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Sir_Godspeed

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Everything posted by Sir_Godspeed

  1. I'm wondering if some of the really ancient chimeric forms are less of a combination of man-beast runes, but "living fossils" from an age before the Man and Beast runes diverged. I realize that this probably does not fit with how thing work in RuneQuest, but cosmologically at least it seems to make some form of sense, given just how little the gods give a toss about that particular divide, and how the Green Age seems to flaunt it as well. A similar observation can be made on how the Beast Rune seems to have diverged (or devolved) from the Dragon Rune. So in short, it's not necessarily that these creatures are "unnatural" to Glorantha, it's more that they're a remnant from a previous, archaic runic ecosystem, if you will.
  2. The binominal names come from Anaxial's Roster, don't they? Is that intended to have a God Learner narrator? Anaxial is a Dara Happan emperor, after all. (I have not read it, only seen references and excerpts)
  3. The binominal names for monsters seem really immersion-breaking for me. The Lunar Empire has a bunch of characters with Latinate names, and Lunar/Dara Happan versions of names seem to approach more Latinate forms (eg. "Orlanth" vs. "Orlanatus"), so giving God Learners Latin as well just seems... weird. Especially since the Pelorian cultures and mythos were some of the things the God Learners never really managed to peer into properly due to geographical and geopolitical problems (ie. Rockwoods and the EWF). All that aside, binominalism just doesn't *feel* like the kind of a thing an Iron Age bestiary would contain, but that's more a personal take, I admit. That being said, I don't remember the God Learners having all that much Latin to them. The Seshnelan Francophone names get adjusted Jrustelan forms that are clearly non-RW-like, for example.
  4. Some great feats of engineering, like the Tunnel of Eupalinos, comes to mind. As for foundation myths, you can't go wrong with the eagle landing on a cactus to denote the spot of Tenochtitlan. Good stuff.
  5. If I remember correctly, during a thread on labnguages a while back, @Jeff made a comment about not wanting the Orlanthi languages to just be based on Indo-European languages if they were ever actually developed as a conlang, which pretty heavily points to that, no, there isn't any specific RW basis for the languages in Glorantha. Now, with that being said, New Pelorian ends up being represented as Latin or Dog Latin a lot of the time, and Sartarite/Orlanthi names borrow quite a bit from Anglo-Saxon or Germanic (among other things, I must emphasize), and of course Kralorela just has a bunch of RW Chinese in it, I think. I think it's pretty clear that these are just "representations" though. Something akin to how Tolkien pretended that he merely translated the Big Red Book of Westmarch from the fictitious language of Westron. Presumably New Pelorian, in-universe is nothing like Latin, but adding "-us" to stuff gets across a certain vibe to us players so there it stays.
  6. EDIT: I originally went on a tangent about cladistics, ignoring the quoted poster's point not really relating specifically to phylogenetics, so I decided to delete it since it didn't add anything of value to the conversation. To attempt to salvage this spot: I think it's interesting that Glorantha offers us an "evolutionary tree" that takes intelligent design at face value, where gods can be said to "steal" and "borrow" and get "inspired" by the creations of other gods. Maybe Triolina saw some land animals and thought "aw man, lungs are cool, let's do something with that", or Gata saw a bird with feathers and thought "that's sick, imma put some of those on my lumbering behemoths" or whatever. Basically, while thinking in terms of gods as ancestors of animals is probably the most common analogy, it can be a bit limiting and forcing us into thinking of these binary unions. I think we could fruitfully think of the gods as literal MAKERS of them too, which opens up for more indirect influences and more numerous "ancestors" (throuples and quadrouples and who knows). Gata and Hykim AND Aether, for example. Triolina AND Umath AND Hykim. Or you know, not. I'm just spitballing.
  7. To add to the point above about symbolic language: In classical usage, a "myriad" meant specifically the number 10,000. Now it's generally used to simply mean any large, but unquantifiable or nonspecific number. I imagine that this kind of how 10k is used in Esrolia. "More goddesses than you can imagine!"
  8. I rather prefer the perspective that cosmos is emergentic.
  9. No one said you can't innovate, but it seems like most innovations are retroactively legitimized by reference to myths. Did the innovation or myth come first? Yes.
  10. Weren't they always? And the other way around?
  11. Well, this leads into another Dumb Theory (but also probably not that much:) Grower and Maker were always the same. People just forgot.
  12. A different way to phrase the above is, I think, that Hykim/Mikyh treat each element as a "biome" rather than an explicit parental figure. Something to diversify "into" rather than "with".
