Re: Barantaros & Barntar; Yinkin

From: David Dunham <david_at_...>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 13:17:04 -0700


Guy argues:

> Somebody (Greg? Roderick?) created the name Barantaros with a very real
> resemblance to an existing deity, Barntar;

And a very real resemblance to several Sartarite names. My guess is it was chosen simply to sound culturally appropriate.

> Barantaros' function as "the
> hidden wind" reminds me that, in Dragon Pass at least, many Orlanthi who
> were forbidden to worship Orlanth actually hid their worship within the
> worship of Barntar. Maybe they actually joined Barantaros, and let the
> confusion between the two deities mask their activities.

I suspect there is more than one "Hidden Wind" in Sartar at the start of the Hero Wars -- after all, the Lunar Empire is suppressing Orlanth, and *any* Orlanth subcult (except Barntar the Farmer) is likely to be hidden.

Sublimating your Orlanth worship into Barntar: this isn't a huge difference for the bulk of Orlanthi (who worship Barntar anyway), and for many others, it's a way to salve your conscience ("I'm at least worshipping Orlanth's son, even if I can't worship Orlanth himself").

BTW, the location of Barantaros's stead in the Otherworld also suggests he's not Barntar. Especially since I believe Barntar wasn't around during the Darkness Age (see Enclosure 2).

However, all this speculation doesn't really matter. If the two cults are secretly aspects of the same son of Orlanth in your game, and they're unrelated in mine, doesn't change our enjoyment of the game.

BTW Jeff, the farmer is "Barntar." Two syllables. Not the father of a female singer :-)

Craig asked:

> I'm about to start a game of HW soon and one of my players has
> expressed an interest in Yinkin. Does anyone know of any sources of
> info or background on him ?

The magical keyword has the most... Enclosure 2 has 4 pages on Yinkin, though I'd be the first to say it's not official, and would need a bit of reinterpreting in light of the Hero Wars writeup.

I've mentioned Enclosure twice now, so here's the URL for this fanzine: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/enclosure/>.

David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

Powered by hypermail