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, Fri, 26 Aug 1994, part 2
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From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson)
Subject: Oh deer.
Message-ID: <9408260704.AA17991@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Aug 94 07:04:05 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5882
Sanford Petersen expounds on "elk":
> Instead, he is referring to
> Cervus elaphus, which is large and potentially dangerous, and a
> small, puny, variety of which is known in England as the "red deer".
Duh, silly me. I'd assumed we were using the same word to mean the same
thing, again. _Those_ "elk".
I thought the Yankee variety was supposed to be _Cervus canadensis_, a
distinct species. Whatever that means. Anyway, since this has the
perfectly good, and according to the notoriously Americanocentric
Websters, "nore correct" name of "wapiti", why induce all the
terminological inexactitude and confusion induced by the merest
breathing of the word "elk"? Let's hear it for wapiti hsunchen.
Three times fast, if at all possible.
> Elk are in the
> same family as mule deer, but so are moose, so your argument that
> Pralori should be moose "to make them more different than the Damali"
> holds little water.
Wot? I merely said that it seemed to make sense that the Damali and the
Pralori weren't the same people, and didn't totemise the _same_ animal.
> Yes, there are elk Hsunchen in Pralorela.
Wapiti-wapiti-wapiti. I'll settle for "red deer", if you must.
Alex.
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From: alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk (Alex Ferguson)
Subject: Questionable Rune Power
Message-ID: <9408260707.AA17999@hawaii.dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Aug 94 07:07:52 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5883
Myles Corcoran:
> I invisage the gaining
> of a new runespell as something like a micro-quest or ceremonial
> reenactment of some aspect of the particular god's life. Does anyone
> have any interesting possiblities for such ceremonies/quests? We know some
> of the details of Orlabth's gaining the four magical weapons. Perhaps these
> events could form the basis of a reenactment for a worshipper attempting
> to gain a new spell.
For the four Magic Weapon subcult spells, yes. But not for for all of his
magic, I don't think. For those cults where we allegedly know the main
myths, it may be interesting to guess which could be "used" to gain each
rune magic. For example, _Orlanth and Aroka_ seems a likely guess for O.'s
Cloud Call.
> Secondly, I wonder how people limit the stacking of rune-points
> for those characters with more than a handful of points of RunePower and
> access to stackable spells like Shield or Lightning. If as a priest you
> have a minimum of ten points of RunePower, you can whip off a pretty
> damn powerful Shield spell.
Here's a suggestion which will work with RPT, but may be a bit restrictive
for hard-core RP-Classic devotees:
One sacrifices for (multiple) points of each stackable spell as per usual.
(To wit, as per RQ.) For example, 4 points of POW to get Lightning IV.
You can then use any Rune Power spell/points to get a Lightning, but _no
larger than a Lightning IV_. Only by sacking for more points of Lightning,
and not Rune Power, can you stack any one casting to a greater amount.
I think this was half in my mind when I wrote my original message, but got
no further. If there were such a thing as Official Rune Power Too, this'd
be in it. Until the next erratum.
> Personally I limit
> the use of spells by using a Pendragon-like personality trait system but
> I'd like to see some different takes on the idea.
You are hereby encouraged to post your system immediately, Myles.
Alex.
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From: CHEN190@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Peter Metcalfe, CAPE Canty)
Subject: The Nick of a Thousand Myths
Message-ID: <01HGCB8HAG5UED1T47@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: 26 Aug 94 11:49:35 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 5865
Nick Writes
-----------
>What I meant was that, in the absence of any specific cultural and temporal
>context, your musings on Anitirus and Elmal were of no specific value to me.
Antirius was a god worshipped by the Dara Happans as a sun between the death of
Yelm and his return. As far as I know he was not worshipped ouside Dara Happa.
Elmal is worshipped by the Orlanthi and as was specific to them. There is a
third god, Yelmalio, who was originally worshipped by the elves but now seems
to have spread among the Orlanthi and the Dara Happans. In the case of Orlanth
in Dragon pass, he seems to have supplanted the native kerofinela Elmali tribes
and has spread into the Theyalan Peloria zone.
The Question arises: What happened to the Antirius cult that may have been
worshipped in Theyalan Peloria? Minaryth Purple in his Uz Lore speaks of
Yelmalio worshippers from further upriver establishing a temple city in Holay
in the sixth century. Is this Antirius? Where these worshippers actually
Aldryami influenced humans or what?
Given that there is virtually no information on the Antirius Cult in Peloria
after the dawn, I was trying to back calculate what Antirius must have been
like. If Antirius is Yelmalio, how would the Dara Happans explain his return
to life and the lack of healing powers. If you identify
>Myths happen inside peoples heads.
