Re: Praxian steeds

From: Jonathan Coxhead <jonathan_at_doves.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 15:21:27 +0000


David Dunham:
| > A while ago, I asked about the 6 Great Steeds of Prax, and the 22 Lesser
| > Steeds (mentioned in _King_of_Sartar_). No-one answered, so I thought I'd
| > make something up.
|
| A worthy attitude! BTW, I suspect some of the "steeds" may really be "herd
| animals" -- you probably can ride a cow, but the Pol Joni don't (they're
| horsemen, just to be even more of an aberration).

| > Auroch
| I think of these as monster cows, mightier than even a Holstein

   I dithered, I confess---the RW Auroch is indeed a mighty beast, but there must be some reason why you don't see them very often in Prax. Maybe (like ancestral cows in the RW, though for different reasons), it's because they're rather puny? Glorantha has enough cases of things in the past being much better than now, so I thought this was more interesting.

| > Longnose
| I always figured these were saigas, which are really silly looking (and
| adapted to colder climates, so rather out of place).

   That's what the pictures look like (_Les_Dieux_Nomades_ counters, that is), but there must *be* elephants---probably very big, with enormous curly tusks---in Prax, right? I was struck while going round a museum on Sunday how African the Praxian fauna is. So there they are.

Peter Metcalfe:
| I'm positive that there was some response to this. Check out
| digest v5.#443 following.

   There was, but I wanted a *list*. Just call me Mr Suitcase :-). If you hadn't said that the rhino was one, I'd have given up. Looking back, I see that the "Loper" has gone mysteriously missing, and I remember nothing of it now. But the most interesting question is, what is an Eanjak?

| >The 6 Great Steeds of Prax
| > Bolo Lizard
| Is not one of the Great Steed IMO.

   You have to choose 2 that are not bison, impala, high llama or sable. I found something (in Drastic #Prax, possibly?) that made me think that the bolo lizards were once more important than they are now.

| For the beasts to qualify as steeds, there would have to be some
| praxian clans that ride them, methinks.

   Someone has to ride them, but it doesn't have to be a whole clan. I'd love to hear the story of the first nomad to ride a brontosaur successfully! Do you sit on the head, do you suppose? And the man who tames a demibird probably winds up with endless message-delivery tasks.

Sandy Petersen:
| [I]t is my belief that the 6 Great
| Steeds and 22 Lesser Steeds are individual animals, not categories.

   My copy of _King_of_Sartar_ is 5000 miles away, so I can't check it, but that's certainly not how I read it myself. If you're right, just ignore everything I wrote :-)

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