> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 15:46:15 -0500
> From: "Ian Gorlick" <igorlick_at_nortelnetworks.com>
> Subject: flat horizons
>
> I know that the flat planet theory is official, but I have never liked it.
> It has very serious implications for communications and navigation. The
> "haze limited resolution" idea helps, but you don't have to be able to
> resolve a signal lamp or a lighthouse to be able to use the information they
> are sending. At sea at night, one can see a burning cigarette end over five
> miles away, you can send signals 40 miles (beyond the visible horizon) by
> bouncing them off clouds. Try imagining how far a powerful light could send
> a signal on a flat planet.
>
> If the Lunars were to set a big red beacon on top of Tada's Tumulus, then
> nobody could ever get lost in Prax again. Where's the fun in that?
>
> Some people may like this, I don't. So my Glorantha does have a horizon. I'm
> not sure yet if it is caused by curving light or a curved surface, I think
> this is a major debate among Gloranthan geographers. (There was a lot of fun
> discussion about curving light and its implications some years back.) (Even
> if Glorantha isn't a sphere, there is no reason why the surface can't be
> curved. There might be some esthetic objections, but everyone is allowed to
> make their Glorantha fit their esthetics.)
Since Glorantha is very much inspired on myth and ancient RW stories about the
composition of the physical world and the place of the gods, we maybe can let
the RW legends inspire this case?
IIRC the babylonians believed the world was a halfsphere, resting upon the
backs of elefants. If they did that, then there are examples of mythical
explanations in our world of more alternatives than flat or round. What kind of
mythical explanations are there for the shape of Glorantha? Couldn't it be
possible to "find" a myth like the above mentioned? A curved surface does solve
all the problems IMHO. What is the MGF solution, eh? :)
/andreas
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