>I've never encountered a grackle in my life, and had never even heard of
>grackles until last night.
You are among the blessed....
>I put them in because, as I'm sure you're pleased to
>know, there's at least one species which is extinct. And because I liked the
>word. Grackle, grackle, grackle. It just felt right. :)
It's a very good word (for a very bad bird) -- sort of a combination of greedy and cackle (and attack and cracked).
>
>> Could we not have a Glorantha without grackles? Geez. They're low-rent
>> corvidae wannabes. Grackles. Bah! Other than that, nice myth.
>
>Maybe the Gloranthan grackles are different, magnificent flocks of great big
>carnivorous birds with glorious plumage flocking in the plains of Rinliddi.
>Well, until they all went away... somewhere. The myth does say that the
>grackles aren't around any more.
>If you want to stop them coming back, it's time to start opposing those
>Avarnia
>heroquesters:
The interesting (as opposed to annoying) thing about grackles or, at least, the Great-Tailed Grackle (the species I am most familar with) is they seem to be pretty closely tied to the Live Oak, a scrubby medium-size tree that drops a whole lot of acorns that grackles like to carry around in their beaks, looking vaguely pathetic (the grackles, not the acorns). So I'm assuming that Rinliddi has fair numbers of Live Oaks or something like them. Live Oaks need a lot of space and like water, so they are somewhat suited to a "wide grass lands dotted with trees and small rivers" sort of setting I imagine for Rinliddi. Live Oaks also like a reasonably warm and humid environment, so maybe they are making a comeback since the Lunars have made the climate more pleasant.
Grackles also like water and, according to one source, fast-food restaurant parking lots. From this we can discern that the grackle brood of Avarnia are hiding in fast-food restaurant parking lots, perhaps in Glamour.
>"The grackles are coming back. The Hero Wars are here." :)
That should frighten anyone. The University of Texas at Austin used to fire a cannon to drive the grackles off campus periodically. Unfortunately, they always went to the Governer's Mansion, so the governer put a stop to the practice. Perhaps the Red Emperor has a similar problem.
Geeze, this post went awry. Before I'm told to "take it to the Digest," I'll just comment that this sort of speculation has a couple of benefits. First, Glorantha is a world, and we should assume that things, while supported by myth, are also supported by natural processes -- animals have environments. Secondly, there's potential stories here -- maybe to bring the grackles back, the Avarnia heroquesters need to bring the Live Oaks back, which means making deals with the Aldrayami (not too positive about the Lunars). Thirdly, we don't think too much about what regular day to day Glorantha is about. When your characters are riding through the woods on the way to the Chaos Nest, what kinds of birds do they hear? What are the trees and rocks like? And, if you like to get back to the myths, are there stories about native species -- the cry of the whippoorwill strikes fear into the hearts of any sensible Call of Cthulhu investigator; is there a similar cry that scares even the hardiest Heortling? Or, conversely, gives them hope? "We can rest safely here -- the Gret Owl never nests near Chaos or Uz."
So, even grackles have a role to play, I suppose.
Peter Larsen
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