From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer) To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest) Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily) Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Thu, 09 Jun 1994, part 6 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk --------------------- From: marks@slough.mit.edu (Mark S. c/o Tom Yates) Subject: Loskalm Message-ID: <9406090431.AA06590@Sun.COM> Date: 9 Jun 94 04:32:16 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4457 As Loskalm is being talked about again I thought I'd tell you how I dealt with some of the issues brought up. Your one true world may vary. Land Ownership: My Loskalm is more Brithini than feudal. Farmers, Knights and Wizards work under the direction of Lords. Only Lords may "own" property; they are obligated to provide the other castes with tools and also the necessities and comforts of life. Hrestoli doctrine holds that only Lords have the spiritual mastery needed to avoid conflating identity with material objects. In practice, of course, no mortal Lord could direct the use of all of his holdings personally, and many resources are allocated by a Lord's officers or by tradition. Virtues: I gave them energetic (especially important virtue for farmers), brave (knights), pious (wizards) , just (lords), proud (important for all Hrestoli!) Cultivation of these virtues is one of the goals of the Hrestoli relegion. Class progression mirrors spiritual progression. Childhood is left behind when one enters the farmer class. Having learned the life giving arts, one goes on to master the deadly skills of the knight. Once knowlege of the outer world is obtained, one must struggle with the inner metaphysical challenges of a wizard. Those who have shown ability in all aspects of life are those most fit to lead. Is Loskalm bent on crusading world conquest?: No AND yes. Loskalm is the one major power not ruled by some god emperor. This means that it has lots of fun "normal" politics (no dart throwers need apply). Some people want to start a holy crusade, others want nothing to do with the outside world, still others don't care; they have other fish to fry. Factions vying for influnce in the court and the High Council has lots of role-playing potential. Why should a nation of three million people have one view on any subject? Shameless plugs: Most of my 'zine Pen and Sword ( in Pete Maranci's APA Interregnum) is background material from my Fronelan campaign. Codex #2 will be chock full of Fronelan information as well. (including a composite Fronelan timeline I worked on) Other Business Alex: >On the third hand, note that Loskalm had clearly annexed part >of Junora long before anyone had even heard of the Kingdom of >War. They'd probably have made a point of crusading against it >earlier, anyway, had it not been so inoffensively sub-Loskalmi, Clearly!?! Could you please quote your sources? I've only heard that: "Loskalm led in the exploration of the new Fronela ... Yet the kingdom has exhibited no imperial intent and has scrupulously respected the territorial claims of nearby lands." Alex: >Everyone seems to have it in for Jonatela these days, but I >don't see that much evidence that it's all that stratified or >repressive. The three COMMON events listed on the Kingdom of the Jonatings regional activity table are: 1. Assassination plot against King uncovered. 2. Unhappy peasants threatening rebellion. 3. Peasant rebellion brutally crushed. MOB: Sorry to hear about the hard disk crash. Absolutely thrilled to hear about Soldiers of the Red Moon! Nick Brooke: " The Emperor who had No Clothes" One word - Wow! catch you all later, Mark --------------------- From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller) Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 08 Jun 1994, part 3 Message-ID: <01HDBIG3PXXU8ZEPML@wharton.upenn.edu> Date: 8 Jun 94 19:51:18 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4458 Gonn Orta = Genert? Now that's an idea! There's an obvious relation since you pointed it out, but I think it's unlikely that they are exactly identical, after all Genert got completely destroyed by Kajabor or Wakboth or whomever he fought. But, Gonn Orta should definitely be a relative of Genert, and possibly the key to the Desert Tracker quest. -- Loren --------------------- From: lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell) Subject: Cats in Glorantha Message-ID: <9406090454.AA09239@Sun.COM> Date: 9 Jun 94 19:53:01 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4459 Scott (The Lotus Jukebox) writes: >Most cats exhibit solitary behavior (lions are a classic exception). I recall a TV show which documented a biologist studying feral domestic cats. They seemed to be more social than most other cats (lions excepted), with a small pride of related females associated with a much more wide ranging male. They were still solitary hunters, though. > Personally, I think it would be *great* for >people to have trained hunting cats. Glorantha ain't Earth, have fun >with it! Their ability to train cats is probably mythical/magical in nature; possibly only the Orlanthi (or Yinkin initiates) can train alynxes. After all, lions aren't charming pets, but the Basmoli can live with them. Earth rhinos aren't too charming, either, but the rhino riders have tamed them. With these examples around, arguing about the social life of Earth cats becomes a bit irrelevant. Sandy Petersen writes: >Lionesses normally set an ambush, Which probably means the Orlanthi