Donkeys are from Pent, according to Anaxial's Roster. I like the myth about Donkey's and Onager (AR p54). To me the Onager sounds distinctly like a Son-of-Storm-Bull-style bolshy beast. I even wonder if Tok might even be Tada! and Lodril, perhaps replaced with Genert.
About Cactus:
<<Yes, but what's their mythic origin. I have a theory,
but nothing to back it up bar a very obscure reference
that's impossible to apply unambiguously.>>
Do we have any other cactus related myths to go on? Are there Cactus Aldryami? Were there cacti on the spike (or vice versa)?
<< > Basically, I see five groups of humans in
> Prax: Beast Riders who immigrated from the
> south (Spike), Men-and-a-half who immigrated
> from the southeast (Pamaltela, via Teleos),
> Hsunchen who immigrated from the west
> (Basmoli, likely via the great forest of
> Ralios/Maniria), River folk who immigrated
> in the wake of Seolinthur, and indigenous
> Tada-Shi.
I'm dubious that the river folk and the oasis folk have different origins. They are physicially identical in RoC.>>
I think the current river folk are a mix of oasis folk and immigrants from the coasts. This is why I think they have more get up and go than the "proper" oasis people. I see the indigenous "Tada-Shi" being a group originally containing much more variety and diversity than the other groups. Perhaps we are confusing things by calling the indigenous Generti (even *more* confusing to call them Genertelans) Tada Shi. If Tada was the Queen's Champion, then Tada Shi could almost imply something like the Queen's Guard, a regiment or rank of special servitors ("Arrangers of the Golden Land", "Editors of the Different Worlds?"). This would make it possible for Long Ears, Copper People, Aldryami Lords, Veruferrari People, Loyal Scorpions and even Ostrich People to be Tada-Shi but not all of them. The Tada-shi would be the ones out chasing Tripanandar and his brood.
<< My valid alternative is that they were part of a combined pantheon that was not focused on earth as an element. It was focused on the Giants. Genert was the greatest of them. He was the Land Giant.>>
I think we are almost trying to do a "Glorious Devourment of Genert" or a "Unfortunate Succession of Tada!" or "Ronansiad". A pre-Waha! mythology.
<< And the Basmoli invading. I wonder if that's when he "tricked death"? What was the first thing to die in Prax? Elsewhere, it was the sun. True here? Perhaps it was Basmol? (Oooo -- nasty thought: was Basmol a sun god as well as being the lion?)>>
I like this idea. Perhaps Yam-Sur wanted his splendid Chariot to be pulled by Lions and invited them over?
<< There are other possibilities, but they would also be part of the Golden Age culture. Also, canals does not mean grain cultivation. It might have been flower gardens.>>
I am also tempted to suggest that the Zaranistangi, the Loper People, the Moon Cavalry of the Artmali Empire, might have built canals for some obscure reason. (Mostly because I link moons, canals and mystery whenever I am not thinking about donkeys).
Keith
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End of Glorantha Digest
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