From: isaac@twics.com
Date: Sat 04 Jun 1994 - 10:10:21 EEST
Hi everyone, and Konnichi wa from Japan. The rainy season approaches Tokyo,
and the Green Fungus Thought Police are patrolling the streets. Watch the
walls...
Thanks for everyone's help re: my Dangans query. It's cleared up my confusion thinking they were perhaps the same. I mentioned Ken Rolston's DW15 New Fens write-up last week: well, I got in touch with Marc Willner, whose campaign notes the New Fens background was taken from, and he told me about _his_ Dangans. Maybe everyone already knows this, but it was news to me :-). I hope you won't mind me posting it anyway...
(Marc Willner) "The Dangans were originally a people I made up to cover that area. (Marc refers to the New Fens area in Maniria) They would now be considered an offshoot of the Slonton Kingdom, one of the allies of the God Learners. Slontos is now in the MournSea, and its people now in Ramalia. In the First Age, the Fens were just that, a watery grassland covering the Noshain River Valley. The Dangans drained and channeled the water into a single river. When the Judgement of the God Learners struck, Slontos was sunk and the Fens broke the canals and reclaimed much of the original lands."
Marc also sheds some light on the city of Handra: "As for Handra, it was founded about 400 years ago by the survivors of a slave revolt in the Safelster city-states. Since monotheism didn't exist when I wrote it up, their religion is more like Ancestor Worship/City God Cult than anything you might find in the West. There are five City Gods, who were the leaders of the surviving slaves and some allies they found along the way. The city is named for the leader of the slaves, Handra Liv."
Sorry to all concerned if I'm repeating what everybody already knows here, but my point is this; does anyone have any views on whether these are the Dangkae of Jonat's Saga / descendants of King Dan, or whether they have something to do with the Dangan Confederacy of Jonas Schiott's East Wilds History? If the former, then the draining of the Fens must have been Second Age...? Erm...? As for the latter, I'm a bit confused about the dates for the Dangan Confederacy. Jonas says the First Age - are they still there now? BTW Jonas; people have told me there are sources referring to the Confederacy, but I don't seem to be able to find anything. Are they really obscure, or am I just missing my Scan roll a lot? <g> Help!
Better leave off the Dangans for a while before my brain goes and i carnt rite propper sentnnces annymor... <g>
Other stuff: loved Nick's ideas on Pelorian Newspeak! There's some really fertile ground for illuminated linguists there... The Russian language once had the same word for "Red" and "Beautiful" (hence Red Square); something similar would be really appropriate for the Lunar's tongue... maybe on an obvious moral level, like Red equals Good, or maybe something more subtle...? The Bulgarians nodding when they say "no" and shaking their heads when they say "yes" would have any Riddler cracking his knuckles with glee... Tortuous grammatical rules which contain elaborate Nysalor Riddles which suddenly dawn on you if you hold a thought for just a little too long.... Gee, where _does_ my fist go when I open my hand?
Cullen's (and others :-) ) queries about Japanese RQ ; I'll post something
a bit more substantial when I have some more time... (or a round tuit or
whatever they call it these days <g>), but for the nonce, here's something
which puzzled me 't'other day;
The "Dragon Atlas" published by Hobby Japan over here has a scenario in it
called "Sword, Shield and Seer", which I'm presuming is home grown (?).
Annnyway, it's set in Sartar, and the set up is this: a Storm Voice by the
name of Jamai Jaddin has tried, for reasons not yet clear, to loosen the
village where he lives from the grips of Time (presumably to escape the Lunar
domination? Starbrow connections..?). The Lunars get wind (no pun intended)
of this, and carry out horrific reprisals against the village. Jamai, filled
with remorse, journeys back through time to the same village 2 years earlier
and tries to set the record straight... and comes into contact with the PCs.
Now, quality, NPC motivation, and overall scenario structure aside, the obvious thing which occurred to me when reading this scenario was : "Hey! You can't do that! Everyone knows time travel in Glorantha is impossible! It breaks the Compromise!"
When my wife had successfully talked me back down from the lamppost, I calmed down and started thinking about HeroQuests... (I know, I know...) I mean, Steve Maurer talks about shadows of Balastor's Axe and all kinds of stuff... And you _can_ change the mythological reality... (can't you? *sob* *gnashings of uncertain teeth*)
What does everyone think? Is this scenario premise possible?
Quite enough of that. I'm going for a lie down. :-)
Thanks for reading!
Gambatte!
Gary (Gary Newton / Isaac@twics.com)
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