Martin nailed his thesis to the door:
>Thanks, MOB, for your contribution to the list. Another on my list is this:
>
>Basically all the place names.
As someone who's come up with enough bad names himself, I'd be the last person to criticise Greg's erratic approach. I'm happy to think that Greg's "Wilmskirk" is just a convenient translation of however it might be pronounced in native Sartarite; likewise the quaint hamlets of "Cornspot", "Morning" and "Rabbit Hat Farm" I put into "Sun County" are no doubt English approximations of however they really say it down there on the Zola Fel.
Rather than employ trained linguists to rewrite everything, I like Rick's much more fun approach:
>Take the silly names as a challenge to think up a plausable history.
>I much prefer that to having to redo the maps and learn a whole new
>set of place names. If that violates your need to have everything
>make linguistic and cultural sense, sorry.
OK, anyone got some clues why Rabbit Hat Farm is so-called? (if we ever had a explanation, I can't remember what it is).
Keith N:
>I think it is almost a Gloranthan tradition to have silly puns for place
>names. Sun County has South Fork and worrying 'Dallas' connections frex.
I was already farting around with the appalling Dallas puns when Jane asked me where the Goldbreath family originally came from. Imagine my delight when I looked on the map and found "South Fork"! Then, following Rick's approach above, we had to come up with a convincing rationale as to why the family were now based in their eponymous family seat at the opposite end of the county: you can read all about this in the "Secret History of Sun County" section on Jane's Home Page.
Alex sez:
>As for the model presented for the hypothetical Great Gloranthan
>Revolution: I haven't seen much overt reaction to Loren's material, but
>I'd bet money that if Greg had 'retconned' Carmania along such lines there
>would have been _howls_ of outrage to it. (Nick and MOB, as suspected
>such howlers, can I possibly induce you to comment?)
If Greg said, "These are the real, native Carmanian names for these places", I don't think I'd care overly much.
However, if Greg said, "Discard the wealth of material that has already been created about this subject over a long period of years because I now say it is like this" (ie. Greg's KoS Elmal revelations potentially torpedoing everything already published about the Yelmalio cult, including the just released "Sun County"), then, yes, I would howl! Fortunately, common sense usually prevails in the end, and these days, I suspect that even Greg's arguments have to be credible to win over the Gloranthan audience and bring them with him.
Cheers,
MOB
Email me : mrmob_at_ozemail.com.au
MOB's Home Page: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mrmob/index.html
MOB's Glorantha Page: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mrmob/glorindex.html
DOB Footy Scrapbook: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mrmob/dobfootycard.html
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