Thank you, Pam, for a nice explanation of how things work and are gamable. I'm not too sure myself that I'd describe Vinga as "just like a man": she fights, but in her own way. But the rest of it - yes! Putting the female side of culture in place is a good thing to do, obviously, but making female characters playable is bound to be harder. (And yes, I do insist on female characters. Table-top, voices are "live". And I'm not a baritone.)
Steve Barnes: sorry, this isn't a "I agree". Well, not completely. Mainly because he's talking about "complaints about retconning Vinga", and as far as I'm aware there haven't been any. Complaints about retconning Orlanth so that he no longer gives Storm powers to females, either of his own or of associated cults, yes, but that's very different.
"Vinga has not appeared in any official publications" - define what you mean by "official" and I might be interested, but I doubt it. It's not a word I find very impressive.There have been extremely few "official" publications in the last few years, in the normal meaning of the term. There have however been huge quantities of fan-generated material, much of which has been accepted by the gaming population as part of Glorantha. And there have been statements from Greg which have been used in building the common Glorantha, such as something along the lines of "Vinga is Orlanth Adventurous, but for women". Anything that contradicts something as basic as this, or, far worse, contradicts the main Orlanth write-up available to us (River of Cradles), had better have a very good reason for it. It sounds as if the contradictions in question don't actually exist in this case: but suppose they did? I don't know what your specific interests are, but suppose Officialdom came out with something that made Indrodar Greydog Impossible - he's only in a fanzine, so obviously that wouldn't matter, would it? Would it?
We seem to have several statements, with which I agree, that women are excluded from the aspects of Orlanth to do with male potency, just as men are excluded frm aspects of Ernalda to do with being pregnant. Fine. What I still don't have is any idea what male potency has to do with Wind or Thunder. Rain I might just about admit, though it seems rather far-fetched. After all, rain is to the male sexual act as convincing plants to grow thereafter is to do with pregnancy, and Barntar still seems to do a pretty good job in the fields.
The Heracles link I'll read up on, but I seem to remember that he was also an Oak god, and to some extent a Sacrifical King. Or maybe I've been overdosing on Robert Graves.
A quick digression to torture methods....
> if all else fails, I'll force-feed FGS Scottish chip-shop deep-fried haggis ...
Yum! It's been years since I last tasted that! Me too?
Sources and things: I said
> Even male Healers: Orlanth has a Healer aspect, after all. OK, so he
> usually gets a
> friend to take the Test of Healing for him, but it's one of his tests.
and Alex asked:
> Remind us, and/or tell us more...
Really? OK, let me check the original....
KoS 166. The description of the stationary/short LBQ. And apologies to those who
dislike quotes: press that Down button!
"4. The descent. A series of tests try the virtues and abilities of Orlanth...... The
known tests include those of Knowing, Healing, Fighting, Communicating and
Riddling."
I think we can work out which Companion would be deputised to take each Test,
but they are still tests of Orlanth's abilities: things he is expected to be able to do. I
doubt myself whether healing is a "normal" male role, so I'd put male healers in the
15% who take cross-gender roles, like the male cooks. But they're still Orlanth
initiates.
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/
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