> > Swordspeech exists in RQ2 and appears to have been dropped from the
> > Glorantha Book and Gods of Glorantha in RQ3.
Those sources also dropped Tradetalk so I don't consider that arguement compelling.
>"Not mentioned in", I'll believe. But I take it there's no statement saying
>"there is no such thing as Swordspeech"?
>
> > Again, I don't mind performing some mental gymnastics to keep a half-
> > baked idea from RQ2 around - I just think that Swordspeech was (and
> > is) a half-baked idea. I'd prefer to drop with it along with
> > Firespeech.
>Firespeech has been dropped?
I understood Firespeech to have been Dara Happan.
As for Swordspeech, I think it a language created when Arkat was a Humakti and thus used in rites to Humakt everywhere (ie in Carmania, the Kingdom of War and the Barbarian Belt). It is related to Stormspeech but shuns that tongue's verbosity in favor of a laconic style (reflecting Humakt's severance from Storm).
The elements of swordspeech can be used as military sign language but the Humakti use also use them in the Sword Stances. If their sword strokes are understood in terms of sword speech, they spell out ritual invocations to prepare the victim for the Halls of the Dead.
--Peter Metcalfe
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