Joerg

Yinkin isn't an air god, either - he is a mountain child, like Orlanth, Quivin, or Inora. That (and the otherworldly height of his mother) is how he became a father of clouds. His link to the spirit world is problematic. Sure, he shares his father with Hsunchen spirits like Telmor or Basmol, but he chose to stick with his mother's kin, and with his half-sibling Orlanth. This means that the spirit beasts tend to give him grief at times. Much of this story stems from the strictly separated Three Otherworlds that dominated the publications of the Hero Wars/HeroQuest1 period, and this has been toned down quite a bit. His problem with Telmor has another source - Telmor is a canine, and the Bad Dogs are old enemies of Yinkin and Orlanth's village. (IIRC Mastakos was a victim of them once, too.) Yinkin sided with the Vingkotlings against the Enchanter (who controlled all the beasts in one conflict in the Storm Age, but was thwarted by the Plundering of Aron, a venture of the Thunder Brothers to bring back all the beasts), once again siding with the gods rather than the shamans. I don't think that there are any alynx shamans or alynx spirits to ally (not even to Kolat's shamans). If Yinkin ever had a spirit side, it may have been lost when the Bad Dogs wounded him. Yinkin's amorous exploits wouldn't stop him from mating with spirit entities, but any hypothetical offspring from that may be alienated from their father. There are plenty beasts that aren't tied to Hsunchen. Odayla's bear aspect is quite separate from the Rathori bear hsunchen of Fronela (from whom Harrek comes), and there is a Pelorian bear king god further west, Arakang, and a bear mother further north, Ertelenari (who appears on the Gods Wall). All bears share an affinity to storm, but not necessarily to Orlanth.

Shop keepers are likely crafters or cooks, possible in the business to preserve whatever they sell, so in all likelihood Dromal, even if wealthy. A peddler with just a basket or similar backpack probably wouldn't count as a Talar. The equivalent to a spare grain manager of rural resources might very well be the lowest of the Talar administrators, although the Sedalpists appear to have delegated low level administration to their Horal caste. Among the Rokari or Aeolians I would say Talar, among the Loskalmi possibly Guardian (commoner eligible to train for Man-of-all).

The spell only affects magic cast by the Ernalda worshipper. Short of Spell Trading or multiple cult membership, that limits her choice of rune spells to those granted to Ernalda to those she gets from her own cult and associated cults. I would only use the spirit spells from the "definite" list, Shield, Spirit Block. Defensive is what reduces the chance to be hit by enemy magic or attacks directly through the magic. Parry and Great Shield affect defensive abilities of the champion, but not directly his defense. While this spell is part of the Arming of ... ceremony, I don't think that any weapon bonus would be affected, but might be convinced. Absorption might be defensive in nature, and looks like too good to be true in combination with Bless Champion, pumping the caster with additional magic points. I am curious about the definition of "Enemy magic" in this context, btw. Does Absorption let healing magic through? And what happens when hit by a sufficiently high dispel or dismiss magic spell? Inviolate reads like a special form of Dismiss Magic. While the spell is temporal, it is cast on the caster herself and has an area effect of 3m radius around the caster, for the duration. It isn't entirely clear to me whether the Inviolate dispels such magic or just cancels it while the caster is within reach, similar to Neutralize Magic. If boosted with enough MP, the caster will tear down all Countermagic in her neighborhood unless stacked with enough Shield (or only if the person has cast such a spell on themselves?). This is not a defensive spell IMO. A case might be made for Reflection, which would be available to an Ernaldan who also follows the Seven Mothers, but the spell doesn't really block incoming magic, it only returns magic that failed to overcome the target's POW. Not a protective spell IMO as it doesn't prevent the hostile caster from attempting to overcome the champion's POW. Fireshield is defensive, but not really in the normal array of Ernalda cultists. Warding or Create Market might be defensive in nature, but aren't cast upon the Champion, so don't count.

There was a preview about the Blood of the Gods (magic crystals) and the Bones of the Gods (rune metals) which explicitely repeated that enchanted iron doesn't dampen magic that way. Available for download to all who subscribed to the newsletter about RQ releases. I would count this as being given official rules. You are entirely correct, YGMV (or YRQGMV) may make a rune-lord's iron weapon provided by the cult impossible to combine with his cult's magic. The master is in charge of the rules interpretations for his games, and can alter them - preferably after consultation with his players, or at least notifying them of how he handles such things. During the session, this shouldn't cause a major rules debate, either. After the session, the issue can be debated, and GM and players can work out whether and what effect such rulings have on their enjoyment. Things get a little unpleasant when a GM confronts unfamiliar players who may have brought their own characters with house rules in the middle of a game. Personally, I don't usually play characters from cults which have rune lords, so I don't expect my characters ever to wield an iron weapon. I would be seriously disturbed by that ruling anyway if it affected someone else's rune lord, and might vote with my feet.

