From: Loren J. Miller (MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu)
Date: Mon 01 Nov 1993 - 07:50:35 EET
America On-line RuneQuest Chat
June 9, 1993
Logged by Loren Miller (Ekron)
Part 2: Lunars and Brithini and Delecti
LUNAR ANALOGS WITH REAL WORLD PEOPLES
Ekron: What are the lunars like? Ancient greece? Persia
under the Seleucids? Rome?
Koribouros: Rome is closer, I think. Yelmalians are closer to
Greek.
PRHarmaty: I think the Lunars are more like the Greeks.
Gray: I personally like Roman/Persian for the Lunars, and
Greek/Persian for the Dara Happans.
PRHarmaty: The Yelmalians could easily ave the same Greek
model. Alexander wasn't an expansionist? Greeks
didn't own slaves? The key for me is BRONZE age
culture.
Koribouros: True, but if the Romans hadn't acquired iron...
Gray: Alexander was Macedonian, not really Greek...
Koribouros: Quibble, quibble :)
Ekron: They are still fighting over that name, Ollie.
Gray: Kori, Right...
PRHarmaty: Sound weaks to me. Napoleon was Italian.
Gray: Well, the Greeks strike me as more unitarian
religiously, which seems better suited for the Dara
Happans.
Ekron: So what do the lunars look like? Do they resemble
the Pentans, who must be Mongol lookalikes. What is
the lunar descent? Which empires spawned them?
Gray: The acceptance of other religions by the Lunars is
very Roman, as is their expansionism and practice
of slavery.
Koribouros: Of course, the Yelmalian buildings seem to have a
strong Early Middle East flavor, a la Babylonia,
etc
Gray: Lunars are Pelorians mostly, a people once native
to that region.
Ekron: What do pelorians look like? Do they look like
Orlanthi? Like Italians?
Gray: The lowland Pelorians were invaded by people from
the East (Dara Happans), then the West
(Carmanians). Pretty mixed by now, I would think...
Ekron: Orlanthi are gaulish/celtic, I think
Koribouros: The use of blue woad would imply so.
Gray: Or Scandinavian?
Ekron: Okay, if the Orlanthi are gaul/celts, the
Carmanians are who knows what, and the Lunars are
romans, then what do westerners look like?
PRHarmaty: Maybe there just isn't a clear 'best' choice for
modeling any of the Gloranthan cultures.
Koribouros: The "stereotypical" caucasian European?
Gray: Maybe American stereotype even...
Gray: Or British...
Ekron: stereotypical caucasian europeans descended from
romans, celts, and a bunch of others
Koribouros: Point taken, but I meant more along the lines of
stereotypical Feudal culture.
Gray: Well, if you look at it in terms of where the
cultures started.... We know there was once the
Kingdom of Logic to the far West, and that these
are descendants of the Brithini now.
Koribouros: Yes, but with the Closing... you'd get wierd social
developments... The kingdom of war, for example.
Talk about extremes.
THOSE NUTTY BRITHINI
Ekron: Maybe the brithini could be kind of like the
Melniboneans... The ancient precursors of
civilization who once crushed the world in their
iron grip and then lost interest
Gray: More British - Sir Ethelrist is supposed to be a
Brithini. And he comes across as very British. The
opposite extreme was the Empire of the Sun to the
East, which seemed Assyrian/Babylonian at first.
Ekron: I'm just trying to see how it all fits together, it
seems like a weird patchwork. Like you can see
through to the sources behind the world
Gray: Right - I think you'd be better off trying to
figure out who the precursors of these people were,
and possibly work from there.
Ekron: I thought the Empire of the Sun was like Imperial
Japan. I didn't see Sumer/Assyria/Babylon in it
Gray: Now part of it is...
Koribouros: Or China, rather...
Gray: Before it looks much more like Sumer
Gray: (I'm talking prehistory here).
Gray: Before Time.
Ekron: Who changed the course of the culture from
Babylonish to Tang Dynasty?
Gray: The death of Yelm had a lot to do with it.
Gray: After he died his kingdom fractured into many
subkingdoms.
