From: Alex Ferguson (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Sun 15 May 1994 - 21:06:22 EEST
Nick Brooke, firmly encased in a Rune Metal Jacket:
> Why oh why should Lodril get Enchant Aluminium? It's the metal of Water.
> The only "wet" thing about Lodril is his flaming ejaculate (admittedly more
> than Dayzatar or Yelm have ever possessed).
What do you think Yelm was Sweetening the Good Wife with then, Aspartame? The phrase "dark horse" springs to mind...
Dayzatar is obviously covered by the dictum that monks only ever do it out of habit.
> I'm not sure the Western name does refer to Lo-dril; couldn't it be Lo-rion
I like this, although it'd be better if lo-metal were blue, not red. Happily, I've already made this change, for reasons of purely personal idiosyncracy in my (non-)campaign. (Really, stern Gnydron in jolly bright red aluminium armour. Anodised, doubtless. <*schblert!*>) Gw'an, Greg, make my day...
Sandy Petersen, and his famous stuff:
> At least elves, in my campaign, are mainly active at night.
Gotta soak up 'em rays during the day.
> There must be some green elves present.
> And yes, they're inactive
> for a season (unless they have magic or drugs to prevent it).
Ah... Yelmalio-worshiping mreli staying vigilant during the death of the sun?
<pause for thought>
Psychadelic brown elves with a wheelbarrow full of speed to last all winter?
> I don't believe in the Pure Ones, personally. Anyone running
> in my campaigns won't find any.
Woo! Who hacked that into Dorastor, then?
> >> For that matter, there are red-skinned entities that come from
> >> the Red Moon, but are not necessarily related to the Red Vadeli.
> Alex Ferguson asks:
> >There are? Who, humans, the fabled Moon Elves, or...?
> The Full Moon Legion (see Dragon Pass).
Oh yeah. No legislating for demigods. Certainly nothing to do with the Vadeli. (*)
(*) Unless they are.
> I'm not sure what color the skin of the Moon Elves is.
Colour them non-existant, I bet.
> Maybe they're a new
> version/crappy imitation (depending on whether you're pro- or
> anti-lunar) of the *sob* extinct White Elves?
Or maybe exactly the same thing, if they're associated with the equally fabled (though different tense) white moon.
> At this point, I must again point out that I do not currently know of
> anywhere in Glorantha that two groups of Aldryami are fighting one
> another. There ought to be one, though. If only for my PCs to visit.
Ballid/Erontree, I suspect. Could be happening all over, on a very small scale. Titanic struggle between the stand of birch and the oak copse.
> >I find it difficult to imagine _all_ of Darktongue being instinctive.
> That's only because you're human, and very little of your
> language is instinctive.
Serves me right for trying to be diplomatic:
I do not believe all of Darktongue is instinctive.
For this to true, each newborn ukzo or enlo would have _complete_ knowledge of the most subtle and abstract of trollish concepts. (No jokes, please.) Makes childhood rather redundant, really. It would also make their language very fixed over time, rather leading to the "What's Gaelic for `petro-ethylene cracker'?" syndrome, but moreso.
I think the reason Darktongue is so (almost) universal is due to the strength and monolithicity of Uz culture and religion. "Great-great- great-great-granny Anga Kor _sez_ so, little troll boy."
> While this is
> purely a manner of terminology, I would prefer "clan" to be reserved
> for more Orlanthi-like social structures. [...] (for one thing, the
> Praxian clan is solely political; members need not be related to one
> another).
Not all members of a clan are actually related, though that's the polite fiction. (True, at least for Irish and Scots clans, and I'm sure for Orlanthi ones.) Obviously, they aren't as explicit about this as the Praxians are.
> As this family grows, it becomes more and more clan-like, but I think
> that at least among uncivilized trolls, when the common ancestress
> dies, the "clan" breaks up into units, each adhering to their own
> "oldest mother".
I'm not so sure about this: even quite wild trolls have ancestor worship, which will tend to hold a clan/family together, other factors permitting. Sadly, wild trolls often live in such poor territory that the clan will become physically spread out to sustain themselves by forage, and hence may be unable to maintain unitary clan structures.
> Over the years, I've become very interested in exotic cooking (which
> is a bit of a problem nowadays, as it's hard to find East Asian or
> Pakistani ingredients in Dallas).
Must bring some punjabi massala chick peas to Eat At Geo's. Who me, pander to the BNNs? Yup.
> I don't think it's just a climate thing (I've heard it opined
> that "hot food is from hot lands")
Not simply that, but since hot food tends to make one sweat, it's not a great idea when the temperature is sub-zero. Wasn't Peloria rather cold, before the Rusk-- Lunars started fiddling with the climate?
> It strikes me that Peloria fits the mold -- tons of poor
> folks eating mainly corn.
Is Peloria really very monoculturous? I'm sure all sorts of grains are found in various places about Peloria, just as oats aren't the only thing grown in Sartar. (Thank Orlanth. Eat yer purridge, laudie.) If any place is obsessed with maize, I think it's the river-bottoms, Dara Happa proper.
> I imagine many Sartarites find Pelorian food physically
> difficult to eat, in the same way that many Americans cannot handle
> spicy Mexican.
Gives a whole new meaning to "showing contempt for Yelm".
<*parp*>
Alex.
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