> Is there an official piece on Dart Wars anywhere?
Greg Stafford's article on Dart Competitions was most recently reprinted in the "Rough Guide to Glamour", available from the Reaching Moon Megacorp. It was previously in an early issue of Tales.
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Dana and/or Cynthia ask:
> Is Elmal another name for Yelmalio?
Yes. Generally, "Elmal" is the name found among Orlanthi (in Orlanthi clans and myths, for example), while "Yelmalio" is used in the isolationist, non-clan-based Sun Dome Temples, broadly to emphasise the pro-Dara Happan and anti-"Orlanthi" nature of their deity. (And most Dara Happans have
> Who did Orlanth beat up, Yelmalio or Elmal?
If the story says it was Elmal, it was a friendly tussle resulting in their friendship (like Robin Hood meeting Little John). If Yelmalio, however, it was a grudge match. Different myths have different versions, for obvious reasons: Yelmalion Templars are no friends of the Orlanthi, while the Elmali still live among them and follow their laws.
> Do Elmal and Yelmalio get along?
Not meaningfully, as they're the same entity. Do God, Yahweh and Allah get along? :-)
More helpfully, those Elmali who left their Sartarite clans to join Monrogh's Sun Dome Temple in Dragon Pass renamed themselves "Yelmalions". They know who and what Elmali are; they feel their own form of worship is morally superior, and look down on any Elmal worshippers who have chosen not to convert to it. This makes for unpleasant scenes.
> Whats the relationship of Orlanth to Elmal and Yelmalio? In the
> cult book it says that yelmalio is worshiped amoung the Orlanthi
> barbarians, but I thought Orlanth beat up Yelmalio.
Most Orlanthi clans used to include worshippers of Elmal, though this is now uncommon in southern Sartar. Last century, imminent civil strife between worshippers of Orlanth and Elmal in Sartar was nipped in the bud when a prophetic Elmali religious leader, Monrogh, refounded the Sun Dome Temple in Dragon Pass and led the tribal Elmali there (as to a Promised Land).
It happened differently (or not at all) elsewhere. You can find Orlanthi clans which have never worshipped Elmal, as well as clans which still worship Elmal, clans which have worshipped Yelmalio for a long time, clans which don't realise that Elmal and Yelmalio are different (or the same), etc.
The basic source for this is "King of Sartar". While weird variant theories have been constructed, allegedly necessitating a ret-con of "Sun County" (with its archaic xenophobic Yelmalio cult in Prax), I find it easiest to assume KoS holds true for Sartar and is ill-informed outside of that kingdom. After all, we can be pretty sure Monrogh spent some time at the Praxian Sun Dome Temple before refounding the one in Dragon Pass -- more than enough reason to find similarities.
> The runic connection "feels" wrong to me, too. If there was a script
> of ideographic runes already kicking around, then the God Learners
> got their research grants decidedly easy for "discovering" them.
IMO, the GLs use Runes amid their texts the same way we do, or the same way Astrologers and Alchemists would use their weird symbols. Doesn't make the Western script ideo-anything. I'm still a Latinist, me.
Nick
:::: web: <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Nick_Brooke>
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