(IMG and YGMV and right to TOPI myself reserved)
The problem with mostali paper seems to be that mostali don't have much use
for it. And I agree. Why would they use paper? Many reasons why we use paper
are not quite valid for them. Now I have not really thought that mostali would
use paper for writing. I had an idea they might draw maps or plan their magic on
paper, but not anymore. On the other hand I do think mostali should be quite
able to do whatever is normally possible with paper, but then again we people
rarely write on bananas. Mostali paper, I say, is compressed dwarffood, nothing
more. This also hints that normal dwarffood is probably like pulp.
There were some suggestions how mostali write. I think that both hole-cards and thin metal sheets & acid have rigth feel to them. I think I could accept the thought that mostali use the alphabeth for the blind for writing together with acid made illustrations, but I don't really have to know in detail. Anyway it is good to bear in mind that mostali are immortal and therefore they are likely to make things to last.
Right feel is the most important thing about mostali! For example printing technology mentioned definitely does not have right feel to me. Mostali are not fundamentally technological. They are magical like the rest of the Glorantha. Their magic resembles technology, but its still magic. I try to describe mostali magic with as little tecnological vocabulary as possible. Mostali speech is filled with machine-babble though. Mostali are demanding to run in a game, but sometimes especially rewarding.
I still want to believe in the paper factory of Dwarf Mine. And I still like the idea of provincial bureocrats behind horror loads of expensive mostali paper.
The paper factory of Dwarf mine used to be called the Dwarf Mine food kitchen.
The special thing about it is that it uses nowadays groundwood as primary raw
material for dwarffood. Reason for this migth be the refugee dwarves from Slon
(Elder Races). They ended up in Dwarf Mine. They influenced the complexes food
production with vegetarianist thinking. As a result Dwarf Mine re-initiated a
wood harvesting project inactive since Greater Darkness.(RQA6)
Isidilian the Wise negotiated a deal with representatives of Lunar empire. This was also a part of reparing the world machine. The Red Marble in the sky is scheduled moving rather soon after the appearance of a Dragon.(HeroWars Prophesy, G:cotHW) As a result of the deal lunars got share of the dwarffood processed in the food kitchen which mostali sold them with a name "paper". The deal had it that lunars would harvest agreed amount logs yearly from the Stinking forest and swim them downriver to Dwarf Run. Fort Endurance was established as a base by lunars for these operations. This explains the aldryami hatred for the fort. (RQA6)
THE HORRIBLE SECRET:
A thought about bilayered paper crossed my mind. The kind of paper where you
write and get a copy on the paper below. Is there a word for it?
The Mostali of the Dwarf Mine have been selling that kind of paper to the lunar
provincial goverment. Only that the paper below isn't below the paper but
instead safe back in Red Marble Archive Vaults of Dwarf Mine Complex.
The mostali get a copy from next to everything written by lunars in the
provinces! I'd call this industrial espionage. ;)
"Any worldwiew that isn't strange is automatically false."
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #85
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