Re: Gloranthan Chess

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From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Thu 07 Apr 1994 - 21:57:00 EEST


I agree that we should avoid "stealing" things directly from this world for use in Glorantha. But unless we know what *kind* of sport or game we're talking about, there's precious little point in trying to write anything.

For my Carmanian work, I'm assuming that the game of 'ravenkaaz' played in the West Reaches is analogous to Chess. It has at least one 'king' (look at Welsh gwyddbwll to see a game with *only* one king), and several 'pawns' as its pieces. One of the endings for the game is known as "The King is Dead" (Shah-maat in Old Carmanian, or 'checkmate' in the vernacular) -- this is also the Carmanian name for the Battle of the Four Arrows of Light. The old Carmanian sets had black and white pieces; modern Lunar sets have red and black. (Playing with red and white opposed is heretical, and banned).

This would imply that *another* form of Chess is played in the West, where the Carmanians came from, and that this game probably has black and white pieces -- but beyond that, I would not like (and do not need) to theorise.

Joerg: how do you get up into the Middle Air, without a spiral? She 'danced her last dream' before there was a Moon, after all. I see a possible clash between mystical and institutional Lunar religion: the former follows the acts of the Goddess in her life, the latter the precepts of the Lunar Way taught by her followers and descendents. Glamour and Torang as the Baghdad and Mecca of Lunar religion.

A recommendation to everyone: rush out and buy Ian Dennis's excellent pair of books, "Bagdad" and "The Prince of Stars". For inexplicable reasons I've found them remaindered in the UK, so buy them fast before they're pulped! The spirit of the Arabian Nights lives on; I've also found them very useful as a way of investigating and illuminating the Lunar Way. (All this IMHO).


Nick
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