Discussions of Disharmony.

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 18:35:07 GMT


Bob Stancliff:
> The myth in KoS says that the other goddesses tried to marry the Boggles
> first, but they couldn't withstand the natural Disorder power. Only
> Uleria's powers of Love could resist the Boggle's Disorder. IMO this
> power had to be based on Harmony, so Uleria's powers of Love should stem
> from the Harmony rune, not Fertility.

At the risk if repeating myself: if you look at the elaborations of the meanings (RQ3 bk 5) of the runes, you'll find that _first_ on the list for the:

rune is Love. Love does _not_ appear in the given meaning of the:

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rune. Healing, notable, does. Therefore your reasoning, which proceeds from the _name_ of the name, which has been oft-stated to be variable, uncertain, and not a full and complete denotation of the mythic essense of that Rune, is clearly flawed. If you want to argue that the runes of these goddesses are 'wrong', you're pretty much reduced to saying that Greg doesn't know the meanings of his own runes, though somehow he's a reliable authority for their names -- despite the fact that he's stated he's not, and that the meanings are a better indication than said names. Not very tenable, IMO.

> Also, take a careful look at which cults resist and teach against
> the use of violence; Earth cults like Ernalda, and most importantly,
> Challana Arroy, who requires vows against all use of force.

Force and violence are not synonymous with Death. Chalana is just as opposed to Non-Fatal Beatings of enemy clansfolk as she is to killing of broos (if not moreso).

> As a side note, if Uleria really possessed Fertility/Infinity, then her
> followers would be -very- fertile and no contraception could be allowed,
> so Uleria bastards would be overrunning most cities.

Well, contrariwise, Orlanth is the 'source' of Storm, but has Decrease Wind in RQ3 (likely something very similar in HW). Thus an obvious source of Decrease Fertility would be...?

Cheers,
Alex.


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