From: Alex Ferguson (abf@interzone.ucc.ie)
Date: Wed 25 Jun 1997 - 23:51:38 EEST
David Dunham says, of Saxons, Celts and Nordics:
> Well, they all made knotwork designs with biting animals, didn't they?
What, the Celtic Thread of Life, and Grasping Beasts? The others
must have shamelessly copied 'em -- sue those cultures at once! ;-)
I wasn't aware of this, can you give a few pointers?
> (Of course, it being Glorantha, distillation probably creates the
> environment for the alcohol spirits to flourish.)
Or if you listen to the scaremongers, involves Summon Tanien.
> True piety would probably be measured by having the Five Virtues of Orlanth
> (for which you'll be able to refer to the PenDragon Pass rules, to be
> published in Enclosure).
I think that was the whole thrust of the original point -- does it
make any sense to have a _separate_ Pious trait, over and above the
religious virtues? BTW, aren't you one short? ;-) At one of the
earlier cons, someone (Andrew-whose-surname-I-forget) described
Truthfulness as the Seventh Virtue of Orlanth -- and no, he hadn't
miscounted...
One possible Save would be to say that Piousness is a sort of catch-all
virtue for all the minute observances that aren't worth bothering about
individually. If I eat eggs every day (scrambled!), accompanied by a
defiant gesture to the Celestial Order, fart prodigiously, and always
use the correct dodgy poetry in a meeting ritual, then perhaps I count
as Pious, even if my courage, wisdom, generosity and justice are all
abysmally mediocre.
> The tribe of Prax must manage by gathering as clans (there's no true
> cohesive Bison Tribe that would all gather).
This parenthical point is true, but I think for certain religious
purposes at least, they do band together into bigger-than-a-single-clan
groupings. Didn't some old sources describe a Bison Nation, divided
into tribes, divided into clans? Something like that may be true,
though the "tribes" are more likely to be matters of temporary
convenience, for religious, milirary, or some transitory political
purpose, rather than long-standing formalised groupings, a la Orlanthi
tribes.
Cheers,
Alex.
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