On shadowcats

From: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi>
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 07:22:22 +0200


> Yinkin is Orlanth's half-brother; they share the same mother, Kero
> Fin. He is the god of alynxes. He shows up in a few of the myths
> illustrated in KoDP.
>
> The best source is probably the fanzine Enclosure 2. Details are on
> my web site. (The cult will probably be presented in a quite
> different light in Hero Wars.)
>
> An alynx was called a shadowcat in early RuneQuest material. It's a
> cat about the size of a bobcat. A statue of one is in the KoDP manual.

> David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com>
> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

The size of a bobcat?!? The SIZ indicated in the rules means something more like a large European lynx (25kg) and ranging to something like 40 kg.  

Also the shadow cat's are very magical, and have a royally emazing dexterity. This to me doesn't sound much like a bobcat, or even it's larger cousin the European lynx (biggest of the lynxes), since the poor lynx cats have lost their tails, and their long hind legs don't exactly give them good balance. (granted it's still a cat, and as such very agile compared to us)
  I find it needlesly boring to just convert the mysterious shadowcat to a super lynx or bobcat. At least in my mind the imagery in the RQ-2 description invokes something rather much like a huge European shorthair "felis sylvestris", or parhaps a sleek burman.   Dark colored, agile, strong willed and very fuzzy in the winter. An artist friend of mine has just created a lot of excellent pictures of my vision on the Shadow Cats... I suppose I should write an article on them and try to get it to one of the fanzines.   I see the Shadow Cats as very magical beings, that are more at home in godtime than the in the mundane. (Also I don't like the word alynx... a-lynx is a joke that starts to sound old the second time one says it aloud.  

  ---

I don't mean to rub this in anybodys face. It's all just my humble opinions of course.

Parhaps more on this later (Alas! I'm many months behind with the digest)

        -Mikko, the Adept

"thinker, dreamer and adventurer"


End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #422


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