From: Majordomo (major@hops.wharton.upenn.edu)
Date: Fri 27 Sep 1996 - 05:11:45 EEST
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>From loren@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Thu Sep 26 11:23:10 1996
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 23:16:40 +0800
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To: owner-glorantha-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu
From: Neil Prentice <neilp@ois.net.au>
Subject: Alchemy and the Yelmic complex
Greetings all!
I have been lurking for a while, but its time to make a comment..
David Cake
> If they can produce precious metals, I would imagine they do it by
>refining the elemental nature of the materials - i.e. they produce gold by
>processes designed to gradually leach out all darkness and other elements
>and add fire to some metal. There are some interesting possibilities for
>problems with toxic waste disposal there!
An RW example of this is gold purification in analyical labs. A mixture of Earth
(Silica -ok, its not the elemental metal but the concept seem Ok),Lead, ,
air ( to feed the fire) and a few other bits and pieces are heated to 1100+
deg and fused. This leaves a lead buuton from which the gold can be further
extracted by a secon heating(cupelisation). See any similarities between the
the philosopher's ston and a fire assay cupel re : lead to gold?
The corrolary of this process, IMHO from a gloranthan perspective, is that
gold in its pure form, can only be created when other elements are overcome
by the pure nature of Yelm. If other, contaminating elements are present
such as water the process can be disaterous results (insert- spectacluar
explosion etc..) and fail. The creation of gold by the consumption of air
and lead and earth in this ritualised process could be of great comfort to
the Sunny Boys in showing their dominance over traditional enemys and women.
BTW the toxic waste problem is bad enough in the RW without having to add it
to Glorantha!!!
In regards to other stuff mentioned in the alchemy pieces re: plant poions
etc. Most of this will come from having good Lore skills in the appropriate
areas.
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, a lot of knowledge, more so.
Finally, I just loved the Gim Gim story.
Cheers
Neil
**************************************************************
Faith is an oasis in the heart
which will never be reached
by the caravan of thinking.
-Kahil Gibran
***************************************************************
------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #212
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