From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Mon 30 May 1994 - 17:03:33 EEST
Jonas Schiott's Ralios write-up in 4212:
Great!
While I'm not sure about there being no Orlanthi at all before the Theyalan missionaries (think of Vingkot's lost son in Heort's Saga in KoS, which sounded to me a lot like Israel's lost tribes), the overall sequence of actions looks fine.
My minor problems:
Dorasta was used as a Grain Goddess (of maize, but Martin was faster than me). I know it is official GoG policy to make Goddesses of the Land and Grain Goddesses identical, but I stick more with the impression I got from KoS's mention of Esra (goddess of barley) and Pela (goddess of wheat) as grain goddesses in the land of Kero Fin (no grain associated). What do people think about this? Sandy (after all it was you who had a hand in this)?
I for one would prefer a Dorasta firmly confined to her country (like an Oread) and a Grain Goddess to go wherever the seed is transported.
The Kivitti, elephant people of Karia:
Surely the description of bipedal humanoids with elephants' heads was
more a combat-induced invocation of the Elephant-spirit's (Kivitt's?)
magic and/or form? I had the impression they were just ordinary
Hsunchen, well, being massively built and having a long memory for
wrongs done to them, but at the core just another people of beast men.
(I still subscribe to the theory about the God Learner prof who earned
his seat, if not institute, for his "Unified Beast Spirit Worship"
theory. The cults as they exist today are just too neat for my taste. I
also missed a few spells deviating from the ordinary Hsunchen four
(transform <head, limbs, body> and stabilize form) in the Telmor
write-up. Like Find Prey Animal.)
Could there have been mingling of unrelated Hsunchen peoples to create new Hsunchen-like (but not really Hsunchen) nations? I had this thought-experiment of Horse- and Lion-Hsunchen (Galanini and Basmoli) joining into a common tribe to defeat an enemy (Theyalans, or Malkioni), losing part of their respective Hsunchen magic, but gaining a new whole. This would have been 1st Age, pre God Learner. Just an idea, with thoughts why other deities (e.g. elemental deities) came to the fore, based on an "obscure" Glorantha source (thanks again, Bob).
Someone asked about the mean Wolverine Hsunchen. Well, do we take the Trickster-story (if I remember correctly, by Paul Reilly) about the joint marriage between a couple of bears and a couple of weasles mucked up by the Trickster into the Gospel? It certainly does a lot to explain these meanies (not blue).
The Horned Bear, and other fantastic beasts: Apart from the fact that Wonderwood still is home to such beasties, Glorantha is remarkably earth-like in its fauna, if you leave out chaos, legendary beasties from known earth mythologies (Griffins, Hippogriffs, etc), gigantism, and anachronisms (dinosaurs, titanotheres). The only unique animal I can think of out of my head is the Rubble Runner (Runners being no animals in the real sense). With all these unique intelligent races around, this seems to be a bit underpowered. Opinions? Our biologists?
I really liked the appearance of the odder mundane beasties in Ralios.
Does anybody have more ideas (or even information) about the 1st Age Basmoli kingdom? Their culture - a mix of Hsunchen and self-made civilisation - would have been interesting.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
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