From: Michael O'Brien (michael.obrien@actf.com.au)
Date: Tue 19 Nov 1996 - 18:00:00 EET
G'day all,
______________
GL Effect Scope
Bryan John Maloney:
Excellent point! The GLs effected Glorantha's mythic landscape much in
>>>"Orlanth" as he appears now is the latest development of a
>>>Godlearner "Work in Progress" that got away from them.
Peter Metcalfe:
>>The trouble with this theory is that most of the Orlanthi lived
>>in regions that were well out of the range of the God Learners
>>like East Ralios
Philip Hibbs:
>Did the God Learners' mythical meddling only affect the areas that they
>could mundane-travel to?
the way RW humans today can use (and misuse) technology to affect ours.
RW analogies (actions in one region causing palpable and possibly
disastrous consequences elsewhere) might be:
*acid rain from industrial areas affecting the lakes of northern Canada
*the toxic cloud from Chernobyl blowing over northern europe
*the theory that industrialised nations use of CFCs is contributing to a ozone
hole over the Antarctic, ultimately leading to island nations in the Pacific
ending up under the waves, glug,glug....
____________
Ultimogeniture
David Weihe, comments on Orlanth being Umath's littlest 'un:
>No, it is not very telling. The promotion of the youngest son to the highest
>rank is common in RW mythology, legend, and historical fact. Until their
>conversion to Christianity, many Germanic peoples practiced Ultimogeniture,
>where the youngest son inherits, rather than Primogeniture, where the
>eldest inherits the bulk of the estate. This is probably common to many
>other Indo-European cultures in their earliest forms.
The Turks on the other hand, practised the complete opposite, at least when
it came to the Sultanate: inheritance passed to the oldest living (male) relative.
Combine this with the fact that all such relatives were routinely imprisoned
in a grim palace called 'The Cage' and may have been in there with only
a few eunuchs for company for several decades before being released into
absolute rule over a vast empire, and you can see why they had to put up with
a succession of rulers who were raving loonies. (Ironically, the Cage was
considered a merciful gesture, because the previous practise was to get out
the silken bowstring and strangle all possible claimants to throne upon
accession: the Sultan who instituted the Cage had all 19 of his brothers
killed in this way.
Cheers
MOB
____________________________________________________
Michael O'Brien
Education Specialist - New Media
Australian Children's Television Foundation
3rd Floor, 145 Smith Street, Fitzroy, AUSTRALIA 3065
phone: +613 9419 0880 fax: + 613 9419 0660
email: michael.obrien@actf.com.au
web site: http://www.actf.com.au
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