.

I disagree. Unusual Brithini (like Zzabur), maybe. But becoming "bored" with your every-day, every-year, every-century existence is a short step from heresy, aging and death. My own take is in the RQCon2 Compendium NBCE transcript, FWIW.

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Nick
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