Re: The Glorantha Digest V7 #69

From: Bob Stancliff <stanclif_at_ufl.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 20:14:30 -0400


> The Grazers just happened to be the first people who arrived after
> the Dragonkill (in 1250, 130 years later), and they had to perform
> special rituals remaking them by a centaur (Ironhoof) in order to
> avoid the curse.

        It would appear that these rituals made them 'centaurs' by adoption and they were given the Grazelands to live in. This would certainly lead to centaur myths.
> ------------------------------

> > And then there is the Dwarf Run prophecy, which claims the Red Moon is
a
> > dwarvish tool [ibid. p.56].
> > General question: The Dwarf made this remark, presumably in Dragon
Pass,
> > only half a century after the Dragonkill. Who was he talking to?

        Why is this surprising? 500 years after Dragonkill is about 1600. Dwarf Run is a major caravan route to east Sartar and Prax from Tarsh and all points north. Hundreds of people travel through it each year. One of them wrote this down.
> ------------------------------

> The 'Wisdom of the Woodwife' in Gods of Glorantha describes
> the elves as blaming the Lunars for both Rist and Erigia.

        Since Erigia was elf forest and not really lunar lands to be given away. The lunars are directly responsible for the Char Un attack. I agree with the feeling that the lunars wanted the Char Un weakened and out of the way.
> ------------------------------

> >This is what I would expect in Prax, which is a
> >high plateau with frosts through Dark season and often in Storm season;

> >and which brings forth temperate flora where the Zola Fel waters it.
>
> In every desert, it gets bloody cold at night. Thus I don't see
> Prax as having a temperate climate and the cover pictures of Sun
> County, Borderlands and River of Cradles certainly doesn't look
> to me like places with a temperate climate.

        Prax and the Wastes are called desert by the outlanders who are used to abundant water, but it is more appropriate to compare Prax to a sandy veldt like central Africa or New Mexico, and the Wastes are desert with scattered grasses like Nevada and Arizona. These states still have vast ranches with thousands of cattle today.

        The Zola Fel valley has bogs and marshes that have probably never been cleared, with stands of marsh trees like Cypress and Willow. Soft enough to cut and shape, but firm enough to build with.
> ------------------------------

> >Where could the Pol-Joni build carts? They live next to the Storm
> >Mountains, which have deciduous forests.
>
> They live close to the Divison Woods which is near Dagori Inkarth
> and full of werewolves. How many of them still live around Barbarian
> Town is unknown.
> - --Peter Metcalfe

        You keep insisting that because someone like the Telmori live in a forested area, they will succeed in keeping a clan of nomads from cutting a couple of trees and moving on. There can be some counter-raids, but this is not the stuff humans go to war for. Only elves would care that much for a few trees.

Bob Stancliff


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