Re: Nandan births

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 01:58:18 +0100 (BST)


Simon Hibbs:
> Not according to Robin at Convulsion. He explained how Nandan births are
> magical events and that the birthing hut has to be blessed with a
> special ritual, which transports it onto the heroplane, much as in a
> major worship ritual.

That's true, but one of the effect's of Nandan's quest was to restore fertility to the _females_ of his tribe, who'd be in some way deficient in that respect at that point. (Robin didn't get dead specific, IIRC.) So the benefit would be not so much that the occasional male uzko might bear a uzuz, but that (theoretically) female uz wouldn't bear enlo any more.

What I find so entertaining about the idea of Uzdan, the birthing Uz isn't whether or not it'd be likely to work or not -- though I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this as some, there have been three separate incidents incidents all inside Time of this saga -- but how marvelously _heretical_ it is! Imagine you're some Uz matriarch, sitting down in the Castle of Lead, plotting for several centuries to break the curse -- and along comes some upstart, proposing to fix it, by means of _male_ fertility, which goes against just about every precept of the KL cult. "Father's blood is short and weak." (Though also warm and kinda tangy, I hear.) But it's so crazy, it might just work, professor...

Slainte,
Alex.


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