prefer hunting by ambush to the chase. I don't think the Orlanthi hunt from horseback at all. The point about cats being bad as herding animals is good though. Cats aren't physically suited to running long distances, either, being built to produce a lot of power for a short time, and then needing to rest. Like the Orlanthi, always blowing hot and cold, come to think of it. -- Graeme Lindsell a.k.a lindsell@rschp1.anu.edu.au Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra. "I was 17 miles from Greybridge before I was caught by the school leopard" Ripping Yarns - Tomkinson's Schooldays. - See, my .sig has become relevant! --------------------- From: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu (Loren J. Miller) Subject: Why Loskalm isn't fascist Message-ID: <01HDBIUVK6ZS8ZEPML@wharton.upenn.edu> Date: 8 Jun 94 20:11:53 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4460 As an experienced devil's advocate it appears it falls to me to defend the Loskalmi against charges of fascism. "Who would want to be a rebel in Loskalm?" is a question that accuses the Loskalmi of suppressing rebellion, simply because the leaders are so goddamn competent. Yes, they're competent, but it is the kind of competence built of achievement, not one born from some kind of inbred status, nor from an expensive education in an MBA mill such as ... (need I say it?). I know that if I were a farmer I would far rather have a leader who had farmed in his youth than one who had never lived outside his family estates, one who had never milked a cow or reaped a row of grain. Plus, by mastering my present assignment I have an opportunity to advance and do something new, to visit strange places, meet strange people, and kill them, and later to enchant them, and even later to rule them. In fact, Loskalm is the land where everybody has the chance to follow four careers and finally become the king. It is not a fascist land, not even close. In fact, the only way to become a rebel in Loskalm is to advocate an unchanging caste structure. The only way to rebel in Loskalm is to be a fascist. No career politicians, but only politicians who had lived a full life. Summing up, it seems to me that Loskalm is the land of Plato's Republic, where everything works perfectly, not a fantasy version of Mussolini's Italy. whoah, +++++++++++++++++++++++23 Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu "Enough sound bites. Let's get to work." -- Ross Perot sound bite --------------------- From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois) Subject: Language, Thought, and Reality Message-ID: <199406090556.AAA24588@peaches.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 8 Jun 94 19:56:31 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4461 From: SYS_RSH%PV0A@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com (The Lotus Jukebox) Message-ID: <01HD95Q2K8W28WXATP@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com> Date: 7 Jun 94 03:23:42 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4411 I believe Jack Vance wrote a book called "The Languages of Pao" that covers this very concept. It's an interesting story. Essentially, some invaders attempted to alter the social structure of an entire planet by introducing specific languages to specific groups...and weren't entirely successful. Check it out. Mind you, this is just the Sapir-Worf hypothesis in fiction, which, these days, seems amazingly quaint, mainly due to its "obviousness." Regardless of what the anti-Earthers say, I like to see Glorantha as a means of testing out the cutting edge of whatever bits of new philosophy I can glean, from the mundage (media technology) to the profound (linguistic reality.) Maybe I am going off the deep edge here, but all the folks I know who are into Glorantha in a big way (even Sandy, who seems to "live" the world in a much more visceral sense than anyone else (even Greg) that I know) appear to use it as a sort of whetstone for honing earthly views. So: in response to your quite appropriate mention of the Vance book, I say: "Of course, but where do we go from there?" --David Gadbois --------------------- From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois) Subject: Cats and Dogs, Living Together Message-ID: <199406090616.BAA24658@peaches.cs.utexas.edu> Date: 8 Jun 94 20:16:14 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4462 From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen) Date: 7 Jun 94 04:12:11 GMT X-RQ-ID: 4415 You can't grow orchards in Scotland? Utah, with a semi-desert climate, is able to support apricots, apples, peaches, pears, cherries, etc. with ease. Crops tend to be quite cultural and economic, regardless of whether they *can* be grown in a given climate. I was amazed to learn a few years ago of a quite successful apple farm in Texas (where I have lived all my life): I had always thought that it just never froze regularly enough here to support fruitful apple trees, when in reality the reason was that other crops were more (at the time) profitable. On the other hand, chile peppers, which just weren't on the cultural plate twenty years ago, are now found in everyone's garden here. Cats, on the other hand, stalk their prey cautiously, are highly solitary, and appear to consider their masters equals at best. The last I heard of the current thinking is that cats make a mother identification with their owner. Make for all sorts of interesting insights into Yinkin psychology. --David "Has a cat *and* a dog" Gadbois ---------------------