Ok, I give up, no antelope in Pamaltela <sniff>. I will rework my Pamaltelan ideas accordingly... <I still want my Alkothi war hippos though!>
Re: milk in african cultures - the Nguni cultures (Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele,
etc) do drink milk. Mmmmm, maas! (semi-fermented milk with strange
flavourings - oddly enough difficult to find in the US ;).
>
> << 3. Somehow seduce the river (modification of the Sun Domer river ritual?)
> with the purpose of producing a child that would be the new river/canal.
> >>
>
> Question, when you talk to the river, do you need to enact a ritual to allow
> conversation or is there another alternative?
>
> I like this idea and your answer will give me more insight into how Glorantha
> works.
Well, the way we play essentially everything is ritualistic/magical to some degree so you milage may vary. As I see it there are a number of ways of going about this:
Mundanely one could speak to the priests of the cult of the river and ask them to interceed - of course one needs to convince the priests that one does not mean any harm or find some other way to convince them.
Alternatively one could enact a heropath of a god or ancestor who interacted with this or or some analogous river but this will cast you and the role and actions of that particular myth. Thus if one re-enacts the Orlanthi freeing of heler myth one would interact with the river in the form of a watery dragon and as an enemy. On the other hand if one enacts the Sun County river ritual then the river is seen as a nymph and potentially a friend.
To seduce a river, hmmm. A potential way from an Orlanthi point of view would be to enact the marriage contest... There are a number of myths of air gods and water spirits such as those that lead to the creation of the merfolk - some of these are violent rapes but not all. Thus one could combine the myth of Orlanth or one of the thunder brothers meeting and seducing a water spirit with the marriage contest. What sort of gifts could one offer the river to aid in the seduction? A new and beautiful variety of fish to live there - this might require a quest in and of itself. A new bed - which would combine well with the canal idea. Destruction of a threat to the river (eg the river of Cradles scenario), etc.
The results of the marriage might be a child (i.e. a new course/tributary for the river) or the wife comming to live in her husband's stead (with similar mundane world effects).
I apologise for the dry, gamist description - I'm writing my dissertation and can't get out of the damned scientific writing style - it is all I can do to write in 1st person rather that 3rd person past passive at the moment. Science writing must be the only form (other than tech writing) where bad writing is actually encouraged!
Yours,
Yak
- --
Dave Pearton
pearton_at_u.washington.edu
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"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree
That it carries too far, when I say
That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,
And dines on the following day.
The Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll
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