From: Alex Ferguson (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Sun 01 May 1994 - 22:09:20 EEST
Re-HELLO!
;-)
Sandy:
> MOB asks:
> >What do other people think about making direct comparisons between
> >terrestrial and lozengial locations?
> I think it is a useful and highly adaptive gamemastering
> technique. It assists the players in envisioning the world around
> them and the cultures they are encountering.
This is true, but it has the distinct downside of making them seem falsely familiar, and devaluing their uniqueness.
> For that matter, I compare the Dead Place to the Utah salt flats.
This seems a plausible geoclimatic comparison, as do Sandy's others, but if one puts more stress on this similarity than in describing it from a native Praxian's point of view, or in the way a Gloranthan of whatever background would look at it, then this is something of a thumb in the eye for suspension of player disbelief.
> Not only are both devoid of life, but both
> are supposedly the remains of a dead lake (this info on the Dead
> Place I get from looking at a topographic map of Prax).
I'm not sure about that: after all, no-one mentioned Eiritha getting her feet wet during the relevant incident. The relief and drainage of the area may have been changed at this time.
> Of course, the Dead Place also has dire magic effects.
This is the Main Point from a Praxian's viewpoint, not an afterthought.
> >Calling Yelm `benign', because he shines one everyone, worshipper or
> >not is a bit dubious, too: one might as well say Orlanth was
> >`benign' for not suffocating everyone.
> The natural effects of a deity reflect his nature to some degree.
Or vice versa, depending on one's God Learning inclinations. But this is only broadly true, in any case, or Huitzilopochtli would have been a pussycat. Aztec belief instead portrayed Quetzalco'atl, who was associated, in broad terms, with the wind, as a more `benevolent' deity in the Petersenian sense. (Frex, not requiring human sacrifice.)
> The sun's effects rarely are harmful to folks
> and crops, whereas bad storms are well-known everywhere.
This isn't necessarily true, either: in some places seriously damaging storms are almost unknown, while in other areas drought, sun-stroke, or crop failure due to excess sun and insufficient rainfall might be regarded as significant hazards. Perhaps this tends to very with the above quibble, I'm not sure. (I'm not even going to say "ozone layer" or "malignant melanoma".)
> I play that Storm Khans get 1D10 DI, and so does everyone I know.
So would I -- if I'd ever had one. But by that token, so would High Healers. I just noticed Talons don't have an increased DI chance: this is very odd, given the use of this in worship. An RQ2->3 glitch?
> Alex also continues needling me about becoming a Dayzatar monk.
Sandy, I never suggested you should become a Dayzatar monk: your denomination's spirit of reprisal wouldn't go for it at all. ;-)
> Everyone doesn't become one because you gotta have been a priest in
> long standing of some other Solar cult.
Ah! An extra requirement. That helps, not least since it means that qualification for Yelm the Elder and Dayzatar aren't identical.
> >If you take the published history of Sun County seriously, [the
> >Praxian Yelmalions] were, for a time, completely isolated.
> Sorry. Haven't even read Sun County. Don't even own a copy.
I believe the key part of this (the Light List) was published elsewhere previously. Borderlands?
> >Has anyone run across references to actual people (not gods) riding
> >chariots?
> Sounds like a Solar thing to me.
Indeed, very Indian, and by association, likely to be kinda Dara Happan. But oddly, it's the Orlanthi that worship the relevant deity. Most odd.
Perhaps this is the role the Carmanians (see G:CotHW; PB:G 3) worship Mastakos in?
Alex.
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