From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 30 Sep 1993, part 2
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Sender: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM
Precedence: junk
The RuneQuest Daily and RuneQuest Digest deal with the subjects of
Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha.
Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM",
they will automatically be included in a next issue. Try to change the
Subject: line from the default Re: RuneQuest Daily... on replying.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you
want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at
RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
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From: clay@cool.vortech.com (Clay Luther)
Subject: Lunar sorcerors and Storm Bulls
Message-ID: <199309291841.AA03853@cool.vortech.com>
Date: 29 Sep 93 08:41:39 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1869
Regarding my question about Pelorian sorcerors:
No one has mentioned the relation between Lunar sorcerors, Lunar priests,
and the Lunar army. We know that the Lunar Empire has been so successful
militarily in part because it has trained regiments of priests and sorcerors
to work together. This differs from their barbarian opponents who rely on
uncoordinated magic-wielding individuals. [This information comes from KoS.]
So my question becomes, where do Lunar (Pelorian) sorcerors really come from?
Someone has mentioned Carmania, but also Malkionism in the same breath. Is
this some Illuiminated form of Malkionism? Have I unforgivably opened a can
of worms here? We know that the Lunar Empire doesn't discourage sorcery and
that sorcerous techniques are used to augment spirit magic, forming Lunar
Magic. Is the simple answer that Lunar sorcerors exist, just like any other
occupation, and join whatever cults they are comfortable joining? Would we
therefore see priestesses of the Red Moon who have the ability to become
self-contained magical arsenals with access to spirit/lunar, divine, and
sorcerous magics? Or am I groping for something more complex than that?
---
Thank you for the opinions about Storm Bulls and Sorcerors. The problem
arose from the first time I mentioned sorcery in the campaign (way back
when). When the SB player asked me about it, I said his Khan said is was Bad
Magic and sorcerors were evil and chaotic. Months later when a player
finally created a sorceror, the SB player began threatening to kill him
(before the player was even done creating the character) since sorcery was
chaos magic. A heated argument erupted between me and the SB player, with
him saying the first time the sorceror character cast a spell, the SB
character would have to kill him and me saying that he was taking a much too
narrow view of magic and how could expect to tell that sorcery was being used.
He countered with it should be obvious...he is using "different" magic. I
countered with all cults use different magic and that the Storm Bull
Bladesharp was different from the Humakti Bladesharp.
I especially enjoyed the "fear and loathing" comment regarding how SB's
approach sorcerors. I hope I finally convinced the player that he would
perceive sorcery has Bad Magic -- magic he would never accept -- and that he
would certainly strongly dislike sorcerors, though not necessarily feeled
compelled to kill them outright -- unless he was trully psychopathic.
Another note on fear and loathing: I have an especially hard time convincing
my players, especially the SB player, that they would have fear and loathing
about anything, especially chaos. The SB player approaches chaos with the
simple mentality of "it must be destroyed" but this is simply a learned
response from the *player* and not from the *character*. The shallowness of
the response is saddening; the player doesn't really understand why his
character would want to destroy chaos. He does not understand the fear and
loathing aspect of Glorantha.
--
Clay Luther clay@cool.vortech.com
Macintosh Software Engineer Kodak Health Imaging Systems
Yelo's gift was a necklace of clam shells from the Ouel Stream strung on gut
string with a delicate knot of reeds which performed the role of pendant.
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From: jjm@zycor.lgc.com (johnjmedway)
Subject: egregious rq error of the week
Message-ID: <9309291847.AA12358@hp0.zycor.lgc.com>
Date: 29 Sep 93 18:47:24 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1870
Well, it's not really egregious, but sorry Ken, but here's another error:
The picture of Skath and Skanth ( or Skanth and Skath or ... ) is reversed
w.r.t. the text of their description. Left is right, and right is left
Ready made excuse: the woodcut was made incorrectly...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| john_medway@zycor.lgc.com | Landmark Graphics Corp | 512.292.2325 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu
Subject: Languages
Message-ID: <9309292042.AA21155@c00521-118rd.eos.ncsu.edu>
Date: 29 Sep 93 20:42:30 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1871
> You can be sure that these people did not learn Portuguese out of a love
> for foreign languages. Being able to speak Portuguese was critical to the
> survival of the community, thus at least some members could speak it. If
> the Brasilians disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow and no
> Portuguese speakers moved into the vaccuum, you can be sure that Portuguese
> would disappear from the Kayapo community as a second language.
