Bell Digest v940706p2

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---------------------

From: SMITHH@A1.MGH.HARVARD.EDU (Harald Smith 617 726-2172)
Subject: another khalana story
Message-ID: <01HECH52TNPYQZFA9A@MR.MGH.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: 5 Jul 94 06:41:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5032

The Healing of Teliska
by Harald Smith

There came a day when Teliska the Dancer, spouse of mighty Arahar, was 
consumed by lethargy, a new illness.  Her dancing diminished to nothing.  
She sat down, when before she had always danced and stayed upon her 
feet.  Arahar upon his throne, consumed as he was with watching the 
events upon the earth, did not even notice that she had ceased her 
dances.  Teliska had lost all interest in her life.

As was the way of the gods, Teliska went to Khalana for a cure.  Khalana 
asked her to describe her symptoms.  "Ah, it is terrible," moaned 
Teliska.  "Where once I danced, I now only wish to sit.  Where once I 
moved with grace and passion, now I move with hard and clumsy steps, if 
at all.  I feel nothing but the doom and despair that Arahar sits and 
watches for.  Help me, Khalana, for I know not how to help myself!"

Khalana thought long upon this for this illness, this lethargy, was new.  
Having thought upon possible cures, Khalana gave Teliska the Dew of 
Ninara, steeped as it was in the divine radiance of Yelem.  Khalana grew 
hopeful for Teliska glowed, but Teliska shook her head slowly.  "I feel 
the radiance of Yelem within me, but where before I would have gone to 
dance within that joyous glow, now I would just sit and wait for the 
glow to pass."

Khalana thought more and went to her works of ancient lore.  After long 
reading, she went to her kitchen and distilled the blood of Larnsta and 
mixed it with the Water that Always Rises.  This concoction she gave 
Teliska, since it was sure to restore her graceful moves.  Khalana grew 
hopeful for Teliska's body twitched with restlessness, but Teliska shook 
her head.  "I feel strong movements within me, but before I would have 
leaped high in the air and twirled around, but now I know I could never 
reach such heights, so why should I try."

Now Khalana was disturbed by this, but she is a stubborn goddess.  She 
left Teliska and went to Arahar.  She asked him if he knew why his wife 
did not want to dance.  He shook his head and said, "I do not know.  
There are many things which are not as they were.  I must guard against 
these, but I do not know how to aid my wife."

As Khalana returned to her home from Arahar's fortress, she chanced upon 
Orlantio.  As was ever his way with goddesses, he taunted Khalana.  "Ho, 
lovely goddess.  Would you care for a frolic today?  You can see for 
yourself how your looks arouse me!"  And he laughed when she blushed and 
turned away from the privy parts he showed.

Khalana was ready to hurry past when she suddenly had an idea.  "Ho, 
yourself, you lust braggart.  Perhaps I would partake of your sweat and 
seed, and even your blood!  But only if you indulge me first."

Well, Orlantio was never one to pass up any opportunity, especially 
where his member was concerned.  Seeing a chance with the chaste healer, 
he readily agreed to her condition.  "Very well," said Khalana, "I only 
require that you listen to me play awhile."


After stringing her ousa, Khalana played a gentle lullaby.  Her play was 
so enchanting that Orlantio quickly fell asleep.  As he slept, Khalana 
crept close and gathered up some of his sweat and some of his seed and 
the smallest drop of his blood.  Khalana dashed then for her home while 
he slept on.

Once home, Khalana distilled the sweat and seed and blood of Orlantio 
into a new concoction.  She gave this to Teliska.  But Khalana lost hope 
immediately when she saw Teliska's countenance darken like the storm 
cloud.  Teliska glanced up and met Khalana's eye.  "So my husband would 
sit around watching the world beneath his feet, would he?" she called 
out angrily.  "And he knows not how to help me?  Well, I'll show him a 
thing or two."

Suddenly, Teliska was upon her feet, a whirling dancer once more.  She 
pulled her cloaks from her body and twirled them round and round.  Then 
she rose rapidly into the sky and sprang forth right in front of 
Arahar's eyes.  Quickly wrapping a cloak about him, she grabbed his arms 
and pulled him off his seat.  She danced and led him on.  Never before 
had Teliska performed such a dance and Arahar was shocked at what he 
saw.  But she kept dancing and slowly Arahar was drawn into the dance 
until all the heavens stopped to watch.  Teliska laughed then and 
shouted with joy for she was cured of her lethargy.