That's unenchanted iron. Rune Lords use enchanted Iron, which doesn't have this effect. There might be of course some fringe folk in Glorantha not using personal magic who would don a suit of unenchanted iron gear to become rather impervious to magic. That is, magic directly cast onto them. They would still be as susceptible to magic which just altered the world around them, e.g. an elemental opening the earth below them. Not so. A sword made of iron may be the death rune shaped token of death metal, but that doesn't mean that death rune magic cannot take it closer to the original tool of Death, in all likelihood without ever reaching that. The rules explicitely allow Bladesharp, True Sword, Boon of Kargan Tor and Neutralize Armor on a single weapon, possibly of enchanted Iron, which may well be carrying multiple blessings of Humakt, and attack using Sword Trance. Only Fireblade doesn't work with this combo. The rules state that True Sword won't double anything but the damage of the weapon, not the damage bonus, and by extension none of the other spells I listed above. The effects still add up, and a single hit will send one of the limbs of Bigclub the Giant flying, or at least falling down separately. On the topic of Humakti munchkinism, have you heard about Humakti Lottery Swords?

Or these spells exist as part of the curriculum despite the pacifist posture. Possibly as spells they teach to non-Sedalpist sorcerers to do their dirty work. A similar illogical religious requirement might be some combat dance element in their soldier caste which might give them some initial weapon skill. It is easy to be a vegetarian if all you have for food is plant-based. It is a lot harder when someone digs into tasty-smelling food with gusto, although what smells tasty is clearly colored by your acculturation, as I learned from my vegetarian tenant from India. What I find lacking in Sandy's spell excamples are spells that would affect Malasp, the one group of non-humans that are actively hostile to the Sedalpists.

What about a century or two of experience? A dwarf character may very well have participated in that last act of occupying the Clanking City or other such events, or his favorite teacher has. (I don't see dwarves as recognizing parentage...)

Considering a visit. How long into the night will the event be (i.e. how soon do we need to move on into one of the nearby pubs)?

I assume you mean Jrustela here?

Having separate spirits for separate food plants may seem attractive, and having special rites, sacrifices and possibly sewing, field preparation or fertilizing methods for these might be the case. Thunder Rebels had both the goddess of the fertile land whose womb would sprout all those beneficial plants, and the minor goddesses of the plants themselves. The Goddess of the Land is an intermediate phenomenon. In a way, she is the genius loci, a greater oread or limoniad, or mother of these, the goddess you seek out for the Great Marriage to the land. She will have her favourite grain offering, which may be different from the culturally preferred crop. The Goddess of the Land may also be completely unrelated to any harvest - see Kero Fin, or her aspect Sorana Tor. Some regions have almost a monoculture, especially where perennial plants like wine or apple are cultivated. Usually this is done for cash crops that benefit from local conditions and that can be transported to the markets. (In case of grain that means water transport, other crops like wine are processed locally and the processed goods are sold.) Usually, soil exhaustion puts a limit to the intensity of your crop permanence, unless you have events like the Nile flooding which replenish the fertility. There are known cases where such intensive land use has led to emigration and near-total depopulation of that land, like in 4th century Anglia (Cimbric peninsula, not Britain). I seem to remember that the mesolithic grain gatherers of the northern Fertile Crescent had about 40 types of edible seeds to pick. A similar case of multiple grain (or pseudograin) cultivation or gathering was found in the stomach of the Tollund Man, an ancestor of the Jutes. His last meal was a porridge primarily of barley and flax/linseed (from cultivation), false flax and knotgrass (in all likelihood gathered from wild plants). Numerous other seeds were found in small amounts, too, possibly weed seeds mixed into the harvest or gathering. http://www.tollundman.dk/sidste-maaltid.asp We have numerous types of edible grains represented in the Perfect Sky, giving a fair impression of important crops in Dara Happa. The Heortlings are known to grow more than just barley, too - and more than the grain "subcult" daughters of Esrola in Thunder Rebels suggest, too. The EWF core lands grew Velt and Kreet, two grains dependent on the Dragon Dream, and Silver Age Heortlings survived among other things on Thingrass, a very fine-grained seed that had died out by the beginning of the Second Age but which was part of the customary Kitori tribute. Given the ubiquity of linothorax as the medium armor type, we can assume that the Heortlings grow flax, too, and probably will use linseed or linseed oil in their food. (Not necessarily, since the production of linen requires stems from unripe plants.)

