>It strikes me that if we really wanted to find out what had actually
>happened many years ago in Glorantha, we should ask a dwarf.
Who live underground and thus report on things that humans find tedious and uninteresting. Who also have severe problems in comprehending human society. They could overcome these limitations but this entails apostacy.
>If I've understood these little guys correctly: they're technicians. So
>keeping written records must be very important to them. These records
>must also be truthful, accurate, and as detailed as possible.
Have you ever seen a technicial report when the writer has screwed up badly and is trying to cover his or her arse? Some mostali are like that.
>So ... if you were able to get yourself a rock dwarf, or a gold one who
>wasn't wised up to telling fibs, who was sufficiently capable, and you
>dressed up as a dwarf (or whatever you have to do to get past any
>security feature), and you asked him to tell you everything about the
>Spike (say), you would find out pretty much everything there is to know
>about it with as much true historical accuracy as it is possible to get.
Why would a Rock Mostali know about the Spike? He wasn't made then and he does not have a pressing need or even a desire to know anything about the spike. Some probably can't even understand the question.
>Are the workings of the world machine all underground? Why don't we see
>them wandering about above ground with their slide-rules, tape measures,
>clip-boards, etc?
The Dwarfs see _everything_ in terms of the World Machine. The humans have inferior sensory apparatus and so are incapable of seeing the manifest details.
>Elder Secrets says that a diamond X dwarf has 9 skills at 2000% !!!
>Seems a bit excessive to me - are such skill levels always possible? A
>diamond iron dwarf could murder everything in Dorastor, couldn't it?
They are possible but they are not guarantees of invincibility. Even humans can defeat an iron diamond dwarf although this requires ample preparation and dirty tactics.
Powered by hypermail