And back below, Khalana heard a thunderous knocking at her door.  "Let 
me in wench!" called Orlantio.  "You promised to partake of my sweat and 
seed and even my blood!  I demand that you do so."

Khalana peeped out at his raging face and said, "But I have, dear 
Orlantio.  See, here is the proof."  And she splashed him in the face 
with the concoction made from his own sweat and seed and blood.  
Orlantio howled in fury at being duped so, but she had kept her promise 
and he could not assail her.  Khalana laughed then with joy for she had 
found a cure for lethargy.



---------------------

From: jcw7@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu (Joseph Christopher Wehman)
Subject: Replies Re:Basmoli
Message-ID: <199407051625.MAA07160@postoffice.mail.cornell.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 94 05:25:10 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5033

To Bryan Maloney:
Isn't that amazing.  Well i know about all that stuff.  Hmm, it might be
because I AM the person who plays a Basmoli shaman in your RQ4 play-test.

In response to the other questions:
When I wrote the stuff up I was interested in the Basmoli from a
role-playing standpoint and not a normal-battle-operations standpoint.  I
made the cult up based on the social behavior of african plains lions and
not primative man. I don't want to start the ubiquitous arguement of
whether country x represents old earth y because they use shield z. I agree
the weapons that I chose are limited in normal combat.  I would suggest
that it is the terrain in which they live that the Basmoli use to their
advantage, the high plains grasses.  They would do this by lureing their
attackers into the high grass, setting traps(rock piles,pot holes) to maim
the animals, and where their movement in slowed and they loose sight of the
ground.  Then by sneaking around in the grass, virtually unseen, to lay
ambushes on parties.

As far as the hit-and-tactics, a party of say ten Basmoli with mobility,
multi-missle, and protection armed with javelins and spears would be able
to kill a few people and then run to the nearest stretch of grass then set
a trap.
As for the number of Basmoli available to fight a large war party, since a
law shaman resides over 4-5 prides of the same type, that would mean 32-60
Basmoli in a single area.  As far as females goes, its a matriarchal
society based on lions, what can I say? In ranged combat I think they would
do fine.  Also it is often the bands of banished young males that do most
of the raiding.



---------------------

From: paul@phyast.pitt.edu (Paul Reilly)
Subject: Re:  RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 05 Jul 1994, part 2
Message-ID: <9407051701.AA00684@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 94 17:01:12 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5034

  Paul here.  Sandy writes:
        I scoffingly disbelieve in the existence of "a few" medieval  
French female knights. Maybe over the entire period of the Middle  


  Scoff away.  I doubt that quoting medieval chronicles would change your
opinion.  In any case my claim is not that female knights existed in real
life (unverifiable without a time machine or an extremely lucky archaelogical
find) but that period historians record their existence (easily verifiable
at any major library).  I tend to base historical campaigns on period source
material when possible, and get ideas for fantasy campaigns from period
sources also.  For "ancient" campaigns, I can believe in Amazons if Herodotus
can.

  Sandy, do you scoff at the existence of female gladiators?  If so I will
give you an argument.


  Note that I am leaving out examples like Britomart, I am referring to
serious historical sources.  People apparently recording what they regarded
as sober fact.

 - Paul

---------------------

From: jiml@falcon.teleride.on.ca (Jim Lai)
Subject: The end of the world as they knew it?
Message-ID: 
Date: 5 Jul 94 09:08:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5035

|From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (alex)
|Subject: Use Your Illusion III
|X-RQ-ID: 5014

Alex muses on reality:
|> >Can belief create reality in Glorantha? 
|
|> Yes: Illusion.
|
|Leading to thorny questions such as: Is Illusion Reality?; and Is Illusion
|Caused By Belief?

Just ask a pseudodragon if it thinks it's real.  Maybe the Illusion rune is
really the Dream rune (or Reality rune).  (And no, I'm not going to attempt
to model the Sandman/Endless pantheon using runes.)  Maybe Illusion is what
the Trickster replaced Humakt's sword with.  Maybe all the runes are merely
Illusion.

|From: NDROBINS@NDROBINS.FIN.GOV.BC.CA
|Subject: GLs, Runes and the Monomyth
|X-RQ-ID: 5019
|
|Neil Robinson here:

|The GLs attempted to 
|explain and control Glorantha through the MM and Runes - merging
|Gods and cultures, and altering their powers by forcing them to act
|through fixed Runic patterns.  Now had the GLs been completely successful,
|then the MM and the Runes would be the only way that Glorantha could
|be viewed.  Unlike Earth, where mathematics and physics only model our
|world, Glorantha is completed malleable through belief, [...]