I think that the magic should just affect the blade. That would preclude an update from bronze to iron once the Humakti makes it to rune level, unless there is a way to make composite blades of both iron and bronze. There might by ways to upgrade an existing blade. Would iron inlays have an effect on the damage to Elder Races, or silver inlays vs discorporate foes or werewolves? No bonus in the AP for this, though.

On a more serious note, something like the Syndic's Ban might be tried. While Snodal was troubled about the threat of the White Bear Empire, his motivation to go and kill the God of the Silver Feet was a map of Fronela made by or attributed to Zzabur showing the future Fronela under the flood. Dormal's journey may very well have Thawed the Ban too soon. If you look at the future catastrophes in King of Sartar, like Illiteracy, these could be side effects of someone (the Harshax?) in the south fragmenting reality like that.

The water might be cold, too...

Grandfather and Grandmother Mortal got made by the Celestial Court/personified the Man Rune, deep in Creation Era myth. All the peoples who claim that their ancestors migrated down from the Spike (e.g. the Orlanthi and Praxian Beast Riders) can easily claim them as their ancestors, including aldryami elves and uz (who arguably migrated up rather down). For the Malkioni, it may very well be Malkion the Sacrifice who became/acts as Daka Fal, Judge of the Dead. Vogmaradan is the male principle rather than the ancestor of all, much like Majadan/Iste in Vithelan myth (there one of the High Gods or Avanparloth) but also Ebe the Wild Man in Kralorelan myth who fathered all humanoid races on whatever, e.g. the Babadi (dwarves) on stone, and all the Hsunchen on their various animals, before meeting Yothenara. The stories are similar. Neither of them are involved in being the first to experience mortality. For the Agimori/Doraddi, the Agitor(an)(i) are the First Men, the entire batch made through cooperation of Pamalt, Balumbasta, Noruma, Kendamalar and Nyanka (Revealed Mythologies p.45). The majority of them became mortal Agimori by drinking, and Dorad was the first of the Agimori to die and leave a lineage plant on his grave, taking that aspect of Grandfather Mortal. I don't think that Dorad gets identified with the judge of the Dead, though. The other races of Made humans, like in Dara Happan myth which is quite similar to Pamaltelan myth except it doesn't admit to any earlier semi-successful creations, don't really provide a single pair of ancestors, either. The Thinobutans for instance recognize four pairs of ancestors of different tones of clay who then went and coupled with all counterparts, creating a variety of skin tones and temperaments. The Artmali might have inherited Death through Cathora, the woman chosen by Artmal as his wife and ancestress of his offspring. The Fiwan (Pamaltelan hsunchen) ancestors are mythically present already as witnesses at the creation of the world by Langamul/Earth Maker, in the shape of four fours of creatures (running, swimming, flying and water), RM p.40. (A God Learner monomyth-builder might want to associate that event with the emergence of Ga from the Waters.) The western Genertelan Hykimi (Hsunchen) story appears to be similar, as related by the Serpent Broterhood at the Dawn, and found fragmentary in the Ancient Beasts Society of Safelster. I am not entirely clear where, how and when Death entered their myths, but the Hsunchen know that Telmor ate the sun, causing the Darkness. I wonder what the Telmori make of that story. The Hsunchen view on the God Time is badly under-explored, but with their different varieties so disparate that they don't even share a language between non-related animals we can expect vast differences in the details of their myths. Probably more than the God Learners could stomach, but then by the time they came to the picture, the Hykimi had already been altered by the Kachisti in Godtime and the Theyalans after the Dawn, or conquered and assimilated by their ancestors. In Pamaltela and Eest they had more interesting stuff to study. Most of the Elder Races possessing the Man Rune don't appear to share the Daka Fal archetype. Uz are re-united with Kyger Litor, I suppose, their surface existence being a consequence of Death invading Wonderhome. Aldryami enter the forest song. Brown elves are residents of the Underworld every winter. Green Elves with their nightly sleep cycles and Yellow Elves who don't sleep at all might need some form of judge or similar, or maybe just a spirit catcher (which would be the forest). Mortal merfolk entered the world in the Late -Golden Age, after the Birth of Umath and the invasion of the waters. They don't claim an afterlife, and probably just dissolve in the All Waters. The beaked folk (Durulz and Keets) appear to share the human experience. Giants are caught somewhere between the Immortal World of the Elder Giants which they seem to have lost, or sharing the human experience. There has been no great exploration of their afterlife. Only three individuals - the lesser giants of Gonn Orta's Castle - have ever given any insight to their thoughts in publications, with Boshbisil's origin unclear but having adopted the Issaries Cult rules, Sa Mita tracing descent from one of the dormant Elder Giants of the Eastern Rockwoods and troubled about trolls inhabiting caves there, and Hen Cik too full of adolescence to spend any thoughts on this.

