From: Alex Ferguson (abf@cs.ucc.ie)
Date: Thu 03 Feb 2000 - 21:34:33 EET
David Cake:
> Well, if you take the Kraloris word for it. As they don't turn into
> physical dragons, and we have only their word for it that they have dragons
> souls, that would seem to make it somewhat open to question.
There's ample evidence that they _can_, so the mere matter of the frequency
that they _do_ seems at best a secondary matter, at least to this
perhaps credulous poster.
In any case, I'd question whether this revel of revisionism was
a profitable way to set about an initial understanding of any
Gloranthan civilisation. When there's as much Kralori info kicking
around as there is Lunar or Orlanthi, perhaps _that_ would be the
best time to begin counter-currents of the "Well, they would say that,
wouldn't they" sort.
> Well, as some of the Five Dragon Warriors are alleged to be able to
> turn into draconic form, that would make the whole debate rather moot
> wouldn't it? One wonders why no one said at the start 'Darudan draconism,
> yeah, those guys over there turn into dragon form every now and then and
> they are Darudists'.
I've been casting around for the answer you were looking for several
posting iterations now: I had no idea _this_ was it, though I'm
sure I alluded at least to similar themes. As I've also said, this
is not the _deepest_ sense in which their religion is draconic,
and is not the one I'd choose to stress in determining its Draconicness,
but I suppose, whatever works...
> I'm still no closer to understanding what Darudism actually
> consists of, though. Its sort of draconic mysticism - except not mystic
> like the other mystics, and not draconic in a particularly obvious way
> (except the 5 Dragon Warriors), so what are we left with?
As a recently self-confessed Reductionist, I have to admit you're
certainly managing to out-Reduce me on this one. I feel we've
over-analysed the word 'draconic' long past any utility, and evidently
we're still talking past each other on it; I'm increasingly
inclined just to give up on that score. 'Mysticism' I can see going
much the same way. I'll grant you that 'draconic mystics' doesn't
tell us _much_, but if you're going to reject even that much, it'll
leave us with significantly less.
Cheers,
Alex.
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