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, 10 Nov 1994, part 1 Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM Content-Return: Prohibited Precedence: junk X-RQ-ID: Intro This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest format. More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found after the last message in this digest. X-RQ-ID: index 6874: rowe = (Eric Rowe) - Of Cradles with Wheels 6875: MRHANSEN = (Mark Hansen) - Questions - Urox, Gagarth, Babeester Gor, GoG runes, Grain Goddesses 6876: ANDOVER = ANDOVER@delphi.com - Daily issues Nov 5-7 --------------------- From: MRHANSEN@china.qgraph.com (Mark Hansen) Subject: Questions - Urox, Gagarth, Babeester Gor, GoG runes, Grain Goddesses Message-ID: <01HJAJRIXSIQ00062P@hub.qgraph.com> Date: 9 Nov 94 18:30:14 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6875 Subject: Questions - Urox, Gagarth, Babeester Gor, GoG runes, Grain Goddesses My gaming group is new to RQ. Our campaign is in Dorastor (I'm using the Riskland campaign as a jump-off point). I've got a few questions: Who is Urox? He sounds a lot like Storm Bull (or an aspect thereof) but I can't find him in GoG or my Storm Bull cult description from RoC. Dorastor mentions the Mad Dog Templars but doesn't go into much detail. How is Urox's myth history different than Storm Bull? What's the story on Gagarth, the Wild Hunter? How does he fit into the Praxian pantheon? GoG doesn't have a cult description, except for Hunter Gods. My interpretation of the short blurb in the GoG Prosopaedia is that he's something more than just a Hunter God. Does anyone have a cult description for him? What is his myth history? Why isn't he mentioned that much? What is the darkened square rune for Babeester Gor shown in GoG? I only have the runes as shown in the deluxe rules. An open square is the Earth rune, I don't think that it's the same as the darkened (filled) square. I get the feeling that there's more runes than are shown in the Deluxe rules, am I correct? Where can I get a more complete list? Why are some of the runes shown twice in the GoG cult descriptions? For example, Orlanth shows the movement, air, air, and mastery runes. Air is shown twice. Two of the characters in Dorastor have been twice-deported by the Lunar empire. Their parents were Carmanians that were forced to move to the Grantlands. Now, because of political crimes, the two have been deported to Dorastor. Both are initiates of Ernalda and the Grain Goddess (we are assuming Pela). Now that they are in Dorastor should they start worshipping Dorasta, the local grain goddess? In other words, do Ernalda initiates stick with the Grain Goddess they originally worshipped? Or, do they change grain goddesses when they move to a new region? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on these questions. -Mark --------------------- From: ANDOVER@delphi.com Subject: Daily issues Nov 5-7 Message-ID: <01HJAOWHSNTU9UN8KW@delphi.com> Date: 9 Nov 94 20:35:38 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6876 I also did not receive any issues from November 5th through 7th. What happened? --------------------- From: rowe@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Rowe) Subject: Of Cradles with Wheels Message-ID: <199411100459.UAA03794@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 9 Nov 94 12:59:43 GMT X-RQ-ID: 6874 This document is a section of a document believed to be written by Florencia-Sillinhalia, wife of Gwalynkus the Good, sometime around 170 First Age. It is believed to have been meant to be given to her children after she became her final form. Taken from Dorastor to the east before that land fell to Arkat, the document eventually was rediscovered in a small troll inhabited tenement in Pavis' manside slums. Translation provided by your friendly local Irripi Ontor Sage. -------------------------------------------------------------------- There was a time long ago, when the goddess Glorantha herself was but a young innocent waif. Two mighty races fought the most terrible battle, greater even than that of the terrible chaos wars. Our friends the Elder Giants fought for untold ages against the wrath of the great Dragons of old. Our people were born during these wars, unnoticed by the immense beings battling about us. Others came as well, the dark races, the children of Aldrya, and some who rode strange beasts. We all were lucky to even survive these times, let alone thrive, but the great war was ending, leaving us an empty land to fill and explore. Before this could be though, there was one last battle between the Elder Giants and the Dragons that would decide our eternal fate. The first blow came from the Dragons. They created tiny versions of themselves with their arcane magics. These creatures made their way through secret paths in the earth to the place where the Elder Giants raised their young. There they treacherously slew all the babies, as well as the tacia and nearalings, who tended and trained the young Giants. As a final gesture of villany, the dragonettes collapsed the great stairwell, losing their own lives in the process. No longer would the Elder Giants bear their own children to the center of the earth. The revenge of the Giants was so swift and terrible they cracked the earth into two great pieces. They tore the Immense Dragons from the sky and smashed them to