Erudits de l'ambigu & Esrolia

From: Bryan <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 20:58:25 -0000

Julian;

My french isn't up to writing anything for the zine, but if I could be of any help reviewing things, providing nifty little ideas for flavor, etc, I'd love to help out. I'm not currently involved in any Gloranthan projects (I may yet try something new for Jeff Kyer for trader princes (my first couple of efforts got turned into the scenario he ran at tentacles), I declined to get involved in Sea and Sailors since I didn't have anything to say on the topic, and I dropped out of Simon Hibbs team working on the Far Place because I couldn't find a useful contribution there and because I was overwhelmed at work at the time). At the moment my life is pretty sane and I'm looking for something useful to do. In short, willing slave if you have any need for another one (you may be well supplied with such already, I don't know).

Whether you take me up on it or not, a few thoughts for you (feel free to use, adapt, take for inspiration, etc. These are just ideas with no owner).

Evocative nick names makes cities much easier to keep distinct. So having "the city of flowers" and "the city of 1000 temples" or whatever is a very word effecient way to convey flavor of some cities.

Glorantha is a magical world, so cities can be quite unique in impractical ways, for mythical reasons. So those nicknames can be almost literally true. Some possible bits about cities:

• the one where everyone grows flowers, so the streets are like paths through walls of flowers, the scent is omni-present, and bees are treated like sacred animals. The flowers might be random, but more likely have meaning (certain commercial buildings might be recognized by the flowers they grow, or each neighborhood has its characteristic flower, so you would live in the 'quartier des roses'). They are famous for their perfumes and poisons.
• The one where every street has a shrine or temple at each end (this was the case with old Novgorad in Russia apparently). This of course would be for good mythological reasons. The streets would be called by the shrines at their ends, so the street of Voria and The Crones, the street of Ipkor and Harst, etc.
• The one that is carved into the face of a gorge (well, both faces probably). Think Luxemburg city, but with more windows. The best addresses would have windows onto the gorge, but many people would have to make do with a small window on a narrow light well. The people started living in caves there in the Dark, and the city has grown this way. Probably Argar Argan is the favored husband protector, and trolls are less uncommon than elsewhere.
• The one where Heler in its most inscrutable aspect is favored, to the intense frustration of the outsiders. many of the streets are actually canals, at least one thing called a canal outsiders would call a street, and a few others vary depending on the season. Streets change name every block or two, but seldom run longer than that (OK, that part might seem normal to anyone from Paris....). There is a major festival culminating in Heler's healing rains, which attracts people from all over who are looking for healing. The early parts of the festival are more savage and carnal, however. The city is also famous for its cross gendered prostitutes.
• The one where any intelligent being able to communicate can petition for citizenship. Aside from all the normal Gloranthan races there are also a smattering of intelligent animals. There are some very unique food providers there (and the Chat Qui Prise and Le Chien Qui Fume were just named after their original owners....). Another relic of the darkness.

Finally, a few quibbles on your comments on my musings....

>From the maps, several big rivers do flow through Esrolia, but they
all originate in surrounding hills. Further, although Esrolia is adjacent to the coast, it is also surrounded by high lands/mountains/hills. To me, being the many rivered land would be totally consistent with a relatively dry climate, with lots of rain in the surrounding up lands (point of reference, look at a map of central north america, from Texa up through Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. There are plenty of major rivers there, but the climate is quite arid. The rivers are mostly draining the mountains.)

While Heler will make sure that they get enough rain, it seems to me that in some regions rain may not be all that frequent--certainly nothing like north-western europe (england, ireland, northern france, all those places where spontaneous greenness is normal), nor like Sartar, where the storm gods are so strong. Obviously you can define the weather however you want, but to me it seems more evocative if the 'women' made the land fertile through their efforts, rather than just happened to have the perfect garden waiting for them. Of course weather can change by region too, some too dry, some too wet, some more exposed to storms.

I don't know about in Esrolian mythology, but in Orlanthi mythology there seems to be two basic gods of snow and cold: Valind and Inora, the mountain top cold. Valind seems to me to be the perfect example of "bad men" for the Esrolians, so associating destructive winter storms on the Valindings seems about right (like the occasional cold snap that destroys the orange crop in Florida usually being referred to as "cold weather from Canada"). On the other hand, Inora is the relatively good cold, who gathers snow on her mountains then lets it melt slowly, making sure the land is watered all year long. This is why I would think that real winter storm (as opposed to a calm, cold, period) would be blamed on Valind and kin.

If the rivers are mostly in gorges, well, it is too bad you couldn't be at Gloranthacon in Toronto last March, as that is exactly the geography in that part of Ontario, every stream has its own very impressive gorge. Hauling things up and down the sides of gorges is hard, so most people will get their water from wells, but some of the big cities might have aquaducts (possibly a momento of the god learners?). This would obviously argue against canals (too bad! Canals are fun), and would mean that most roads run parrelel to the rivers (a lot of work to go down, across, and back up). If there are any bridges over gorges (as opposed to down at the bottom, just over the river) these would be huge and wondrous, the convergence point of many roads as well as a 'tourist attraction' (OK, more like a holy site to whoever built the bridge). Probably also a town there, named after the bridge most likely.

I hope you are all having fun exploring Esrolia. At the very least wehn EdA#4 comes out I'll have to see if any of the stores over here stock it or can order it.

--Bryan