Playing pre-adolescent Orlanthi is a bit of a bummer when it comes to magic. Children (up to 18 years for boys when they get unlucky in the availability of initiation groups) don't have any business wielding magic. There are exceptions, children who sacridice their childhood, gaining great magical benefits from that, like Harsaltar and his sisters and playmates when they formed the Household of Death to defend the kingdom of Sartar against the Lunar invasion, or like the magical child kings of the Illaro dynasty. But playing something like this wouldn't be age-appropriate for the player. There might be a way around this while obeying Heortling culture - you could give the magic to a guardian spirit that watches over the child, and place that guardian in the favorite pet or doll of that child character. The guardian could be an ancestor or a genius loci fulfilling an obligation or trying to bring a prophecy along. What exactly doesn't really matter until the player or the character comes of age, or when the story can reach a meainingful point. Pretty much fairy godmother stuff in alynx (or pony) packaging. Disney could produce something like this.

Baboons have been strong in magic ever since their first appearance in Nomad Gods. They are supposed to be more magical.

Looks like I didn't find that easy to understand. That's true for any kind of jargon you inject when talking philosophy. There isn't much in print about the Sedalpists, even when taking a look at no longer canonical sources. They used to be a simple doctrine - don't harm any human, and give hell to any non-human that dares approach you. Sandy's special spells for Sedalpist sorcerers are intentionally cruel and gruesome, this contradiction was a characteristic of the Sedalpists as presented by him. The philosophy grew out of the mess that Elassi's Silencer movement and the Afadjanni occupation created in coastal Vralos. I think it would be useful to have an idea what their meditation is about - that was the original question, the state of Perfect Reason. Given the capitalisation, we are signalled that we are dealing with jargon here. That's why I went and explored the jargon Castes are about forbidding activities to members of other castes. Talars don't fight (or at least didn't before they usurped the Man-of-All privileges), don't cast spells, don't till the land or craft or even repair things. Non-Talars don't ride (horses), don't judge legal cases or lend money, don't wear yellow (or gold). I was questioning that earlier. But then I noticed a couple of formulations in the sources I consulted e.g. in the Guide that offered other, unexpected loopholes. The Sedalpists use non-Sedalpist mercenaries "regretfully" to take care of military conflicts. They will probably equip them with food, clothing, weaponry, intelligence, transport, orders, payment, and magic. A stance like this against non-human threats used to be the trademark of the Sedalpists. That contradiction was inherent in their believes, possibly tragically so. I don't know whether their (former?) willingness to use force against non-humans may be part of their "resisting the rise of Somalz" story arc in the Hero Wars, but I think it could be. We know that there are doctrinal difference e.g about the permission to eat fish, with the majority taking a less strict stance. The spectrum of such doctrines may extend further into gray zones. A core theme of the Hero Wars for human cultures is the role of taboos, and breaking or at least bending them. There's also the corrupting influence of the Vadeli in the region. With the Artmali revolt in neighboring Fonrit calling up old, better-forgotten Chaos allies and the Afadjanni following suit before 1631, the morality of the Vralans will be severely tested, and the Vadeli are all too iikely to point out possibiltiies to their neighbors. The Season Wars saw the liberation of the Sedalpist lands from the Afadjanni by Orlanthi tribes under the leadership of the Vralan aldryami. Tortrica managed to throw out the Afadjanni even without aldryami aid. How much do you trust peaceniks to achieve such a feat without testing the limits?

In that case, why bother with dykes if you can just lift the entire land above the waves, like Belintar did with Loon Island. Although I think that extending the Wonder Transfer (Guide p.254) effect would be a lot more cost efficient. Or quest for Kylerela and evacuate your population there.

