From: Carlson, Pam (carlsonp@wdni.com)
Date: Fri 04 Nov 1994 - 00:35:00 EET
Nick notes:
Esrolia has *never* held its own against outsiders. It was run by the Trolls
for the First and Second Ages, by the Pharaoh in the Third Age. Right now,
in the
absence of an external central authority, there is a godalmighty civil war
going on there, with the Red Earth and Warm Earth and Old Earth and who
knows what
other factions kicking the crap out of each other. Even under the Pharaoh,
the
regional dynasties were always scheming and plotting against each other; and
now it's far, far worse.
Spiff! I had no idea. Esrolia sounds like a hoppin' place! Where is all this described?
I must admit, my only knowledge of Esrolia comes from raiding it as a Grazer. The Esrolites seemed quite well organized and distressingly horseless.
David Dunham's comments on marriage make sense, too - especially: another extremely important role of marriage: it forms ties between two families.
Which might be accomplished by marrying sons off to other clans.
Also, marriage is a universal institution in human cultures
Oh, indeedy. But in Esrolia it may take different forms. Perhaps some marriages would take the form of temporary contracts: "This marriage will last for four years - daughters to mother's clan, sons to father's, with option to renew at end of four years..." Just think: Lankhor Mhy would make a killing!
Said anthro book explains marriage as solving 3 problems: sharing products of a division of labor by gender; how to care for infants dependent for a long time; how to minimize sexual competition.
All of the above are important for small families, but less so for large ones. Though "minimizing sexual competition" is usually a male concern. My point is that Esrolians would de-emphasize that aspect of society. Or perhaps ritualize it in the men's clubs described in earlier posts.
BTW, my take on Esrolia is that it can't be all that different from Sartar, in that they're related -- Colymar, founder of the largest tribe, was Esrolian [130]. Which is why I've said before that "land of women" is something of a foreigner's stereotype. While many of the models proposed for Esrolia make sense, I think it's essentially Orlanthi (Theyalan) in culture, but ruled by a theocracy whose leadership is always female.
Undoubtedly the most defensible position. But does it allow for MGF?
Erik writes:
I assume Pam is a woman... I hope I am not wrong.... I think women may be perfectly well interested in dominating others, but I do not think that they would do it in a male way.
I agree on all accounts! To clarify my point on women & dominance, without starting a whole thorny, flaming thread: women do tend to compete against each other, especially when men are around. But if you look at females in a society, (of ground squirrels, elephants, baboons, or humans), they tend to stick together in large groups and help out their female kin, while males try to drive off other males and keep as many females to themselves as possible). Based on biological differences, each has a very different strategy for success, and a set of correspondingly different behaviors. Still, I doubt Esrolia would become too oppressive to men, because mothers still want to see their sons be successful.
(You'll have to forgive me - as a bio-fanatic I'm practically incapable of thinking in anything other than sociobiological terms. And as I recall, some soc'bio came up earlier this year, and we decided that these theories might be wholly insuited to Glorantha.)
Erik:
"What I'm trying to say is that all these fcitious societies that this
daily is about our own views of the world. You may have some sort of
message, or you may just like one idea because it seems fun, exciting or
whatever, and you turn things over so that that idea or message fits."
There it is! Maximum Game fun! Make it fit what you want to do. I think a radically different society would be fun, but I don't want to see it a syrupy utopoia OR a feminazi state. (Still, I can't help but think that ANY theocracy has a stong potential to become oppressive).
1, I could not help but say this: agree 100% on the rarity of multiple husbands. I think this is a status symbol - Ernalda herself has it, mind you, and to me is mostly a sytem of being a member of the Earth Queen subcult of the Four Corners of the Earth - which means you're noble.
Hey! Wealthy, trendy gals could collect one of each!
POPULATIONS Nick asked how big a population has to be to avoid inbreeding.
Last I heard, population biology theory (Hardy-Weinburg equations, an' all that), put a genetically stable population at about 100 breeding individuals. (For sexually reproducing, haploid critters, with a 50:50 sex ratio.) That means you'd need at least 50 men and 50 women, all having roughly the same number of children, to avoid genetic drift. Of course, with only 100 individuals, a good disease could devestate much of the population; then they're genetic history.
YELM'S FAMILY Couldn't resist a Yelm question!
Michael H asks what response a twisted Yelm priest would get when he asks about the identity of Yelmalio.
Uh - define "son" to a spirit entity. "Son" could mean:
Yelmalio could be any of these, and Yelm's answer would be "OF COURSE - NOW GO RIPEN SOME CROPS". I imagine Yelm would mean that Yelmalio is in good standing in the "fire tribe", to use a David Dunhamism. (In good standing, as opposed to that scum Elmal, a fire godlet who joined Orlanth's stead; thus Elmal doesn't get Sunspear.) Even so, Yelmalio could be totally overlooked in Dara Happa, because his big events all occurred elsewhere, and there are lots of other firey candidates for the "Son of Yelm" niche who were locally more important. (Antirius, Muharzam)
Must work now:-(
Pam
X-RQ-ID: Extro
[The rules of the game]
Send submissions and followup to "RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM", they will automatically be included in a next issue.
Please include a Subject: line. Articles without it will be ignored, returned, or delayed.
Selected articles may also appear in a regular Digest. If you want to submit articles to the Digest only, contact the editor at RuneQuest-Digest-Editor@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM.
Send enquiries and Subscription Requests to the editor:
RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Henk Langeveld)
sub list address@your.domain Your Full Name
unsub list address@your.domain
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 08 Nov 1994, part 1
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
Content-Return: Prohibited
Precedence: junk
X-RQ-ID: Intro
This is the RuneQuest Daily Bulletin, a mailing list on the subjects of Avalon Hill's RPG and Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. It is sent out once per day in digest format.
More details on the RuneQuest Daily and Digest can be found after the last message in this digest.
X-RQ-ID: index
6864: joe = (Joerg Baumgartner)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:37:33 EEST