Quite probably as a second language, but loan words (and possibly
larger structures) would have become part of the language even if the
initial influence is gone.
> I wonder whether written Japanese will ever abandon the kanji. I mention
> this question, because Egyptian (which some linguists think originated the
> alphabet) did the same thing with many of its words. So the Egyptians would
> write a syllabic or alphabetic word and the append the pictographic
signifier.
Japanese has a large number of homophones, that are
distinct with facial expressions and tone of voice when face-to-face,
but can be VERY confusing when written. Unless the Japanese abandon
their (spoken) language entirely, I don't think you'll ever see the
end of kanji.
-john-
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From: wadsley@chipmunk.cita.utoronto.ca
Subject: Origin of Gods
Message-ID: <9309292119.AA01452@hawk.cita.utoronto.ca>
Date: 29 Sep 93 21:19:49 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1872
Nick Brooke writes:
>Of course, since KoS also shows us Orlanthi myths where the other gods are
>associated with Orlanth before he sets out (or even advise him to set out),
>this theory has lost a lot of its force...
I just had a thought regarding chronological order of God histories.
There is no reason why Orlanth had to have a past before the LBQ. That
can be added afterwards. This fits with my conception of how GS came
up with Glorantha - Snodal and the Syndics Ban followed by a past, future,
country and eventually universe for those events.
Also, consider Christian mythology. It is quite
widely accepted that the stories of Christ' youth were 'invented'
several tens of years after the rest and are those least likely
to have a factual basis. This makes sense in the creation of Gloranthan
Gods too. When a bunch of heroes or worshipers first conceive of
a God - say of war/hunting, they will picture him in his prime
doing mighty quests and so on. I would expect 'inspiration' regarding
his early life to come much later when there is a better established
priesthood who have time to worry about such things.
There is a nagging thought in my head that there never was a Godtime
and that everything has been generated by retroactive God-engineering.
This was just my 5c worth. ( Australia has abolished 1c and 2c )
JARDINE@RMCS.CRANFIELD.AC.UK writes about impracticalities of
wardings...
Wardings don't have to be on all the time. I did like your exploding
boy example though. Once you pull up the warding stakes - you
get the spell back. Presumably you would only put the stakes
down at night or when danger lurked. The same argument applies
to letting guard-dogs roam around factories at night and so on.
James Wadsley.
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From: sogcity@aol.com
Subject: trollball ringers, stafford's project
Message-ID: <9309292357.tn07754@aol.com>
Date: 30 Sep 93 03:57:01 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 1873
Hi there all. Mike Dawson coming to you from his Other Account. Please send
any email to the main account:
eco0kkn@cabell.vcu.edu
as I get it much faster, and can only log on to AOL at night.
A quick note before the good stuff.
I am looking to put together a Trollball team for the *LIVE* Trollball
tournament at RQ con. And I mean players who can win the thing. SCA types
preferred....
Excerpts from a letter by Greg Stafford to me, posted here with his
permisson.
It details some of the current plans for the "Solar Book" and the "Lunar
Book." "Reascent referrs to a section of the Solar Book titled "The Glorious
Reascent of Yelm" which details Yelm's Golden Age, Yelm's Death, and the
various Emperors who ruled until Yelm reappeared in the sky *****after the
Sunstop*****. Before that, the sun was Antirius, known to many (perhaps
mistakenly) as Yelmalio.
...just so you know where this work fits in with my current plans: ReAscent
is one of 3 or 4 works which I am compiling at this time (others: the
"Yuthuppa Book," which is mostly an ephemerus; the "Alkoth Book," on military
affairs; and the Darsen Book," which is from the goddess' point of view.)
Then I'll put this all aside (in fact, I pretty much have for a large part).
Then I will sit down and write "The Mythology of the Red Moon Goddess," which
will draw heavily upon the former works and re-interpret some of it, adding
information as well. The rest of the Lunar Book will have: a list of Dara
Happan Emperors, a list of Carmanian Emperors, a "Places of Interest from
this text" map, information about the Red Emperor(s?), maybe something else.
Then we will publish "The Lunar Book."
Afterwards we wil publish "Sources of the Lunar Book."
Stafford's bit ends. Hope that whetted your appetite.
bye
M >|<