KeithN

Here's a dumb theory I just came up with: Sun Count Skindilli Longlegs was really a River guy - Sun Count Ingilli, mispronounced. That's how he succeeded in the River Ritual.

In my Glorantha, one of the earlier Cradles that got down the river contained a Giant baby that grew up to be named Thog. His birth was a result of something that Lord Pavis has done, so he could claim to be a son of Pavis and had some sort of right to rule the City. I think of the baby on the Third Age Cradle as the new world - to be reborn after the destruction of the current world by the Hero Wars. Either a new mountain, or a new Earth Goddess for Genertela, or a symbol of the the 4th Age.

I was under the impression that God Learner was not really something that the God Learners called themselves. It is more like something one says about witches or heretics: "burn the god learner!", "do not trust this wicked god learner!" "chain the foul god learner in the darkest dungeon!" I cannot speak German, French, Latin, or Sehnegi, but I think the translation need to capture something that can be used as a derogatory term.

I used the same method as Greg when coming up with NPC names on the fly. Hence Domen-Ab and Egl were both named after hit locations. There is some fun to be had finding references to people in the Guide.

I'd assumed that the various Eel, Il, Ilart, Inning, Oor, Sor, ending to the imperial clan names are something to do with the clans relationship to the Red Emperor, which makes it either a small part of the names of the Lunar Empire (ie only to elite of the elite) or more significant if you believe, asI do, that all Lunar Illuminants are acutally just descendants of Takenegi.

My beliefwas that Varajia Nopor crippled Waha! and stopped him from incarnating. Jaldon is a way of getting around this curse. He is a renamed, reincarnated avatar of Waha! The description of him always makes me think there must be some cheesy SF paperback cover somewhere with a guy with a three bladed sword, tattoos, a helmet, gauntlets and greaves that inspired Greg. In a recent game of Dragon Pass, Jaldon and Delecti the Necromancer were both crushed by a giant just outside Dragons Eye. I wondered if they were reminising about the old days.

Surely the hot lake is just the salty tears of Shengs enemies. Or the warm urine of the Black Sun. Or that salt is just the taste of death that water has when it knows it is going to die. I'm imagining there must be a lot of mist and fog rolling off the lake, with glimpses of large dinosaurs, and dampened screeches of monster heard through the warm, damp clouds.

I once thought that Jaldon rode a camel. but I associate them with Godlearners for some reason. I once had a scheme for the food types that Praxian animals liked with two axes - wet and dry, high and low. Impala like low and dry, bison liked low and wet, morocanth liked high and wet, high llama liked high and dry. Sable liked a bit of everything. High vegetation being tall trees, tall grasses, low vegetation being short grass. This doesn't link in very well with High Llama being Water rune but I did feel that tall trees only lived in Prax along the Serpent beds, where rivers occasionally flowed. The scheme was cyclical - so a flooded, marshy river bed is wet and high and favours Morocanth, then the water dries up and it becomes high and dry, favouring High Llama.

Ok, 16 different tribes/nations/linguistic groups I can buy, although some may already have been joined into small empires by enterprising leaders. In civilized Kralorela, only three languages are spoken officially - imperial Kralorelan, Stultan, and the turtle dialect on that lotus-growing island southeast o In my boardgame "History of Kralorela" I had 14 Hsunchen groups, plus Dragon People and Ignorants, making 16 human groups that later become Kralorelans.

I like this idea - nice suggestion. I have my own theory about the big magic rocks all over the place relating to the Maidstone Mountains, Vadrus and Grotarons. Overall, I've been very pleased that the Fronela in the Guide doesn't invalidate the Fronela in my History of Fronela boardgame.

Babies have no concept of time, and it gradually develops. The mythic ages can be viewed as a metaphor for the developing conciousness.

I do have a Umathela/Fonrit/Laskal/Enkloso boardgame in the pipeline, but it is in early stages. The Guide in general is excellent at inspiring game ideas, but this section is really so sweeping that there is not enough to go on. I mean, for example, the sentence on p127 "belligerent factions refounded the World Council as the High Council of the Lands of Genertela" might be an interesting set up for some sort of political/diplomatic/wargame but you would need to go and research details somewhere else (somewhere else in the Guide, mostly). The huge green areas at the Dawn I interpret as uninhabited (by human) wilderness rather than Aldryami "strongholds". So Aldryami are there, and are the dominant people, but there are not many of them. So a person from the Serpent Beasts in Ralios might view the Greatwood and Ballid as Aldryami forests, and be scared to enter them but once they actually enter the forests and find there are only a few hundred elves in a huge area, the 'Aldryami'ness of the forest evaporates.

I had assumed that Talsardia was made up of Orlanthi from Peloria, primarily, plus whichever Hsunchen were conquered, or impressed by the Lightbringers and converted, or simply joined the kingdom but kept their beast totem ways and gradually assimilated. I felt that the Kingdom was really either just a powerful individual or dynasty and that it collapsed when the dynasty collapsed.

I have records! We've just met Talor, Arinsor, Varganthar and the King of Akem in a Fronela game.

The historical maps are one of my favourite parts of the whole Guide. I have the same reservations about some of the boundaries as I do on real world maps in the same style, that imply that the boundaries are clear and easy to determine. For example. the population densities in the Dawn age make most areas just empty wilderness. I like the fact that the horse nomads are in a narrow band in 400ST p130 for example, as I think the blank white areas are practically empty of humans and to shade it all yellow because a horse nomad once rode through it is misleading. I would love to see maps in the same style for Fonrit and Umathela - I think Garangordos and his crew are interesting.