It is possible to learn from application of Lore, too. If the skill us used with access to a body of knowledge, new bits of knowledge will be added to the skill. Such longer term research activity could be counted as time for training, at least.

Here's my impression (sorry for the distraction): RM presents the Actions as the stages of Devolution, from 1st Action Intellect/Mind through 2nd Action Thought/Law, 3rd Action Logic/Seer, 4th Action Reason/Founder and 5th Action Instinct/Sacrifice. To me, the Actions are connected to the spatial dimensions, substract one from the Action to get the dimension. Intellect is zero-dimensional, the mere existence of Mind. Thought is one-dimensional, a Though has a direction. Logic is two-dimensional, a plane of co-planar but not parallel Thoughts which can be chained. Reason then adds another dimension and puts Logics, these chains of Thought, into multiple applications. The Fifth Action added something beyond human comprehension, and to the understanding of Zzabur failed. Eventually, it did give birth to (non-cyclical) Time, however. But the Seven Steps deal with the mystical Absolute, not with the humanist world-view. FIrst of all, my approach removes all the need to search for some rules for mysticism by giving a humanist goal for the purpose of the meditation. It is not about reaching some undefinable Absolute, but it is to perceive the world in a way where Reason following Logic guides one's existence. Experiencing the Joy of perceiving the Invisible God, confirming them in living the good life. (I am writing this while "called away" from my response to the discussion of Malkionism in a new thread, where I try to present my understanding of Malkionism.) Basically, the meditation practices of the Sedalpists have the purpose of guiding their lives into a reasonable direction. Their sorcery is Malkioni sorcery as it should be. No need to devise new rules, but possibly a need to devise a list of appropriate spells, from the ones in RQG, and possibly a few developed following the guidelines of those rules. That's why I wondered about their stance towards non-humans. Should their sorcerers have spells harmful to non-human sentients? Because I do see a Soldier Caste, but no Men-of-All who might be the other group which might have access to Sorcery as personal magic. Because (Guide p.623) This suggests that not just the commoners, but all castes have sub-divisions. The (hereditary - why not?) sorcerer caste may be divided into different hereditary jobs. Enchanters, Blessers, ... A nice approach that I would like to see in RQG, too, but not consistent with my reading of the rules. I'll address this in the separate post. The Sedalpists are as likely to have military sorcerers as the Rokari, and like the Rokari, they cast the enhancing spells on those who they send into the fight. Their philosophy forbids the Sedalpists to directly harm another human, so a few of the sorcerer spells would be taboo to be cast on humans or in a way that their direct effect affects humans. Indirect harm (like trapping someone in fire on all sides, then waiting for the fire to approach and consume the victim) would not be taboo (though probably as spiritually poisoning as the use of "throwing crowns" or "bashing sceptres" by the Arolanit talars). If one accepts the model of the Seven Steps for the Sedalpists, which I don't. Using existing sorcery the way @Tindalos and @jajagappa proposed while I was typing this should do the job.