If we assume that Glorantha is a dream, then their intervention may have
disturbed the course of the dream too greatly, thus earning the emnity of
those who would want the dream to continue.  And so the dream changed...

|It shows why the GLs were so dangerous, and so strongly resisted
|by the Gods, and Glorantha itself.  Heck, maybe that's what happened
|to Earth.  It was a Glorantha-like entity where the GLs won (and here
|we are).

My impression is that the GLs attempted to create a magical technology of
sorts.  Mostal no doubt was amused.  Imagine creating a new deity with the
runes Statis, Movement/Change, Power/Pamalt... the god of Carnot engines!

|This all comes back to the basic question.  Can we use runes to
|detail Glorantha, or the Monomyth to describe the deities.  Yes they
|work as general tools, but fall down when you try to get into the
|gritty details.

Here's an even worse model: Glorantha is like a Shadow in Zelazny's
Amber universe.  The Godtime corresponds to the True World.  Gods are
power sources in Shadow.  Spells can be fueled by oneself or external
power sources, etc. etc.

A parting shot about KoS: is it possible to conceive of a cult of the
Invisible Red Moon after its fall?

---------------------

From: jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
Subject: Expendible men
Message-ID: <9407051818.AA05934@sonata.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 94 08:18:07 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5036



This is something that I wish more people on this list were aware of (a few
are).  By and large, men aren't very useful for most things in a preindustrial
world.  They can lift heavy stuff, and fight if there's danger, but there's
no point in having any more of them around than absolutely necessary.  Thus,
men are warriors, because they're expendible.  Kill a man, and you've just
killed a man.  His breeding potential can be replaced by another man and the
rate of reproduction doesn't diminish.  Kill a woman, and THEN you've created
a reproductive disaster.

Also, regardless of the macho schoolboy fantasies of many people, in any
"hunting" society, it's the women who procure most of the food.  The same is
often true of pastoral societies.  In the former, meat is a lot of effort
to get.  In the latter, killing off your herds for food can't be done too
often (you lose your sources of wool, dung, milk, etc.).  Of course, bulls
can be slaughtered and eaten without causing too much trauma to the herd.
So long as you have a few left over for breeding.

I would even venture to say that the Praxians have similar divisions, although
there is less non-meat food in a Praxian diet than in any other diet of
Glorantha or Earth.  The women care for the herds.  I'd even venture to say
that if anyone "owns" the herds, it would be the WOMEN of Prax, not the men.
(After all, Eiritha is the herd mother, Waha is her SON.)  Men are necessary
for defense and raiding (their powers of death) but women are the keepers of
the herds and all means of production (the powers of life).



---------------------

From: Urox@aol.com
Subject: Women in Glorantha
Message-ID: <9407051456.tn12414@aol.com>
Date: 5 Jul 94 18:56:45 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5037

Last week I commented about roles for women characters and several people
responded (rather humorously):

Barron said:

I can, however, imagine a very interesting scenario that is based on a
"women's roles" basis.  Intriguing noblewomen would be a great start.  A
murder in a nunnery or the Paps would be another.  To stretch the imagery a
little more, how about travelling healers and their Babsi bodyguards.  Or any
scenario of the "your men are gone and you must protect the homestead anyway
you can" variety.  I'd like to hear other peoples ideas of "women's"
scenarios.

Pam Carlson wrote:

Well, in Dara Happa, or the West, or any of those generally repressive areas,
playing ANYONE with no opportunity wouldn't be much fun. Yes, there might be
a lot of content and personally fulfilled Dendara initiates in the Lunar
Heartland, but I can't imagine playing one. 

GM: "So, What's your plan for today?

"Player: "Let's see...  I'll bet the kids need diapering, and the floor needs
to be swept... OH!  Neveshantakementherask hasn't had breakfast yet -the poor
man might drop dead by noon if I don't get his breakfast. Hey, I'll bet I
could find some laundry to scrub, too! Can I make my search roll?"

