From: Carlson, Pam (carlsonp@wdni.com)
Date: Tue 26 Apr 1994 - 02:38:00 EEST
OOH! OOH! Martin Crim brings up sociobiology! A subject near and dear to my heart. Lookout.
> Men with a lot of wealth can afford more than one wife.
Martin's comments on biology and economics influencing marital activities
were right on. I remember a graph where relative number of cultures
practicing polygamy correlated inversely with lattitute - most polygamous
human cultures were in the tropics. As you move toward the poles, with
harsher climates, you find increasingly monogamous groups. There are
also species of birds which are sometimes monogamous, sometimes
polygamous, depending largely on the availability of food. It all boils
down
to how many adults are required to raise young. Another handy bird
strategy
is for yearlings to hang around their parent's nest to help out with next
year's
offspring. They are not strong enough or experienced enough to start their
own nest, so they help out their parents and ensure the survival of more
sibs.
(After all, a diploid critter has just as many genes in common with a full
sib
as with an offspring). Humans implement this strategy by living in
extended families.
An example of polyandry occurs in Tibet (or used to, anyway). Sometimes one
woman would marry several brothers. This way the family had several men to
scratch out an existence in a harsh climate, and all the children would be
either
their sons or their nephews.
2. Like the rest of science, sociobiology may not apply to Glorantha at all.
But
these principles predict human interactions, which seem to translate well
into
Gloranthan.
> Now to polygamy: if a woman is pretty sure that her husband
>won't stop supporting her economically when he takes another
>wife, she won't strongly object to it. She'll want to be Number
>One Wife, of course, for the social and economic power that
>brings. But having a junior co-wife can even be an advantage to
>a woman, in some societies.
Families with more than one wife often share chores, and the other wives provide companionship, as well. (In polygamous cultures where men and women are segregated, husbands and wives generally do not socialize in the same circles.)
>You also get this (men without mates) in a society where men marry late in
their twenties, when
they can afford it.
The above situation is found among the Grazers - the women marry young and
the men marry
in their late twenties/early thirties. This leads to lots of frustrated
Grazer guys, and
can spark great role-playing opportunities.
Our stalwart (bachelor) Grazer warriors went raiding down in Esrolia, with
visions of poorly
guarded ponies and bored Uleria priestesses waiting for them. Alas....
Re: warrior women
So warrior women in Glorantha are going to have to fight using some strategies other than brute strength. RQ doesn't make strength everything, but it does count. Bows are good idea; fighting from a mount is another (think Unicorn Women).
Good point. As a female player, I often play male characters
for this very reason. (It's also not a lot of fun to play women
in male-centered fantasy worlds. RQ seems to be the most equitable of the
bunch.)
But it is great fun to play combat-effective women. As a ref, I give the
player of a women
an option to take -2 STR, +1 DEX and +1 CON, reflecting a lower
center-of-gravity
and a higher resistance to disease, starvation, etc. Otherwise, the player
can roll
normal stats. After all, in Glorantha, biology need not apply, right?
Martin makes a great point about the "gross", character of BG
divine magic, (by which he must mean that it burns many MP for BIG damage -
as in Axe Trance and Slash). Lack of STR in worshippers is a good
explanation
for why BG has these spells; Zorak Zoran might consider them superflous.
(I never imagined I'd use ZZ as an example of moderation!)
Every smart BG warrior walks next door to the Ernalda temple for some Shimmer, or to the Asrelia shrine for Protection.
and several points of Strength! ? (Is it available? I don't have the Cults book handy.)
BG doesn't give access to any
arrow magics, however, and I think that's a major disadvantage.
But arrows are associated with fire/sky gods. Polestar is a good cult
for female warriors; lots of arrow spells, unlike most of the Yelm pantheon,
it
makes room for women in the upper eschelons. But, being largely within the
Lunar Empire,
Polestar is not too accessible in most campaigns.
Time to go home and feed dogs:-)
Pam
<^==@
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