Re: Odayla and the "mountain men"

From: David Dunham <david_at_...>
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 08:44:17 -0700


> There IS a long tradition of not taking more than you need from
> nature. Whether this originates from the same kind of thoughts as
> modern environmental concern is probably unprovable, but I think
> unlikely.

You're speaking of Glorantha, right? Our world has a long tradition of taking too much. IIRC Jared Diamond gives a good explanation of the extinction of North American megafauna in "Guns, Germs, and Steel."

I think Gloranthans would have no compunction about stampeding buffalo off a cliff and thus killing more than they could possibly use. What's the problem? As long as you do the proper rituals for the prey...

This may be a moot point in most parts of Glorantha, where many of the herds of megafauna no longer exist. You can't easily kill more than one animal at a time (outside of fishing with nets, where I'll bet there's a lot of wastage), and since each kill takes work, there's no point in killing more than you need.

However, we do know that Gloranthans overhunt. See King of Sartar and its reference to the aurochs hunt... I'll bet the aurochs is a large and not overly stealthy prey, so it's just crying out to be the prime hunting target. No surprise that its local population was wiped out.

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

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