Thanks Jennifer for your comments and questions - they were very helpful. I won't try and answer them all here - its OT for this list and we're at the 'everything is connected to everything else' stage of idea surfing for the world so most answers only lead to more questions. Hopefully most of the things you mention will be addressed in the intro documents.
>A question: if you can draw on the power of your descendents, what does that
>imply about predetermination and free will?
>
>
>
In Glorantha, ancestor worship is largely communal worship of a
semi-abstract communal entity. You don't get a ritual phone call from
great great grandfather Taros, you tap into a type of gestalt.. We're
treating Ontosnan descendant worship the same way. We also have a more
concrete implementation of the circularity of time, the implications of
which we're still teasing out. Having said that, being ritually
recognised as the father of his children through a 'marriage' ceremony
(which is conducted at the birth of the child) does mean a lot to a man
in terms of his own reincarnation and immortality.
>How long do women live? How long are they fertile? If there are
>multigenerational families (and possibly quite strung-out childbearing) what
>impact does that have on their domestic architecture? (Okay, so I have this
>thing about social structures and the spaces we make to accommodate them.)
>
>
'Years' are different, 'days' are different, and my initial tinkering
with Nick Brooke's life expectancy tables has proved frustrating to
date. :) But Its being worked on. Generally though, people live very
long lives by our standards, in keeping with the overall idea of history
as steady progress.
We were talking about domestic structures only yesterday. In a region of extreme temperatures (-40 to 45C over the course of a wing), where Storm and Sea (typhoon and tsunami) are the ancient enemies, and in a world where *any space* out of direct sunlight starts, after several wings, to develop its own physics (caves are a major taboo for everyone), basic habitation structures are going to be a bit different. Add the fact that cities were first developed as sites for godbirthing rituals, and the architecture you mention of matriliny and 'sisters supported by brothers' family corporations, then things are going to look a bit different. :)
[Your questions saved for thought and elaboration. thanks].
>And why is it so tempting to create a society and then place characters
>outside it? Is this just the role-playing dilemma of getting players started
>in a world where they don't know the social rules?
>
>
I think that's a big part of it. Worlds like Glorantha can have a steep
learning curve, depending on campaign style/focus/genre and the type of
character you want to play. Obviously, analogues help. In the literature
of utopias and dystopias, the perspectives of an outsider can also
problematise 'natural' ideas and cultural biases. I'm concentrating on
the upland 'Tibetans' as the entry point - they are easily relatively
easy to understand ('Happy ram-riding peasant farmers and hunter
barbarians on the edge of the world') and they are being steadily drawn
into the wider empire almost against their will. But having a core
storyline about naked strangers arriving full grown in the middle of
nowhere with no memories certainly helps getting the campaign started.
You have to question everything about the world (starting with,' who am
I, will I freeze to death and what will I eat tonight?') and its easy
for the 'make-up-the-character-as-I go-along crowd.
>
>
>
>>I have a basic Ontosnan model of herodom based on mastering emotional
>>qualities, where growth to a new level entails being obsessed and even
>>possessed by a shadow quality. So the creator must struggle with the inner
>>destructor in order to grow, the sage the fool, the warrior the coward etc.
>>
>>
>
>I realise you said gaming in the world was some time off, but do you have an
>idea of how to play this sort of psychodrama?
>
>
Although I do come from a systemless, theatrical roleplaying tradition
(the Oz convention circuit of the early nineties -
http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/directions.html ) I
realise that in campaign roleplaying, emotion has to become action. The
idea is actually not to difficult to implement if you have a series of
opposed traits such as in Pendragon or Pendragon Pass. And I've already
trialled the idea with the 'Katabasis' roleplaying subsystem, which some
on this list may have seen in various early incarnations.
>(Okay, so my very first impression of your summary was "the Discworld's Small
>Gods meet Anglo-Saxon sweostor sunu relationships and multigenerational
>freezer-clone family corporations in a world coloured by the Bridge of Birds
>and some Tibetan stuff I don't know yet." Since I happen to like all those
>sources, this is no bad thing, although it's sent me on a search to identify
>a short story I read 17-ish years ago about man creating god.)
>
>
>
Surprisingly, only BOB of these would be a direct inspirations *as yet*,
though I'll be tracking them down. :) I do love Pratchett, but haven't
yet read Small Gods. My direct inspirations are Glorantha (of course),
my immersion in new religious movements and religious beginnings (a long
time academic interest, centering on Korea), my love of India and
especially Indian Goddesses, and a Tibetan Buddhist meditation and
chanting course i did a few years ago. Fictional inspirations are
probably Frank Herbert and Ursula Le Goon, and literary inspirations
would be The Clear Mirror, a Tibetan Buddhist account of the Golden Age.
Add long morning bus rides, a gulf induced by long II fan policy
pregnancy, a restless imagination, and stir. :)
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_... John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
I had in my hands a substantial fragment of the complete history of an unknown planet, with its architecture and its playing cards, its mythological terrors and the sounds of its dialects, its emperors and its oceans, its minerals, its birds and its fishes, its algebra and its fire, its theological and metaphysical arguments...
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