> The Mostali would be bound to have them, of course,
> and possibly some others like the Malkioni, but constant-length hours would
> be rarity in Glorantha IMO.
>
A note from Refined Golden Camwrap, Political Liason for the Most Orthodox Decamony of Nida:
FAULTY ANALYSIS. CYCLING IMPROPER. MISALIGNED REALM OSCILLATION CORRECTION OCCURS. Well, Mostali have never been good at manners. Or staying on schedule.
I debate the time measurement idea, as far as the Mostali go. I don't believe that the Mostali recognize the existence of Time, except as a flaw in the workings of the World Machine. When repairs are complete, the sun will stop, Stasis will reemerge, and change and variation will end.
I for one, don't even believe that Pure Mostali speech even contains verbs, since verbs suggest change and action. Instead, things have "States". Yes, I realize how weird a language with no verbs is. That's how weird I think Mostali are.
Sure, there's that picture from Genertela:Crucible,etc, that shows a dwarf checking his aeopile or some such thing that's supposed to tell time. But look at how he's dressed, and tell me he's not a heretic individualist.
The idea of Mostali Staticism doesn't mean that they won't make the best clocks in the world, only that they think of them the way we think of geiger counters or smoke detectors--instruments used to measure how wrong something is.
Maybe this is a faulty memory on my part, but don't some real world eastern languages lack tense? Don't all things simply "be", with past, present or future figured out from context????
Mike Dawson mdawson_at_differentcomputers.com Different Computers http://www.differentcomputers.com Macintosh integration, training, support and network design Sent to you from a computer running Mac OS X - the future of Macs!
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