bits. The corpses were dragged north and lined up. Then the mightiest of the Giants sat upon them so that they would never rise into the air again. Since then very few Dragons have managed to free themselves of their earthen prisons, leaving only those they created to slay children to walk the world in their place. As well you should know, the Dragons and their kind can never be trusted, even in death. After the earth had stopped shaking and the waters of the world flowed down to fill the great gap, the terrible revenge of the Dragons became known. With their last chaotic magic they tore part of the very souls from the Elder Giants. The Elder Giants did not notice the loss until they began having babies again. The new babies started off fine, but without the training they used to recieve in the center of the world they never matured. It was more than that too, and finally MarkeraIfinia, the queen of the Elder Giants prophesised correctly that the Babies could only be made whole by reuniting them with their missing soul pieces. This was the great curse of the Dragons, and it almost spelled the end of the Elder Giants. Rash Giants captured ancient tribes and fed them to their babies in the hope that they would replace their lost souls in that way. This was a tragic mistake. Those children developed, but slowly, and in the wrong way. They never felt the way of the earth, and continued to hunger for the taste of man. They were cast out from the giants, but even today their offspring continue to reproduce and terrorize the civilized lands. Finally, when all hope seemed lost, the Elder Giants found Talallia Manalia. He is your greatest forefather, for he is the first who heard the calling. Talallia travelled with his people from the far north, past hostile ice demons and thorn filled forests to reach the wall of giants. Our people made it safely though, for ever since the last battle of Giants and Dragons they had been different. Since then we have been able to change our form, to become what is needed. This was always enough until Talallia began to feel unfulfilled, he could no longer find a form to please him. So he took the tribe and went looking for a new kind of form. When Talallia arrived at the wall of giants he sat in council with the greatest of the giants and explained his emptiness. Hatada, the wisest of the Giants realized the truth, for his wife had just given birth. He knew that Talallia held part of the soul of his newborn son. After the council ended Talallia agreed to travel with the baby to the underworld to attempt to raise it properly. While the Giants trained Talallia in their ways, our people constructed for them a great magical craft. It would take them down a long river from the home of the Giants all the way to the great water filled rift, and there float down to the center of the world. The craft would protect them both, and while there Talallia would train the child until it learned the way of the earth. Finally, Talallia would join the child and they would travel up to the surface, arising as a small hillock. There to sit until the youngster felt brave enough to join his people. The plan worked and our people had found the meaning of their existence. They settled in the land just north of Gianthome and when new babies were born one of our people would take it to the underworld and unite with it. When the whole giant finally returned to our surface world it would be complete again. These times lasted countless ages; many of the Elder Giants settled down into the way of the earth. Even now our mostali friends tunnel happily through some of the greatest of the Eldest Giants. But fear not for them, for they are of the earth. If they so choose they may rise again at any time in full health. Some day some of them may indeed do this, but that time is not near. Eventually, most of our people had become whole, and very few Elder Giants remained mobile. Most took the form of the earth, to better contemplate the world. At that time the children of Aldrya became very numerous and spread over even Gianthome. When they spread north from Gianthome they drove our people north. We became allies with the Hurforlings and Rallania Prosedia, an ancestor of Talallia, helped them defeat the Kalria, an evil people. There they stayed briefly in Unstevos with the Hurforlings. When many of the Hurforlings continued north Rallania Prosedia gathered his people together for the last time. Some would follow Hurfor north, others would go east and west, all would eventually return to Gianthome when they felt the call. Now, there are so very few of us left to hear the calling. Most who remain have already gone to Gianthome to wait. There they shall stay safe; unknown to all but others of our kind. Keep this this secret, for while few people even remember the great race we one were, fewer still understand the greater race we have become. ------------- This is unfortunately a first draft and the second won't be until after RQ Con 2, but I hope people find it interesting. It's clearly wrong because is answers too many questions. Hopefully though, it will make some of you think about what might the 'real' truth be. As a note, the part of the story where the elves come north from Gianthome and the people of Hurfor fight for Unstevos is "true", coming from Greg's Lunar Book notes. eric ---------------------