From: David Dunham (ddunham@radiomail.net)
Date: Sun 28 Aug 1994 - 05:03:59 EEST
Sandy writes
>I like the name "Aleci" for moose hsunchen and will institute it in
>my campaign. Thanks, Jonas and one of the many Daves.
I've always considered myself the Source of the David rune.
1. Gods of Glorantha is the source of information on rune Sources, and I am
the only David mentioned therein.
2. Despite misidentification by an owner of the Obnoxious Pedant rune, I
possess the David rune, not the debased form, the Dave rune.
Although the Aleci (Moose Hsunchen) only entered my Ralios campaign by a lucky die roll when we were determining who had fostered Konall "Moose Boy" Ekelsson, I'm glad they did!
Here's all I know about them (I've posted some of this before).
There are about 1500 Aleci in the East Wilds, divided into three clans: Ochre Top, Roseberry, White Hare. Aleci are +2 to SIZ, -1 DEX, +2 CON (this in Pendragon terms).
Tramak is the chief of the Ochre Top clan, a huge, somewhat clumsy man. Hruktuk is the leading shaman of the clan. He dresses in women's clothing, and his wife hunts. One of his notable spells lets him shake an oak tree, bringing down a rain of acorns.
The Aleci clans are nomadic, splitting into family groups most of the year. In Dark Season and Storm Season their camps tend to be larger, perhaps even the entire clan. There's no fixed pattern to their wanderings, but they tend to be found in the same moist woods and lakesides as the moose. As a consequence, they fish more than most Hsunchen.
Methe the Traveller, devotee of the Speaking God and member of the Belovaking Clan Ring, has this to say about them (actually, the Hsunchen in general):
All of the Hsunchen tribes worship their totem animal. Their god provides magic to turn into that animal, but it's difficult to cast, and they usually do it only once a year. Sometimes the transformation isn't complete -- I had a hard time not laughing when I saw one of the Aleci walking around with the body of a man but the antlered head and four long legs of a moose.
The Hsunchen live in large tents shaped much like our own houses. They paint them with magic designs. Birkiska Leaves-No-Tracks, chief of the Raccoon People, owns a huge tent all of us here could fit in. It's made from a single skin, though I couldn't tell what animal it was from.
Among the Deer People, shamans wear the clothing of the opposite gender. One of them told me that dressed as a woman, he was able to seduce the more powerful spirits, or fool the weaker spirits so they didn't flee when they spotted him. His wife took a bow and hunted to help with the ruse.
Some of these people use flint-tipped weapons. Though not as impressive or sturdy as bronze, they can still deal unpleasant wounds. Strangely enough, the dragonewts of Ormsland also use flint weapons. Eurgan made this verse:
"Beast-brothers wield black glass blades,
Dread dragonspawn does the same."
We've decided that Elmal's holy days are the same as Yelmalio's (Fireday, Truth week), except high holy day is in Storm season.
Devin wonders
>Therefore, I am still perplexed why Yelm
>would choose to cleanse the world with an impure element (Water), using a
>Rebellus Terminus vehicle (Rain) to cause to flood a Lower and therefore
>unclean deity (Oslira).
Maybe Plentonius ascribes motivations to Yelm, when in fact Yelm had nothing to do with the event? To Plentonius, such an important event had to be connected to Yelm. (BTW, a very quick skim doesn't show that Yelm had anything to do with the flood, or are we talking about a different flood?)
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