RW myths do. But Gloranthans have gods. Unless you take the God Learner view
that all gods are ultimately mutable depending on what the people believe,
there is some continuity between the gods worshipped in different places.
Example:
The time is 1248 ST.
An Orlanth worshipping King is installed in Garguna, a city in Fonrit and
largely dominated by Fonritians. As Pamaltelean influenced they hold to the
six day week. Since one of those days is a sabbath day in which they refuse
to do any work (yes this is purely hypothetical), the King sees this as a
waste of time and harmful since the Prince of Afadjann is going slaughter him
and every tenth person if he doesn't pay the set exhorbiant rate of taxes.
He casts around for ideas to improve his city's productivity (yes I know he
won't be thinking in terms like this). He realizes that his Umathelean clan
observed a seven day week. But how to prove that this calender is superior to
the six day one? He looks at the sky and sees a red object in the sky
exhibiting a periodicity of seven days! Orlanth is smiling upon him! So he
prepares for a heroquest to bring back a new calender based on the periodicity
of this red moon and persuade the populace to get more work done. Will he
succeed or fail? Discuss.
>tracing a path through myths without working out who believes in each step and
>link along it-- or, in many cases, when those links were first recognized -- is
>not a particularly useful pasttime.
Excuse me, but I did work out who might believe in each step of the path in
deciding if Antirius was Yelmalio. I know that Antirius was mortally wounded
at the Hills of Gold. I also know that Yelmalio was wounded there and lost his
fiery powers to Zorak Zoran. Winterwood is known as the last stand of the
Elves and Yelmalio and others. Now if Antirius was mortally wounded and the
identification is true, then how did he end up in Winterwood? Since there is
virtually no local myths published about winterwood (not having seen codex #2),
I speculated about a possible myth that would have elvish warriors trapping a
dead spirit on its westfaring path. They see it bears a resemblance to the sun
which they dearly miss. So they take it to Arroin (who was there in Godtime
according abelard's quest) who heals it and the elves name it Yelmalio.
I have not seen any evidence to disprove this above myth. If I were to trace
each step, am I to invent a myth of how the ghost of the sun appeared to the
army of Pelandra with the result that half of it fled and Daxdarius never took
the three defenceless cities of Dara happa?
If you do not believe in the identification that I have made and expect me to
believe you then I shall expect a more concrete refutation than what you have
made so far which merely consists of a list of likely traps which I have not
fallen into. Or if you think the myth is wrong, pick holes in it! That's what
I put it up in the daily for. But don't expect me to cease and desist from
making identifications and speculating thereof.
I'm saying
"Entenkos is probably Molanni. Molanni was known in Dara Happan myths and
Entekos is an adopted name. But why is she labelled 'Mother of Moons'. This
cannot be the Red Goddess for she is not born yet. Nor can it be Annilla whose
parents are known to us and in any case is not identified as a Lunar Element by
Mr P. in the Gods Wall. What moons do we know of? (NB I do not have 'The
Perfect Sky'.) The Dara happans must mean something different by moons than
we do."
The assertion 'Entenkos is not the mother of Annilla' was made in response to
someone pointing out that Annilla was not the original holder of the Moon Rune
on the grounds that a 'Mother of Moons' exists in the Gods Wall with the
assumption that Moon means Lunar element.
>I am keen to discover what role is played by the Elmal worshipper(s) within a
>"standard Orlanthi clan"/ I think this will be a better guide to how the god
>fits into Orlanthi Society and Mythology than the "Elmal-only"clans are; a more
>generally useful thing to discover.
I really think that an Elmal initiate in a traditional orlanthi clan (menfolk
worship Orlanth, Women worship Ernalda - all statements mostly true) would be
an extreme rarity unless you were using something like the 'worshipping without
a godi' rules in Vikings. If an Orlanthi priest gets shirty about somebody
worshipping Elmal without his intercession ("Orlanth is King of the Gods. All
prayers go through him" - Ernalda excepted of course), we might see Elmal
relegated to ritual crys for invocation when casting a spell.
For example: an Orlanthi guard is being attacked by trolls while out round the
back taking a comfort stop after drinking too much. He cries 'Elmal protect
me in these dark times' while casting a lightwall spell. He may even consider
himself a follower of Elmal even though he is initiated in Orlanth and the only
claim to being an Elmali is that he knows Lightwall and considers it the gods
magic which he has sacrificed for (albeit in monetary goods. He himself would
not know or appreciate the difference). How does he 'worship' Elmal then? Why
simple, At priestsing, he gets up every fireday and trundles down to the local
temple and sings (perhaps offkey) with the Godi, the paen to the rising Elmal.
But he also pays duties to Orlanth as Orlanth is the King of the Gods and his
spiritual requirements are more significant as a result.
Hope this helps...
--Peter Metcalfe