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From: Jonas Schiott (jonas.schiott@vinga.hum.gu.se)
Date: Fri 03 Jun 1994 - 22:19:05 EEST


David:

>My claim is for other, perhaps hillier or less densely-populated, areas
>(such as the East Wilds, parts of which you describe as "near-desert" in
>Gloranthan Bestiary).

I would assume these near-desert areas are Vustria and Karia, which are technically part of the East Wilds. The Bestiary does say "north-east", doesn't it?

>To add to the confusion, in my campaign, Ehilm worship is hereditary and
>for males only. Whether you can worship is determined whether your _mother_
>is descended (through the female line) from the Queen who first met (and
>slept with) Ehilm.

We're still undecided about this. It all depends on who Ehilm _is_.

>I believe Sandy said many of his Galanini
>worshipped Hyalor, but I don't think it makes sense to tame your kin

Agree with you there. Hippoi is also out of the picture as far as we're concerned. I can see an argument for something like Golden Bow or Kuschile, though - perhaps the Ehilm cult should integrate some elements like that, and lose some of the more pompous Yelm attributes?

>Don't believe every myth that was invented during the Ritual of Rebirth
>which Ironhoof held for the refugee horse-riders.

Right. Making every centaur in Glorantha a EWF hybrid on the basis of one vague comment in KoS is a bit much. In our East Wilds, we have centaurs and other beastmen with an entirely different mythology (based around the Wonderwood).

Joerg:

>Surely we need another term for "blacksmith" on Glorantha to denote
>the village smith who shoes horses and makes and repairs agricultural
>tools.

Well, there _is_ "redsmith", remember?

>Dorasta was used as a Grain Goddess (of maize, but Martin was faster
>than me).

OK, I've checked and we don't really have any support for the maize bit except the fact that she's Pelora's daughter. Which brings up the Hon-Eel/Pelora question. We might just want to forget we ever mentioned it...

>Didn't Peloria grow wheat
>before Hon-eel discovered maize for the empire, just 140 years ago?

Ha! Now here's something we can latch on to! Wheat-growing Dorastans intruded into the EW, which gave the orlanthi some ideas (previously their lifestyle hadn't evolved very far from the hunting/gathering stage), and so they quested for a Land/Grain Goddess of their own, who also was a wheat goddess, since they didn't know about any other grains. Or something. Just a hypothesis, I'll have to think about this some more when I get home (somebody's analogizing between the daily and a pub comes to mind)...

>I think the Dawn Age Theyalan missionaries did not just convert
>Hsunchen, they also searched for and found the "lost tribes" of Orlanthi,
>spread well into the West.

Allright, but I would add that these lost tribes had forgotten most of their Orlanthi roots (including their god's name).

>I don't think that we ought to differentiate between Hsunchen and other
>humans in the Godtime and Dawn Age as much as we have to do after the
>God Learners invented the Hykimi.

Arrrgh! I, for one, am perfectly happy with God Learner historiography. :-)

>The post-Compromise admittance of the Ralian Hsunchen into the
>Orlanthi fold apparently did not result in new husbandry for the
>hill barbarians.

Nah, they had to forget their old ways of life if they wanted to make any headway as orlanthi.

>I have seen a source that reports chariots in use by the Galanini in the
>late Second Age.

I know which one you mean, and I don't buy it. It's waaay too old and outdated.

>I don't think the Orlanthi use horses to plow, that's what Oxen are for.

In our EW, there isn't much cattle (no real reason, it's just designer fiat). No dogs, either (we're cat people, all three of us). BTW, do you _have_ to have dogs to herd sheep? Can't you just have a lot of young boys running around (gives 'em some exercise...)?

>Galanini horses are the fiery mustangs
>of the Felster basin, while the Orlanthi use the shaggy hill pony

We've been thinking that _all_ Ralian horses are ponies. Well, relatively small and sturdy horses, at any rate. Native ones at least - the Safelster states will of course have imported breeding stock from the West.

Cullen:

> Thus Hon-Eel's heroquest brought a 'grain'
>that existed in the East Wilds to Peloria, and is remembered for that,

Wow! Though I like the audacity of this, it doesn't really fit. See my comments to Joerg.

Gary:

>One thing I'd particularly like to know concerns people's views on the Dawn
>Age Dangans.

Check out the history section of the Glorantha Book.

Another Gary:

>Anyone else have any ideas on what a character loses in becoming
>Illuminated?

Innocence? Actually, I think that the psychological effects you describe are quite enough, without piling on game-system effects as well. This is asuming the character is actually role-played, of course. And as I tried to describe (yes, I am the previous poster you refer to), the psychological impact of Illumination to a great deal depends on what your personality was _before_ Illumination.

>This other character is
>not Illuminated, but wants to become Illuminated. I think she
>will lose her oracular gifts if she is Illuminated, although I don't
>think she realizes this.

Why should she? Lose them, I mean. I can see it if the visions are the result of a world-view that Illumination would deny, but this is far from certain: Illumination can accept just about anything. An important question is _why_ this person wants to reach Illumination? What does she believe it is, a remedy for her nightmares, a way to _explain_ her visions, or something completely unrelated?

>Maybe when Nysalor lived within the world, he taught how to face and
>overcome the fear of Gbaji and how to realize the moral potential
>granted by Illumination. But since he is dead, the Illuminate must
>find her own way.

Yes, this explains something about how Nysalor worship could spread so rapidly. Presumably the outer areas of the Golden Empire, where corruption set in, were too remote to be reached by his personal teachings, and had to rely on second-hand information.

Devin:

>What was found by laughter, adopted by truth, used by trees, taken by ambush,
>and cleansed by the winds?

Death?

>Riddle 2

Dwarfs?

>Riddle 6

Yelm?

>BTW, someone mentioned that the GL Secret might be "it's a game" as an
>off-the-cuff remark. Well, it seems that I have heard this before suggested
>as the REAL Secret -).

This sounds plausible. In fact, the only reason I can think of for keeping the Secret so secret is that it's Embarassingly Silly.

Sandy:

>Clarification: the New Fens have not changed their position. When
>first written up by Ken, Greg and I did not know what to call that
>part of Glorantha.[...]

Thanks. So, what about those Dangans? :-)

Harald:

> Now about
> Urox the Storm Bull in the Ralian mythos--how did he defeat the Devil?

Devil? You mean Arkat? :-) Seriously, though, the Storm Bull and Humakt cults were only introduced into the EW (still talking about _our_ version here, remember this is _not_ official) very recently (Third Age). Why? Well, Humakt is much too close to Arkat for comfort. The SB (SoB?) probably made people very nervous back in the Golden Empire days, and the dislike has lingered, though the reason for it is forgotten.

Hadn't thought about changing the geography of the myths before. Don't know if I like the idea yet...

>How do the East Ralians view Malkioni?

They're kinda stupid, but mainly harmless. The exception is of course those multiply-accursed traitor bastards in Naskorion. 

(      Jonas Schiott                                   )
(      Institutionen for Ide- och lardomshistoria      )
(      Goteborgs Universitet                           )


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