Goats dogs and Alkoth from Jeff Richard on 1998-07-02 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Jeff Richard <jrichard_at_cnw.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 16:57:03 -0700

Mikael Raaterova writes:
>I don't want to resurrect that painful old thread, but i still think the
>Pan-Heortling No-Goat, No-Dog Theory is silly.

Interestingly enough, this came up during the course of a discussion on the First Age that I had with Greg, Harald and Steve. The conclusions:

The Heortling Orlanthi view goats as big rats and associate them as a symbol of Ragnaglar. Eating goat-meat is a sign of wretched poverty on the level of eating directly out of a dumpster bin.
Alynxes can herd sheep.

You don't have to accept these conclusions in your game, but that is where we are coming from. If I recall, one of the differences between Imther and Vanch is regarding goats. The First Age Orlanthi that encountered the Sidarisi of the Imther Mountains felt sorry for the poor folk of those hills, characterizing them their primary god as a "sorry bastard, rides a big horned rat and has a wife that's a rock."

Even the Rotroot cousins have enough dignity not to eat goat meat.

Dogs are none to popular either, having about the status of a cat in pre-Crusade medieval Europe.

Finally on Alkoth, city of crazed, "dead" fanatics -one point I'd like to add is that the folk of Alkoth are pretty much universally despised, hated and feared by their neighbors in Darjiin, Syllila, Vanch and the upper Oslir. Alkothi, on the other hand, view their neighbors as little more than potential sacrifices for the great god Shargash. Heck, they view pretty much anyone except the Alkothi, the Emperor and his appointed Governor as little more than potential sacrifices for Shargash.

Jeff

End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #6