From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Fri 08 Apr 1994 - 12:40:17 EEST
Nigel asked:
> Does anyone have any more info on the Gold Wheel Dancers?
Anyone interested can check out my article "Gold Wheel Dancers" (X-RQ-ID 2784) in the RuneQuest Daily for 12 January 94. Though it's speculation rather than info. Seems a bit soon to arrange a reprint.
I'm pretty sure Pinchining was meant to be a disc, and that hoop reference slipped in by accident. Unless Gloranthan gold coins are meant to be rings. Then again, sex with the hoop would be easier...
Guy Robinson's worrying about the tyranny of keeping powerful magic in the hands of specialists who have been trained to use it to preserve a tranquil state. I imagine he's also opposed to gun control laws... <g>
Seriously, though, what's so wrong about letting professionals arrange my unity with the cosmos, assure me of an afterlife, keep my fields fertile, etc? This D.I.Y. Orlanthi approach always seems a bit of a waste of time. In civilised parts of the world, we have more efficient and reliable ways to employ our magic. And, as Guy concedes, the great benefit for the people is tranquillity.
If civilisation, the rule of law, peace, happiness and prosperity are a scam, then maybe wizardry is too. To consider it in isolation as a "bad thing" seems a bit limited: taking magic outside its social context. Sure enough, Orlanthi will complain that Western/Eastern/Lunar/Mostali/other types of magic "stultify and restrict" their peasant beneficiaries -- in Orlanthi lands, they'd be able to run around fighting and killing and stealing from each other, with divine sanction.
Anyone wonder why we call them "barbarians"?
David Dunham's discovered the *real* Persian Carmania: isn't it great!
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