Re: Closing and swimming from Nils Weinander on 1999-01-10 (Glorantha Digest Vol 06)

From: Nils Weinander <nilsw_at_ibm.net>
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 22:49:27 +0100

Andrew (Rex) Bean:
>
> Howabout my idea of Magasta getting his revenge
> with a little help from Zzabur <merman point of
> view>. I think Magasta's monsters attacked
> non-sea-god worshippers and if you wish to
> qualify this further, maybe they did not attack
> descendents of the sea gods. As long as they did
> not sail ships e.g. the Waertagi, because then the
> Closing spell misfire of Zzabur hits them.

That is of course very plausible. However, I find the epic tragedy of the whole Closing affair being a backfire, a mistake, very appealing. If it strikes at sea god worshippers as well (Waertagi), the more poignant that their home is suddenly hostile.

Alex (on mermen):
>
>They're airbreathers, but they have to breathe on a _hourly_ basis, not
>a "secondly" basis as a human swimmer does. So they may not be all that
>directly comparable. Not unlike say a sperm whale, say, to take an
>extreme example.

True, but I think of mermen as sea surface dwellers, not "undersea" swimmers like whales. The now oft quoted passage about the Closing speaks about "surface shipping". I chose to focus on _surface_. That might be all wrong.

Nils Weinander | Everything is dust in the wind nilsw_at_ibm.net | http://www.geocities.com/Paris/8689/