> It depends on whether they started as gold and got their black stripes, or started black and got gold stripes, doesn't it?
:)
RW bees are as far as I know black with the golden stripes added, but there is of course no reason why the Gloranthan bees should follow that pattern, nor why there couldn't be some that started black and others that started gold, nor why they shouldn't have started out as striped, nor various other possible origins stories...
Are they creatures of light that venture into darkness ? Are they old darkness creatures that have transcended their natures and learned to love the light ? Are they the product of a romantic love story between a darkness mother and a sun father ? Are they the result of a "Trickster Helps the Beetles" myth ? Are they all of the above ?
The story that I would like to tell would be that the bees were created at the Dawn, when the Lightbringers came to visit the Insect Tribes -- most of the insects feared the New Sun, and so they burrowed away into the ground and into the caves to find the sheltering darkness, but some tribes of the insects came forward and greeted the Lightbringers, and so they were rewarded with a place in the new world and with all the riches of the new growing flowers, and the secret of turning these into the sweet honey. If I made an Orlathi version, I'd make it part of the Voria myth cycle, so therefore appropriate for young children, and give it some fairytale like qualities ; possibly even Disney-like, with an Evil Dark Queen that the young Bee Princess (and her retinue of loyal handmaidens) must escape from, with the help of her brave and dashing young captain -- and they all lived happily ever after!
Anyway, just as in RW there are many species of bees and bee-like creatures, so I would expect Glorantha to provide various types of origins for them, not forgetting the special origins of the Giant Bees of course :)
Julian Lord
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