Re: Garundyer

From: Nikk Effingham <eng7nje_at_arts-01.novell.leeds.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 15:23:45 GMT


Pete Metcalfe:

> >HISTORY OF GARUNDYER PART ONE
>
> A bit difficult to do as the guy is so boringly perfect.

Exactly, I wasn't willing to buy into the "this guy is the perfect, most shining, unmarked example of an Orlanthi Hero who is just that good that he can do anything" I wanted to write a background to weave him into Lanksti culture and society, and to give me an idea of who he was, what he could do, and what does with his time.  

> >[...] to participate in the FireWind rituals that the Kocholang
> >family held every year to determine who would join the honoured ranks
> >of the Kocholang family.
>
> I don't like this. These are secrets that make the family pre-eminent,
> not wisdom that anybody can learn.

Hmmm. agreed. How about "the FireWind rites that the Kocholong family held every year in the name of the Confederation to see who would be the Jofrain Confederation thanes" Perhap not thanes, but some position of martial importance.  

> >However, a battle with the trolls of Lalia
> >when Garanwyn raided their lands left him crippled in the left leg.
>
> Lalia is human land AFAIK.

Officially Lalia is a Blank Land, so this is a bit of my own Gloranthan colouring. I don't actually see Lalia as a troll land as such, but a troll hunting ground where the human tribes are held under domination by the Uz, from time to time breaking freebefore falling under the domination of the trolls, Rokari, Otkorioni etc... the Lalians are a primitive people IMO, unable to keep their independence for long periods of time, always falling to the domination of a different people. Certainly, however, I think trolls do live and hunt in Lalia.

> >The day came when Garundyer was five, and was on the outskirts of
> >Ormsland in a ravine, he was accompanying his friend Harandos, an
> >older child who he spent much of his time with.
>
> I would dump the childhood association with Harandos. Garundyer's
> power and insight comes from within himself, not because he's a
> childhood pal of a Grey Sage who has a copy of "how to to be an
> Orlanthi Hero in 20 easy lessons".

No! I don't see Harandos as being the giver of insight or any power, but certainly a friend of Orlanths, perhaps only a few years older. While I think some of Garundyer's power is learnt, I don't think some poxy Sage of Lankoring is going to be the person to teach him it : ) In RQ terms Garundyer picks up some general knowledge from his friend, so he has a handful of mildly reasonable lore skills, meaning that he isn't just some dumb fighter.

Whether you think Garundyer knew Harandos in his youth is personal opinion, and I don't think it really detracts from his background to know one of his future companions.

> >Here, in this ravine, they
> >disturbed a wyrm. [...] The wyrm, however, was seeking only to be left
> >alone - - and killing children does not make for a quiet life.
>
> Ormsland is a land packed with barbarian dragonewts who eat humans.

I'd be surprised if a few degenerates don't exist. Certainly I see Ormsland having more than its fair share of dinosaurs.

> The scruples exhibited by the Wyrm is most unusual.

Wyrms are unusual creatures, and this wouldn't be the first to aid humans.  

> >Amazed
> >by the human's virtue (Garundyer never acted against the wyrm once
> >the wyrm began to aid him) the draconic beast became quite enamoured
> >with the youth, and taught him three secrets.
>
> Garundyer should not have any draconic secrets. Orlanthi don't need
> them. Secondly he comes from Alakoring's land which is so vehemently
> anti-dragon.

Certainly I'm not trying to set up Garundyer as some Heroic muti-cultural Hero who knows everyone and is liked by everyone. Far from it. Indeed, I want to set up Garundyer as being the major player against the Telmori, other Hsunchen and Dragonewts who live on the borders of Lankst. I don't think being friends with a wyrm is an awful thing, it is quite interesting, and adds colour to his youth, and a wyrm is not a dragonewt. I hope not to have portrayed the secrets as being "draconic" in nature, magical certainly, but not Draconic (although I may have mistakengly referred to them as such).

However, an alternative would be for him to meet and befriend a hermit of some form.  

> >Owain, on the other hand, was left with
> >Garundyer's crippled left leg, and was very bitter. Later, they would
> >settle their differences, and Garundyer would rescue Owain's daughter
> >from trolls, in return Owain became one of Garundyer's three Fighting
> >Companions.
>
> Why should Orlanthi settle their differences? The feud that destroyed
> Harmast's family was started by a divorce. Given Owain's grieviances,
> I expect him to be haunting Garundyer to the end of time, not simply
> kiss and make up in the next sentence.

If this were to be a book, or a novel, Owain's hatred would occupy a vast portion of it,it was no small hatred - but this was just a selection of brief notes. I think that having Owain befriend him about fifteen years later is good because (a) I like the idea that one of Garundyer's Heroic fighting companions is crippled (b) it shows that Garundyer has not as many internal problems within Lankst. Certainly Garundyer has been set up as THE Lanksti Hero, liked and loved by all. I mightn't go the whole way on supporting such an idea, but I think Owain's forgiveness is a sign of Garundyer's worth - and he IS a worthy person (to an orlanthi, anyhow). Certainly I have already set up a few internal threats to Garundyer's power, but I probably won't include them in my notes as they are very specific to my campaign (and not all that interesting to the Digest, I'm sure).

I see Garundyer's big threats being external rather than internal.  

> >By the age of eight and a half Garanwyn gave
> >his son his magical spear, that could call lightning and pierce a
> >dragon's hide. Garundyer lost when it snapped in a battle with a
> >demon from the Three Shoal Pool some years later.
>
> Already Garundyer begins to look like a child prodigy of the most
> unattarctive sort.

Well, certainly. The similiarities between Cu Culhainn (spelling?) and Garundyer are, in my mind at least, quite close. Garundyer, like all great Heroes, starts from an early age.

>But why mention the spear if he loses it in
> an anticlimatic battle?

I mention the spear because in my existing notes for Garundyer as he is now, he has a really powerful spear, not the sort that his father would have given him, yet I still thought it approriate that his father should gift him a weapon. As for the battle being anticlimatic, I think this quite harsh considering that I did say it was just in note form, personally I think the battle could be quite climatic as Garundyer, fighting for his life with the Demon, as it snapped, and then charges towards it screaming "That was my father's spear! My only gift!" and then tackles the demon barehanded, still managing to defeat it. Or something along those lines. Remember, these are just campaign notes, not a story.

> >Just before he was
> >nine, the Telmori came and slaughtered the steads in that area, led
> >by a shaman called Four-Paws-Speaks-Evil. This was shortly before the
> >Hsunchen civil war broke out in Vustria. The shaman spared only the
> >children.
>
> Why would Telmori spare children? And what civil war was this?

Good point. Okay, the children managed to flee, saved by one of the adults who held the Telmori off. If you want to add colour, Garundyer would probably have tried to stay, forced to rout only by the authority of his father.

The civil war is to do with my campaign, and maybe shouldn't belong here - I see Vustria as being troubled by an immense civil war for one Hsunchen tribe to gain total dominance over the others (mainly be destroying them), I haven't expanded the theme much, but it has made my players wary of dealing with one Hsunchen tribe (and thus making enemies of the others).

> >It took
> >them three weeks to hunt down Four-Paws-Speaks-Evil, and Rioneyth
> >slew him.
>
> Surely Garundyer should do this epic deed?

While I see the childhood hero elements within Garundyer I don't think it suitable for a nine year old to slay the evil shaman - far better for an ally to do it in his name. If this were a myth, a legend, then perhaps, but reality doesn't always follow the heroic monomyth that you'd imagine.

Thanks for the comments!

I'll post part two, and see what comments I receive.

Nikk E.


Powered by hypermail