From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Thu 20 Mar 1997 - 10:06:07 EET
I said that both Argrath and Lord Death were created by their main
Peter Metcalfe replied (or rather asked):
Think Lunar/Pelorian for a while. All his major deeds are vile
enemies/victims, and that from their (Lunar/Loskalm) POV they just
promote disorder and destruction.
> Um, Joerg? Argrath promotes disorder and destruction?
disruptions of the Lunar construction efforts in their southernmost
provinces.
Argrath of Pavis incites a riot when the Lunar government attempts a
rightful confiscation of the treasures of a monster race. I really doubt
they would have slaughtered the giant baby - they'd have brought her to
Glamour instead and made her a heroine of the Blue Moon in her own right,
and have spared her the terrible experience of sailing down Magasta's
Pool to reach her ancestress. (Ok, this is voiced as Ingsoc propaganda.
Still there is the recorded fact that Emperor Argenteus does "collect"
children of unusual or divine birth - Morak in Biturian's tales, both
of which applies to Gonn Orta's daughter.)
Then he assembles the Praxian tribes (more precisely, their most rowdy
elements) to destroy the Lunar presence in Prax, leaving Pavis open for
Praxian raiders, and leveling Corflu. The people really harmed by this
were the Sun Domers and the River people. (BTW: what happens to Raus
domain? I think that Raus will ally with Argrath to protect his hard-won
return to authority, not much love lost for the Empire.)
Then he has a monster raised at the final ceremony to consecrate the
Sartar Temple of the Reaching Moon. From Pelorian experience, alliance
with dragons is worse than alliance with Chaos...
Finally he brings back the Bane of Peloria, Sheng Seleris.
In the same sense that Argrath was created by the Lunars: they created
the conditions which led to the emergence of this otherwise unmportant
part of the world as the major enemy. It was Snodal after all who incited
the Ban...
> I think Nicks propaganda has had some serious side effects....
True. It enabled me to think like a Lunar in times of mental distress <g>.
Seriously, the Lunars have bad propaganda mainly because they created
the underdog Sartarite rebels as the identification point for Glorantha
players.
If you look closely at Argrath, you find a ruthless personality
dealing with every available demon to destroy not only the Lunar Empire,
but also the majority of the gods known before the Third Age. He brings
back Sheng Seleris, who easily beats Lord Death on a Horse for nastiness.
He sacrifices close personal companions as other people sacrifice pawns
in chess.
> I'll ignore the remainder of the post for it was a good example of
> violating rule number #2 and Joerg only did it coz Nick was gone for
> the week IMO.
Wrong. I sad I had mail troubles, and I did quote "excessively" because
I felt I was lagging behind a lot. Nicks announcement came in when this
post went out. The pleasures of reading offline...
A misunderstanding on another topic:
> Er? How do you get Chivalry is the cause of the Crusade? Me thought
> it had something to do with Filthly Infidels in control of the Holy
> Places.
And the chivalrous obligation to purge such abominations.
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End of Glorantha Digest V2 #221
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