>*Boggle* I can't quite picture that. Glorantha is small compared to
>Earth, but it's still big enough for there to be some noticeable
>differences in the sky.
>
>For the sun to be close enough to provide useful energy, it's pretty
>much got to be close enough to be at a measurable angle away from
>directly overhead, as you move from the equator.
>That's... just downright odd. My rough check against the map in RQ3
>shows Glorantha roughly 8500 km north-south. That's only about 42% of
>earth, but it would still seem to me that for the sun to be close
>enough to be useful as an energy source, it's got to be close enough
>that there would be some meaningfully visible angle between the
>sunrise/sunset points on the 'equator' and the more northern and
>southern reaches.
>
>
>If it's a mythic effect, that's fine, I can just write it off by
>saying "oh, magic" and away we go.
The image I have of Glorantha on this subject doesn't have much to do with real world physics. The sky dome is a physical place where the sun and other bodies exist. You can fly up there but you are moving out of the mortal world and into another one (Heroplane? Godplane?). Doing that involves crossing several barriers which distort distances and angles. So what you see when you are up there cannot be directly related to what you see from the ground. There are similar barriers at the edges of the lozenge.
I'm basing that on the Sky Ship scenario in Gathering Thunder and the description in GIttHW. Yes, it's a rather fuzzy explanation which could be reduced to "oh, magic" but I don't see any need for anything more. The only Gloranthans who might have a clearer one are various groups of sages who have discovered "the truth" and are debating them at length to the confusion of everyone listening.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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