Re: Re: Mountains in Dragon Pass

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_...>
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 00:04:48 +0200 (CEST)

stu_stansfield
> OROGENOUS ZONES
>
> Despite the recent efforts of people like Martin H. and... Martin H., the
> myths of Sea and Water have never seemed to gather much thought or
> interest in Glorantha. They're often given the last and least
> consideration. Kind of like Sorcery rules.
>
> Which is a shame, in a way. Many mountain-building myths of our own
> Earthly cultures describe a battle between a rising peak and a rising
> deluge. I see no reason as to why a child of Veskarthan might not brood
> silently, swaddled in his cloak of the ground bones of a thousand defeated
> sea gods.

> Or maybe it's a powdered wig? Who knows.

Unfortunately, the volcanoes don't have many victories over water in known myth (there have been a couple of cataclysmic quenchings, though - Mt Ladaral vs Neliomi, and Mt. Turos vs. Oronin are the most spectacular).

Of course, after a deluge has passed, ranges of the sons of Vestkarthan (elsewhere known as Lodril) may have been freed by some hero who required a friendly mountain range for a fortification.

Defining a mountain by absolute height has always stricken me as somewhat silly. It is elevation above the surrounding land which makes a mountain, meaning that Mt Snowdon offering 850 meters above the valley bottom is no different from the higher (2000m) peaks surrounding Alpine valley villages at 1150 meters elevation.

Even more so in a world where there is no curved surface and visibility is measured by haze and obstructions when standing on the peak, rather than curvature. (Note that I didn't say the flame-bait word "horizon" until now...)

Culturally, wherever you are, the highest visible elevation will be called a mountain. Thus, the Ardennes are considered mountains when coming from the plains of the Netherlands, and a ridge of morraines rising 50 meters out of marshland is called "berg" along the German west coast. Heck, there is a place near Husum called "Simonsberg", named after a former 20 meters (estimated) morraine which got washed away during the great floods (along with the church built atop it). Now the highest elevations of that place are the dykes which keep the sea from flooding the entire place.

Basically, what you see in the distance is Greatest Mountain. Greatest elevation nearby is "our mountain".

Near Kero Fin or Top of the World, Greatest Mountain is impressive indeed (although cloud cover makes visibility of the peak a rare event. However, the ordinary impression of Kero Fin is that of a permanent mushroom cloud, making you expect the thunder from the explosion at any moment. As is mythically apt.

In Raibanth, the footstool is Greatest Mountain. It reaches all the way to the sky, so why not?