(Player rolls 08)

GM:  "Wow!  You found some crusty old sandal-wrappings under the bed!"


OK, you got me ;-). I was assuming that being an "adventurer" is not a real
option for most people in Glorantha. 
But you can have fun anyway, like Pam's farmers who won't leave the farm:
"While I am grateful to have such enthusiasm, I can't get 'em off the damn
farm!" 

This illustrates it's not really a woman-only problem: 

GM: "So, What's your plan for today?

Orlanthi Farmer, Lunar worker, Rokari peasant: "Let's see, I have to plow the
field/ tote that bale, dig that ditch. Can I make my search roll?
GM: "you bend your plow on  a big rock which will take all day to dig out
....etc.

I think traveling, adventuring, trading etc.  can be quite interesting when
you're raised to not think head bashing is the first and only option (see Pam
below). IMO being a homeless wanderer who kills stuff to get their treasure
really sucks, unless you're playing a game that makes it "cool" (refer to
most D & D campaigns).  In the western film Culpepper Cattle Co. Gary Grimes
is told, "Cowboying (read adventuring) is something you do when you can't do
nothin' else." 
In fact, being a soldier, warrior etc. is only "fun" in movies and games. If
there are any combat vets on the Daily I hope they'll feel free to correct
me, but based on my uncle's tales of four tours in Vietnam I'd say war
changes people irreversibly in ways they might have avoided given the choice.

In my own experience I know this to be true. I spent a year in East Timor
(former Portuguese colony occupied by Indonesia) in '89-90 and never really
got over it. Even though I wasn't actually being shot at or tortured I felt
stressed and on edge 24 hours a day. People were constantly being picked up
for interrogation and torture and everyone had tales about their families
being murdered and villages napalmed. The secret police watched me all the
time and bugged our conversations, so anytime I met someone outside the
capital I had to worry about their being interrogated for talking with a
foreigner.  Let me tell you about _real_ Danfive Xaron agents sometime.

Because I'm an American, and male, I felt like I was supposed to _do_
something or "take action." There was horror all around and since I could do
almost nothing about it (our government supplies the weapons) so I felt
frustrated and depressed all the time. But I noticed the Swiss Red Cross
nurses, who had to actually see the tortured political prisoners daily,
seemed able to take satisfaction from the little things they could do for
people to make their lives a little easier.  So I wondered if women aren't
much better at dealing with those kind of situations.

Forgive the babbling, I'll take it alt.culture.indonesia next time.



Mark (last week) 
While the testosterone hampered men in Loskalm etc. are busy bashing each
other, strutting about self- importantly and mucking things up, women could
be moving in their own way to work for issues they feel are important and
even establishing new cults/sects for themselves.

Pam:
I like this idea.   The secretive "Dara Happan Ladies Knitting Needle
Assassination Team"  could  be highly effective in those dart competitions.
Women can get especially nasty when they protect their kin. Think of the
"female bear protecting her cubs" stories.  Babeester Gor seems to be the
Gloranthan exemplification of this, but there could be  protection subcults
associated with  other earth deities. (Maybe not quite so twisted?)  Dendaran
Daughters for Defense? Praxian Mothers Against Marauding Morokanth?  Sisters
of Sartar? The Grazers have the Feathered Horse Queen, whose representatives
teach "steak knife" skill....And, I'm gonna go out on a limb, here... I think
that women tend to be less confrontational than men, and they prefer to look
for compromise  rather than argue.  Perhaps this is a function of the above
brain hormone influence, maybe it's learned, but that doesn't really matter.
 In Glorantha, it would allow for women to make good diplomats, translators,
merchants -good  Issaries/Etyries culties.  I wonder if a radical solar woman
could join Lokarnos? Could a Western woman be a shopkeeper or a trader?

These are great ideas and I hope I can use some of them. My main problem is I
usually can't find many women players and few guys are interested. This
non-confrontational approach is just what I was getting at. I don't feel that
"interesting" should at all mean "good in battle" for character roles. But I
recognize that Glorantha is a violent world where high adventure takes place,
so no flames please. 

By the way Pam, it's Mark, not Marc, but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler
Mangrove." for you Monty Python fans :-).

Mark Foster




---------------------

From: Urox@aol.com
Subject: Ralzakark
Message-ID: <9407051456.tn12406@aol.com>
Date: 5 Jul 94 18:56:34 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5038


> jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney)
>said in X-RQ-ID: 5024

>Why, doesn't everyone know that Ralzakark is Arkat in convalescence?

