From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Thu 10 Jul 1997 - 00:52:00 EEST
Frank Giles proposed Darksense as something different from sonar (which I
agree with), and puts forth a sense of projected taste.
Quite recently I had a similar line of thought, and I came up with the
explanation that the true carrier for perception is not the air/sound, but
the tangible darkness which is set in some sort of resonance. The sound
perceivable to humans is just a side effect, IMO - basso frequencies are
extremely undirectional. (Read Douglas Adams on the mating calls of the
kakapo, in "Last Chance to See...")
The deep sound makes sense - it is close to the panic frequencies which
cause fright in most beasts (signalling earthquakes). Shades, darkness
elementals, attack with their fearshock... I doubt that this is just
acoustics. Darkness in Glorantha is more than the absence of light.
I might be leaving the physically plausible here, but isn't sound in water a
lot different from sound in air? Maybe what goes for ultrasonics in Darkness
translates into bass rumbles in air...
Anyway, from the description of Darksense, it seems to be closer to touch
than taste in its effects - giving texture information in a spatial context.
------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 19:01:42 EEST