From: Nick Brooke (Nick_Brooke@compuserve.com)
Date: Tue 16 Sep 1997 - 14:33:52 EEST
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> Perhaps there is no Inhuman King [on Teleos] because none of =
> the [local dragonewts] has made it that far yet? Still leaves unanswered the question of how the local dragonewts
Stephen writes:
are reborn without an Inhuman King. I had always understood the
IK was necessary to dragonewts' rebirth, in Dragon Pass at least.
Perhaps this forces the 'newts of Teleos into their unusual mode
of existence, avoiding entanglements with the material world? Or
perhaps there *is* an Inhuman King somewhere on or in the island,
but (sensible fellow) he's never revealed himself to the humans.
Re: Stephen's Dinosaur =3D> Dragonewt "theory" obfuscation:
> ... I am sure there is stuff I have missed here ...
An unbiased reading of ES p.18 makes it apparent that the orthodox
view, presented in rules-speak, is that dinosaurs *are* descended
from dragonewts. The only doubts and quibbles thereon are *internal*
to Glorantha: God Learner speculations about origins; human philo-
sophers' interpretations of the *precise* emotional imperfections
that create specific dinosaur "species"; and a Commentary by a self-
evicent Gloranthan loon (Garstal "Bury me in a Dunghill near the
Dragon's Eye" Shavetop, our premier observer of dragonkind)
The plain sense of the text is that dinosaurs are descended from
dragonewts; any obfuscation or uncertainty is in the details. Of
course there are human myths associating dinosaurs (earth-shakers)
with various Gloranthan deities -- but taxonomic aetiological myths
are known to be dodgy in the detail, and often mutually contradictory
(cf. "King of Sartar" on the origin of horses).
Quibbling about whether older stories, prior to "Elder Secrets",
> There are lots of dragonewts in Kralorela, but no mention anywhere
present us with different "One True Versions", or similar ones, or
mistaken interpretations of the same source facts, is a bit of a
waste of time. The material in Elder Secrets is presented as Glor-
anthan scholars' "more accurate considerations" -- are we to assume
a boxed set of Gloranthan Secrets contains *deliberate* misinforma-
tion? Yeah, Gloranthan dragons are obscure -- but when we get some
plain facts about them, it'd be wasteful to ignore them.
> that I know of of any dinosaurs there. Why not?
Because the Kralorelan Inhuman King destroys emotionally-imbalanced
My favourite: because all Kralori dinosaurs (emotionally-disturbed
dragonewt eggs? Because mystical Kralorelan dragonewts are "better-
balanced" than those from rough'n'tumble Dragon Pass? Because there
are usually very few dinosaurs anywhere outside dragonewt strongholds,
and only in backward, depopulated or war-torn areas (Teleos, Dragon
Pass) can the dinosaurs breed among themselves long enough to create
herds and stable populations?
dragonewts) are exiled to a small island, somewhere off the coast of
Vormain. Of course, some of them retain their magical draconic powers
(as noted in Elder Secrets), and attacks on Vormain's cities by giant
fire-breathing reptilian mutant dinosaurs are justly feared...
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Nick
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