Hmm, now for some monkey goodness. I guess I won't be able to pour
everything in my game, but monkey heroes and tricksters are tempting.
Apart from Baboons in Prax, do we have any exemple of talking monkeys in
Glorantha?
The Goondas of Teshnos that we see in the HQ rulebook seem more animal
than not.
John:
> Wow, that's a big area. Polynesia is off on its own, but Indonesia has a
> Hindu (as well as an strong indigneous and Moslem heritage). China has a
> vast number of now-closely-intertwined mythic traditions (Taoist,
> Confucionist, Buddhist, Mongolian, shamanic), Japan has both a Chinese
> heritage and a strong indigenous kami tradition, and India has
> everything *plus* the kitchen sink. Faced with such wondrous diversity,
> you start to see the appeal of a one-size-fits-all monomyth.
>
Yeah, I know it's presomptuous of me, but I do not intend to study or
digest it. For the time being, I'm simply looking for fun snippets of
myths, places, peoples etc which I could easily re-use in my coming HQ
game. I read myths on my own, for personal pleasure, but right now I'm
more in 'sessions design mode'. And waiting for having a dinner with all
my players so that we can start the brainstorming, together... (Must.
Refrain. From. Planning. Too. Much...)
For example, I could use the Monkey King on a HeroQuest. Good station that. Would they help him? What would the consequences be? Or the Bagan kingdom in Birmania (Myanmar), a vast plain with thousand of bouddhist stupas I just saw on a book. I imagine a Vithelan island filled with hundreds of ashrams and bingo: place to play. Mukulashutnupa, the Island With a Thousand Temples. Add the twisted idea the great sage my players may be looking for could be a monkey, and I have some fun with the sage flinging poo at them and then getting serious when they despair. [like the Yado-Luke scene on Dagoba in the Empire Strikes Back].
> Google is your friend here, but in addition to the excellent advice from
> others, here's a thought or two of my own. My own game world of
> Ontolosna is Tibetan/Chinese/Korean/Japanese, so this is a topic close
> to my heart. I have a small Gloranthan-centred bibligraphy at
> Questlines: have a look at the India, China and General Mythology sections.
>
> http://mythologic.info/questlines/bibliography.html
>
John, I was quite excited by your description of Ontos-Na here some
years ago. I'm glad to see your site has many new pages. But the links from
http://mythologic.info/ontolosna/
seem all broken.
Do I do something wrong? I'd _love_ to read more about your world.
I'll peruse your bibliography, thanks a lot.
> My own specific recommendations: for China - "The Journey to the West" -
> Monkey, Piggsie and Tripitakas' journey is both splendid entertainment
> and deep philosophy. (The Arthur Waley translation is readily
> available, as are the videos).
I'll go and look for it. Wikipedia is my friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West
Hey, there are free version in the Net, but all in Chinese :( :-)
> For India, the Mahabharata - not all of
> it, it would take years - but a good summary and selected readings. I
> also value Robert Calasso's 'Ka' as an excellent overview of Indian
> myth, though its rather dry in places. Some of my other Asian favourites
> are listed at Mythologic.
>
I read 'Ka and found it quite interesting, particularly the Shiva parts.
But then, I quite like Shiva.
Is there any really big river in eastern Glorantha I could use as a
Ganga equivalent? Doesn't seem to be one on the maps I have.
Philippe
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