Man-Rune; Is there a One True Vivamort?

From: James Frusetta <gerakkag_at_wam.umd.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:37:23 +0300


Andrew Solovay, fellow uzophile, wrote:

> Being a Troll means being a daughter of Kyger Litor means
> being the union of Dark with Man. Those are all synonymous expressions.

Yah, nicely summarized in this, IMO. Though I would think trolls don't use the "man-darkness-rune" concept. Trolls are what trolls are, and when they stop being a troll, they become something else. No godlearn guff for uz! : )

> Could there be some hidden connection with Kyger Litor? For example, I think
> all we know about Vivamort's origins is that he was a "darkness spirit in
> the underworld", in charge of guarding Death (presumably, connected with
> Subere somehow). Could he have been a child of Kyger Litor, or her kin
> (Zorak Zoran's no-good kid brother)?

I'd played around a bit with this with the Kozuru back in BoDR:D. The thing is, Vampires are very human-culturally specific; as far as trolls are going to be concerned, stuff that eats peoples during the night isn't so scary, really; being cold to the touch is *good*; avoiding light is a smart thing to do.

Now, as far as ol' Vivi's concerned, I always thought of him as a Minion of Subere, and thus something Other than a troll.

But this raises a point I've wondered about. A lot of Glornathan monsters are basically Real World archtypes put into Glorantha. But critters like Vampires *vary* quite a bit in the RW -- even in fairly localized areas. Just in a pretty small, several hundred mile region you can get wildly different versions of vampires (most of which are pretty different than the Holywood variety). So does Glorantha basically have the, ah, mass-culture-ized vampires hither and yon? Or is there more variation?

Ergo, in Glorantha, is the monster from RQ2 (is it in AR for HW?) the vampire you find *everywhere* in Glornatha? Or is it the vampire you get (more or less) just in Dragon Pass? Are there "cultural variations" on the theme? Are they reflections of Vivamort's "reality," that take on slightly different forms due to cultural constraints? (Shades of the old RW question about whether or not a Buddhist vampire is afraid of crosses).

I lean towards the latter, and assume that for trolls, those weird things humans freak about about (vampires) are weird demon monsters of some sort, but not familiar. It's Kozuru that are evil corruptions of the trollish form, and thus "vampires" for uz. Also, there's some MGF to be had: the heroes from Dragon Pass are off to Fronela. Imagine the surprise when the sorta-like-a-vampire shows up, and thinks it's funny as hell when they try to boot him by Sartarite means.

Note, too, that since Vampires aren't precisely a *race* (you can, I suppose, have duck vampires, new vampires, baboon vampires, etc. etc.), but are of magical/cursed origin, this seems a bit more possible.

> (I also suspect that to the typical human, there isn't much difference
> between "troll" and "vampire".

Only if you go for the contemporarily fashionable "Vampires are sexy." I think most Gloranthan humans would balk at that one. "oooohhh... your tusks... those glistening rolls of fat... take me, vampire-troll!"

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End of Glorantha Digest

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