From: Jonas Schiott (jonas.schiott@vinga.hum.gu.se)
Date: Mon 15 Aug 1994 - 20:38:38 EEST
Lotta postings to reply to, now that the daily has started appearing on
Sundays as well (I can't get at a terminal during weekends).
>To shoot off at a tangent, when you say "East" Ralios, where exactly do
>you have in mind? In particular, over how wide an area are you suggesting
>an anti-Arkat attitude might be prevalent?
What David is referring to is the East Wilds. He just calls it East Ralios to separate it from _our_ campaign. In case you're wondering, while "East Wilds" as a geographical designation covers a lot of ground, we mainly use it in a cultural sense: Delela, Saug and Keanos.
>Orlanth, Red
>Goddess, Magasta, Ernalda, Yelm, Subere, Humakt, Chalana Arroy, Mostal and
>Mastakos all have doubled runes to indicate their source whereas the Invisible
>God and Uleria have the infinity rune attached. Does this mean that they not
>quite the same gods who originally held this rune
It seems to me as if you're on to something, but have got it backwards. The large group of deities you mention first (with the doubled runes) are _not_ the original sources of those runes. Uleria, on the other hand, _is_. Not sure about the IG.
I have mixed feelings about this. Personally, I don't have access to news, and I suspect that goes for many other people on this list as well. So, the big question is: would we be missing something? Or would it take some of the pressure (you know, the babble) off the list? Would it draw a lot of new people (is there anyone out there with news but not e-mail?)? I guess I'm pleading for someone with a greater understanding of cyberspace to make some sensible suggestions...
> Has anyone else done much with totems? Wolverine and White Bear have
>been important in our campaigns.
If you look through the dailies for the early summer you might find my posting on a suggested Ralian History, for which we dreamed up hordes of totems. Including Moose, BTW. Proving which:
David in X-RQ-ID: 5666
>I'd been assuming the Pralori were American elk as well. Martin's Hsunchen
>descriptions are pretty good, but I believe he's wrong on the extinct-ness
>of the Galanini; he could be wrong on the Pralori species.
Right.
>Incidentally, in my East Ralios there are (thanks to Jonas Schiott) moose
>Hsunchen, the Aleci.
You're welcome. To be precise, Sten Ahrman (one of my collaborators, and a biologist to boot) is the one who keeps spouting new hsunchens and animals.
BTW, loved your heroic abilities in X-RQ-ID: 5686. I'll try to talk the guys into stealing some of them, though I'm still not sure about _every_ clan having one.
>I can't picture people as saying "Yes, I live in the
>Wilderness
Hmm. I think I can. But 99% of the time they just call themselves "Delelans" or whatever, so for us it's mainly a conventional label that we got from the Genertela Book and haven't bothered to change.
>Jonas
>can probably give you more detail on the historical reasons.
Sure. What do you want to know? If I don't already have an answer, I can always make one up. :-)
>The reason I made the Elk people Mooses, if I can recall
>back that far, was to make them as different as possible from the
>Deer people.
OK. I still think the difference between Deer and Elk is big enough. The original reason for us having moose in our woods is somewhat convoluted. In Kilwin, there is an inn named (in Swedish) "Muffliga Mammuten". Now, this is utterly untranslateable, so when struggling with the English version I was thinking about trying to find another allitteration on "M", and for some reason an old Monty Python joke sprang unbidden into my mind (see the subject line). We reverse-engineered it from there.
>My logic behind making the Galanini
>extinct is that animals whose usefulness has caused them to be
>spread among humans as a whole are more likely to be extinct. In
>effect, the animal deity loses his or her special connection to
>the tribe.
Good logic. And I agree with it in most cases. Our Galanini have hung on because they have to a large extent begun worshipping another deity (Ehilm or whatever...) of the type (solar) which usurped the horses. The basic reason for their presence, though, is (no, it's not another gag) that for cult ecology reasons, there have to be some solar worshippers hanging around wherever orlanthi live. And we decided early on (long before Elmal showed up - still don't know what to do with him) that we didn't want any Yelmalians around (the stuck-up buggers wouldn't last a day in the Wilds...). Anyway, the Galanini (and to a certain extent the other hsunchen) are now too firmly tied into our background to be easily removed.
( Jonas Schiott ) ( Institutionen for Ide- och lardomshistoria ) ( Goteborgs Universitet ) ---------------------
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