Gray: The Brithini claim that all other races of humanity
are actually descended from animals that tried to
emulate the Brithini.
Ekron: The everybody is a Hsunchen theory...
Gray: That's what the Brithini claim.
Gray: They say the Kralori are just Dragon Hunchen with
pretensions...
Ekron: That's a workable method of finding cultural
patterns. Who do they claim descended from what
animals?
DRAGONEWTS AND ALDRYAMI OH MY
PRHarmaty: How about them Dragonewts? Lets get a group
together and ask them the meaning of life.
Gray: Om.
PRHarmaty: Can't quite make the Dragonewts fit into any mold.
G Bailey: we know the Dragonewts are weird. What I think is
weirder is elves.. they're plants.
MnM House: I played a Dragonewt in a game once. The mind set
needed was most entertaining.
Koribouros: Its tricky, all right.
Gray: Even the Dragonewts seem to have distinct cultures.
G Bailey: We can draw upon what we know of reptiles and all
the dragon stories, but
Koribouros: Do tell.
Gray: The Dragon Pass ones are very advanced, the Ralios
ones more primitive.
G Bailey: intelligent moving plants is something never seen
on earth.
G Bailey: (that we know of)
PRHarmaty: Aint it great.
Koribouros: Ah, but a dragonewt head on your wall gets all the
babes, say pro RuneLords.
PRHarmaty: Who would think playing an elf character would be a
good idea? In a pinch the party saute you.
Ekron: Dragonewts are like the things from Land of the
Lost. They even have pylons. Just run away from
them and don't let them hurl you through time
DELECTI THE NECROMANCER
MarkDragon: A question before I go..About Delecti, he is a
hero, but is he a Rune Lord Priest of Vivamort?
Gray: Hard to say - I've heard both from Chaosium
(Delecti)
MarkDragon: Is he Choas?
Gray: No, he is not alive and not dead.
Gray: Which is why the dragons left him alone in the
Dragonkill War.
MarkDragon: So he is not a vampire?
Gray: Vampiric, but probably not a traditional RQ
vampire.
Koribouros: ...which are troublesome enough just by
themselves...
Ekron: I thought Delecti went through bodies just like the
Pharoah. I think he's like a spirit that possesses
a series of bodies. A very powerful spirit that
doesn't have to wait for a challenge to attack
Gray: He was an old EWF bigwig that specialized in
necromancy.
PRHarmaty: Look. The guy aint dead but he aint alive either?
You need a better reason than that to bury him?
Koribouros: Good point.
Gray: His swamp (Upland Marsh) has sections of it that
are not earth and not water - just this wierd gray
stuff..
MarkDragon: But what runes beside Undead does he follow then
Gray: I think he's more a researcher than a worshipper.
He develops experimental undead. Grafts one dead
thing to another and reanimates it.
Koribouros: The new improved model U-X1 Zombie!
Ekron: Hmmm. I would still play him like a necromancer who
became a possessing spirit rather than a mad
scientist who puts bodies together
MarkDragon: Ok thanks for the info, my players will be passing
by his Swamps and I wanted to get a feel if he
cared..
Koribouros: My condolences to them...
PRHarmaty: How good can he be? This Delecti guy's gotta be
chaotic. The dead aint suppose to walk the earth.
Gray: Tell that to the Zorak Zorani.... Me smash...
MnM House: For answer to this one we have to go the source
Greg Stafford and let him have the last word
MnM House: Time presses have to go now. Bye.
Koribouros: Bye.
Gray: Ekron, I think your description of him is correct,
he just likes to experiment.
Ekron: Remember, no more "one true world". No more being
gregged. Now you can do it too
PRHarmaty: By the way... I think the Irrippi Ontor guys are
research scientist without morals.
Gray: The EWF was much into grafting...remember the
centuars <g>.
Koribouros: Yuck...
Ekron: I thought they took the centaurs apart? Made them
from hsunchen?
PRHarmaty: I figure they're willing to try anything in order
to increase their knowledge.
Gray: I think they also put them together. The God
Learners did a lot of that sort of thing too,
particularly in Pamaltela, where entire species
were created by them.
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