Bad Dog! Bad Dog!

From: Gary R Switzer <gswitzer_at_loop.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 18:15:44 -0800 (PST)


Rereading the original source for the perceived anti-dog bias of the Orlanthi (The Healing of Mastakos-KoS p70) I think the following passages helped me figure out how to tell a Bad Dog from a Good Dog:

"One day Mastakos was traveling the countryside in the service of his friend, and he

	was captured by the Bad Dogs.  These *bandit gods* hung Mastakos from a hook,
	and they pulled the sinews from his heels."  (Emphasis mine)


"Instead, he found a ruined hall, inhabited by *wild dogs*, licking the marrow from
fresh alynx bones." <Orthanth and his companions kill most, but not all dogs.>
"But one escaped, and it was Kang Rowl, the Slinker, the stinking dog-like-a-cat."

It might be worth a buck at the next Lore Auction to ask Greg if Kang Rowl is Issaries' old friend Hyena, who certainly fits the description of a Slinker and a Stinker, and has a reputation for taking down the swift by hamstringing them. Other candidates for Bad Dogs are foxes, jackals, dingoes, dholes and other kinds of wild dogs. Bad Dogs raid your stead for chickens and eggs, worry your herds and flocks, and compete with your hunters for game. Good Dogs help you guard your stead, herds and flocks and assist you in hunting. Bad Dogs can never become Good Dogs, though sometimes, like Eurmali, they can be tricked so that good results. Sadly, as good men can become outlaws, Good Dogs can become Bad Dogs then all* Orlanthi will hunt them.

Gary R Switzer
Aero Hobbies

(I also suspect that any cat that isn't one of Alynx's close relatives is looked at as Foreign by all* right thinking Orlanthi and not trusted any further than it can be thrown. Frex those funny looking Carmanian Blues with their flat faces and long hair that snooty Lunar ladies are always fussing over.)


Powered by hypermail