When I look at this with the RQG character sheet in mind, I get the impression that this “Perfect Reason” might be projected on the Man-Beast duality in the character traits. It is basing your everyday as well as your fundamental decisions on Reason rather than Instinct. Please skip the rest of this post if you don’t want to follow me through weird discussion of history and shreds of Malkioni philosphy from the apocrypha. Reason is the Malkioni state of mind of the Fourth Action. Revealed Mythologies p.8 offers a few qualifiers for Reason: The Fifth Action then talks about limited Reasoning (p.13): As mystic goals go, Perfect Reason doesn't seem to aim that high. I wonder whether there is a parallel to the distinction between Nenduren's Stillness which had the achievement of the Ultimate in the shape of Atrilith at its end and the Perfect Stillness of Enrono which only achieved living right and the Blessing of Atrilith. Anyway, we have three capital letter qualifiers for Reason: Pure - the power of Malkion the Seer, Applied - the power of sorcery (also compare Martalak, the Eastern sorcerer, being given the power of Reasoning), and Perfect, the goal of the Sedalpists. Perfect Reason is obviously superior to the limited Reasoning that led to the catastrophic Fifth Action. After the backlash against the God Learners, their ways may very well have been equated with the limited reasoning that ended the Fourth Action, so the spiritual goal of the Sedalpists might be to avoid falling into those traps. Austere meditation isn't necessarily the self-mutilation or torture on demand like some "accelerated meditation techniques" (e.g. Sheng's) appear to use. At its original meaning, it is asceticism, as in the monastic or hermit life-style. Flagellants or self-mutilators like Elassi the Stifler usually "get it wrong" when they try to outdo methods like exposure (fasting, meditation under waterfalls, out in the snow, carrying massive weights or similar). In Glorantha, there is magic and possibly insight to be had from suffering - that's the way of Gerra, and of Danfive Xaron, but IMO that is a form of Sacrifice (i.e. Theism) rather than Mysticism. (Let's not go down the route from Ernst Jünger to fictional villains like Firefly's Niska here...) Elassi appears to be another case where the method of meditation was elevated above the goal behind the meditation. The Path to Silence communicated by the Wordless Prophet was a means to achieve a greater clarity, but the practices of Elassi just enforced silence. I see parallels here to other meditative practices which only focus on the trappings of a deeper mystic practice, like the short cut forms of the EWF which focused on attaining draconic shape rather than draconic insight (Immanent Mastery, Right Left-Hand Path). The text block on the Sedalpists (p.623) mentions esotericism of post-God Learner Malkionism in Umathela. The Path to Silence may have started as a counter-movement to the silliness of such "we learned our lesson, and now we're taking that folly to a height that will make it right" sects, before being turned into another one of these. Austerities probably came through the conquest of the Lands of Silence at the hands of the Fonritians, evidently of the Bolgaddi persuasion as the Tsanyano movement started only after the Jann of Sarro had taken over the Enklosan coastal states. Sedalpism is opposed to the oppressive brutality of the Fonritian philosophy, so I see no point in giving their austerities any shade of bolgaddi harshness to oneself. Sedalpist sorcery will be strictly limited to the Sedalpist zzaburi over-caste. The other castes will be recipients, but not practitioners of this sorcery. I see the meditative practice as common to all Sedalpists. It might constitute a major part of their “Worship (Invisible God)” activities,, when overseen by their zzabur caste sorcerers, but it would also be part of their private routine.

I do wonder a bit what happened to Sandy's old presentation of the Sedalpists as a pacifist sect with the irony of having (and endorsing) strong magics to deal with non-humans, like e.g. here. But then, Malkionism apparently has been revised quite a bit more than used to think it had. Taking the "church" out of Malkionism almost appears to have taken the Malkioni magic away from the vast majority of the Malkioni, leaving them with Spirit Magic and Rune Magic just like any Theyalan. I hope to be wrong about that statement, though.

Then there are the likes of Ezkankekko, the Only Old One, who can take the shape of a human, a troll, or a dehori. True beings of Darkness, but no longer either of these shapes, even if they had been born to one of those shapes. They are also known as Kitori.

This is Glorantha. There are few things which aren't inherently magical. Tradetalk is the expression of Issaries' communication rune. Other languages like Earthtongue, Storm Speech or Fire Speech are the combination of the Communication Rune with the respective Element Runes, but Issaries applies pure Communication. Speech Speech, or Exchange Speech. So to keep it generic, let's have a generic "translate" magic? It is the language introduced by the Speaking God, designed for enabling contact with people whose language you don't know. It will have a pantomime routine that will enable trades, and adding spoken components to start somewhat more meaningful exchanges like "We come in peace" or "Bring me to your leader". In HeroQuest, it would be a breakout skill of the communication rune. In RQG, the harmony rune will have to serve half-heartedly. Sure, we can provide a special magic for any old situation to let all challenges disappear. First contact has a history of providing amusing or tragic misunderstandings. If you want to breeze over such scenario elements, fine, use a spell, or just tell them that once more the magic of Tradetalk has established communication where there has none before, and be done with it. Dealing with languages and linguistics can be interesting, but possibly less so if you come from a monolingual background. On a few occasions, Hollywood gives it a go, but usually everyone speaks English with a slight fake accent, and that's it. If that creates an expectation that instant communication can be reached, traveling to countries with other languages or with a great reluctance to use English might be an experience.

I was working with 2 km tall and 1 km to the sides, some part of it below ground (which is elevated about 300 m), so about 2 km above sea level, minus 1 km for the flood, resulting in a 1k cube above the water. If it is but 800 m to each side and 1600 m tall, then it would have to be only 100 m below the plateau to remain as a 800 m cube above the water. Either way, what remains above the water approximates a cube, give or take 100 m. And though my feet are about one foot long, I prefer to measure distances and heights in steps, which are about 1 m or a bit more than a yard for me, and from there on Dara Happan measures in powers of ten (the one thing Plentonius got right). I wonder whose feet were used when the unit was fixed...