From: Colin Watson (watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk)
Date: Sun 12 Dec 1993 - 18:07:25 EET
Damn, there goes my plan of dive-bombing Slimestone with a coupla tonnes of baking soda. ;-)
It's certainly an appealing idea. They have CON instead of STR, but other than that there's a lot of similarity (and, as Sandy always says, Chaos doesn't have to obey the RQ rules anyhow).
>So is chaos the zero'th element ?
Well, my RQII book categorises it as a Form rather than an Element; but, what the hell, most of the universe is composed of Chaos (Glorantha is just a blip in a sea of entropy right?) so I don't see why it shouldn't be considered an element. In fact, it seems to me to have the properties of an Element, a Form *and* a Power (opposed by Law). Unsurpisingly, it seems that Chaos is hard to categorise.
How about this: Chaos is an amalgamation of all other things. A jumbled conglomeration of every element, form & power in the universe. It destroys by removing the structure which allows us to distinguish between the other runic elements, forms & powers. It leaves an unidentifiable mush which has no distinguishable properties other than its ability to corrupt.
>That brings up a point that's always bugged me - elementals. But the RQ
>cosmology makes no provision for the elemental planes - apart from the
>elementals, they're never referenced. I'm swimming in vast areas of ignorance
>here - any enlightenment ?
It seems to me that elementals are very much part of the mundane plane. Their spirits are mindless but capable of forming bodies on the mundane plane in areas where their element is prevalent. Undines congregate in deep seas and lakes; salamanders gather in volcanoes etc. Other than that they don't do much unless controlled by magic. Undines flow; Salamanders burn (and, I guess, Gorps corrupt). They are not overtly agressive except by the nature of their elemental composition and generally hostile environment.
___
CW.
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