Sure Bryan, but tell the entire story. 
Bryan's character Gorrssh (sp?) the Troll had a fling with a human woman in
the Frog River Dorastor campaign during the Chaos Flood winter. When it came
time to consumate the affair Gorrssh raised his arms and begged Kyger Litor
to bless the union, then rolled an 11 for DI. Needless to say, the Dark Earth
moved and you gotta figure somebody heard the prayer despite any anatomical
incompatibilities. Now this woman is pregnant with what we think is Arkat
Kingtroll. 


---------------------

From: sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com (Sandy Petersen)
Subject: Re: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 05 Jul 1994
Message-ID: <9407052021.AA06090@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Date: 5 Jul 94 08:22:22 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5039

Alex discusses the Pol Joni:
>Given the Waha is a largely shamanistic religion, I see no reason  
>why they'd all have to apostasise
	I can't help but theorize that Waha's spirit of retribution  
might visit folks who rode horses and were his initiates. 


>"they became, in every way, one of the many bickering tribes of the  
>plains".
	Certainly the Pol Joni are one of the Praxian tribes, but  
that doesn't mean that the other Praxians don't hate them more than  
most other rival tribes. Like I said, the average Praxian nomad rates  
the Pol Joni just higher than the Morocanth. When they capture Pol  
Joni steeds, I'm sure they kill them out of hand. 

	This doesn't mean they won't trade with 'em or happily steal  
their cattle. But they have one more thing to needle the Pol Joni  
about (their Bastard status, and the horse-riding) than they do the  
other Praxian tribes.
	All I'm saying is that the Praxians recognize the Pol Joni as  
different (inferior) both quantitatively and qualitatively than the  
other tribes. I predict they rate the Pol Joni below the Zebra Riders  
on a scale of desirability. (Not that that's so bad.)

>Leading to thorny questions such as: Is Illusion Reality?; and Is  
>Illusion Caused By Belief?
	To answer the first question: Yes. In Glorantha, Illusion is  
reality. The only difference is that Illusion is temporary reality.  
Disbelieving a magic illusion in Glorantha doesn't cause it to fade  
before your eyes -- you still see the damn thing. If an illusion is  
able to damage you because it's red-hot or whatever, the damage  
doesn't vanish because you realize it's not a _real_ whatsit. This is  
one of the basic principles of Glorantha, and has many philosophic  
and cultural implications. 


>Back of the class for the implied conflation of "British" and  
>"England", Sandy.
	Sorry. *he whines piteously* I know the difference, honest.  
My own ancestors are from Wales, you see. Besides, my initial  
statement was "I went to England, and learned that British players  
did X". You see (he weasels), on my first trip here I was _only_ in  
England, but I met players from Scotland and England both, so you see  
my trip was to England, and the players were British. Did that work?  
Were you convinced?

I surmise:
>> Joerg B. coins the noxious barbarism Luxites.
Joerg passes the buck
>Sorry, this honour goes to Greg.
	So. You're no more than a sniveling accomplice, eh? I shall  
still have to take Stern Measures with you, though Greg obviously is  
going to come in for his share. I predict Greg forgot about the word  
"Shanasse" when churning out GROY. 

	The "Shanasse" were at one time used to refer to most of the  
Heavenly Host in the Dara Happan culture. I'm sure the Pentans accept  
them, too, but whether the Shanasse originated with Pent or with Dara  
Happa I don't know. In either case, both of them know of 'em now. The  
Kralori I'm sure have some equivalent. 


re: GoG
>What made you change your mind?
	The choice was: do 19 fancy long cults or do 60 short-forms.  
We decided that 60 short cults would be more useful to most players  
and, in typical optimistic Chaosium style, thought we'd be publishing  
the Long Forms straightaway. Har har.

>How many cults (and which) are still in cold storage?
	Here are the cults that were to go into the GoG That Was Not  
To Be: Invisible God, Horned God, Ancestor Worship, Hykim & Mikyh,  
Flamal, Subere, Magasta, Ernalda, Orlanth, Yelm, Red Goddess, Chalana  
Arroy, Eurmal, Uleria, Humakt, Dayzatar, Bolongo, Mastakos, Mostal. 

	Careful examination will reveal that we picked all the Rune  
Origins for this first project.