RE: Dragons in the West

From: Greg Stafford <Greg_at_...>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:42:21 -0800

At 08:54 PM 10/30/2001 +0200, you wrote:
>> > Do the liturgists and wizards of the Malkioni have effective spells
>> > to detect and counter chaos?
>>
>> Yes, but it's a specialist field. Most Malkioni don't encounter Chaos too
>> often. Most Malkioni communities don't need permanent wards and guards
>> against it, in the same way Orlanthi and Praxians need their Uroxi.
>
>So does chaos manifest to them like it does to the Yelmites? As social
>and moral corruption, rather than as atrocities.

I actually don't know what you mean by "manifest to them." Chaos manifests as itself.
Their interpretations of its origins vary.

>Or parhaps in the west, it manifests as breakdown of logic and virtue
>(not that different from above) and soul destroying memetic entities in
>the magic planes that can escape into the mundane world. Truly alien and
>insane creatures of magic, ranging from the irritating and strange to
>the apocalyptically destructive.

I am confused.
Do you mean, "Do the Malkion credit Wakboth with the breakdown of logic and virtue?"
If so, the answer is "Yes sometimes."
Do you mean "mimetic?" Either way, "Memetic entities" is not a term I would use to describe anything in Glorantha.

>> > Do they have dragons in the west (for the knights to fight, obviously),
>>
>> Yes (though more often in the past), but even dream dragons are v. rare.
>
>That's what I tought. Parhaps they are almost exlucively creatures of
>the deeper magical planes, unlike in central Genertela. (Dragon Pass
>seems to be a big draconic node, the center of their power in the world)
Dragons are from their own Plane, but no one can get to it under any of the normal circumstances. It is essentially accessible only to dragons.

>> > are they a force of The Enemy, or just monsters of nature and magic?
>> The latter. Consider the close relationship between Waertagi and Sea
>> Dragons.
>
>Ah, that's true. How is that these days, btw? I remember it said that
>the Waertagi captured and killed Seadragons, and made their ships from
>their hollowed out bodies. Doesn't sound that symbiotic to me.
The dragons were still alive and worked voluntarily with the Waertagi.

>> > Actually, does one encounter dragons in the Adept/Saint planes?
>> Surely, one could! Just as one might encounter them anywhere else in
>> Glorantha.
>They certainly seem more like creatures of pure magic in the West.
>Parhaps the occasional dreamdragon escapes from a sorcerers portal, or
>is released on a knights heroquest.

As I said in a different note, they are not from the Sorcerous Planes.

---

Greg Stafford, greg_at_...
Issaries, Inc. 900 Murmansk St., Suite 5; Oakland, CA 94607 Phone: (510) 452 1648 Fax: (510) 302 0385 Publisher of Hero Wars, Roleplaying in Glorantha See our site at: <www.glorantha.com>