  13. For my on-and-off-again Northern Pent project, I posited a hypothetical "non-vascular plant" Elf (mosses, liverwort, etc.) that are separate from Aldryami, but like other Plant People tend to be drawn to Aldrya and Aldryami where they can. I thought they would mostly take the form of Will-o-Wisps or Sprites, which sorta goes well with the whole peat bog imagery, etc. On another note, it still bugs me a little how ALL sea life is given the same "monophyletic" mother in Triolina. It just feels... weirdly shallow, I guess? EDIT: I guess it just mirrors Ernalda/Gata.
  14. Embracing the pro-materialness of Maran/The Earth, etc. (Including, but not limited to, of course, enjoying food, enjoying sexual procreation, nurturing parent-child relations, passionate/vivacious/life-affirming cooperation and competition, and potentially theistic worship even blood sacrifice, depending on how you view dinos in Glorantha, I dunno.). A kind of affirmation of the here and now that the Draconic path could never accommodate, but which I imagine someone like Maran* and Earth in general is welcoming of. Compare and contrast the overall "degradation" from the Dragon Rune to the Beast Rune and the whole Serpent Earth symbology. There's probably some Green Age parallels there. A degradation from the perspective of the Dragons, joyous actualization and diversification from the perspective of Earth. Or you know, something like that. (*When she's not busy clobbering heads and being symbolically barren.)
  15. I either made a post or a topic about this a while ago, and my personal interpretation of this was basically that the entanglement of the failed Dragonewts WAS becoming the children of Maran Gor. I don't know the exact mechanism, but I personally find that to be a neater overall explanation. This is the Dumb Theory thread though, so no point in discussing the topic too much. Also, your version provides an adventure hook mine doesn't, so that's a plus. 😄
  16. Orlanth is clearly just a result of Lodril blowing from his earthen abode into the skies.
  17. You're right, I probably underestimate the time between when Grandfather Mortal gets yeeted into the underworld by the First Killing and when Yelm does.
  18. It's a bit weird that this applies to trolls, though right? I guess we might be making a distinction between mythical, immortal beings in the God Time who are superficially similar to humans, but later became distinct (Agi, for example), and "anatomically modern" mortals. Do we count Zzabur, Murharzarm and Vingkot as "humans" or merely as "mortals"? I don't mind there being ambiguity here, by the way. If the answer is something along the lines of "it's complicated, but that's what most cultures believe" then fair enough.
  19. It's interesting to me how the conflict of the "Elder Races" is played up so drastically, when humans in one form or another, have been around for much longer than, say, Trolls have. Partially, I understand that this is thematic. Non-human races are, well, non-human, and giving them their own internal dynamic just sorta feels right. Fae politics, as it were. Human are outsiders to this, albeit increasingly dominant. Secondly, there is of course simply the explanation that while humans have been around for a long time, they either weren't terribly populous or weren't terribly involved in the matters of Dwarfs (this feels like a half-truth, certainly the Malkioni were involved heavily). Thirdly, I suppose it's possible that even the Dwarfs are letting the experiences of the First Age, when humans were a small minority among Elder Race majorities, color their perception of both now and the God Time. Fourth...ly..? There is of course the overall attitude. Humans are "merely" unreliable and unpredictable. The other Elder Races are *anthithetical*.
  20. You could have a Heroquest where Ragnaglar passes his Initiation Test in the Sex Pit. I'll leave what that entails to the imagination.
  21. This is definitely above my pay grade, but it was interesting.
  22. There's also the one in King of Dragon Pass where you can sue the ghost (revenant? It looks like it has a body) itself on behalf of its bereaved family.
  23. Ancestor worship is so common in the RW that any one of a myriad of forms is possible. Greeks, Romans, and just about any ancient people conceptualized veneration of ancestors as important to the current wellbeing of the recognized family. From what I read between the lines, I'm wondering if perhaps (Southern?) Chinese ancestor worship isn't perhaps the most apt comparison? In this model, any family which are recognized as descending from a notable figure (or potentially a collective generic-ancestor) will invest into shrines or even temples dedicated to said ancestor, and visit and conduct ceremonies there. A member of the family will be appointed to maintain the shrine/temple and conduct said ceremonies, being for all intents a priest even if the term isn't used. The role might be applied to less or more prestigious lineages or a certain numbered child of a family (second sons or something?) or it might be something that is in rotations every few years and is either given to a younger person before they take on more active responsibilities, or provided to an ageing relative as a way to provide for them. Potentially, a Dronar could be hired or something, if the role is seen as more a caretaker role. (Junior Zzaburites could of course also be involved, but I feel like they're a bit overexposed in the literature already, so trying out other approaches). Due to the importance of "proving" ancestry, lineage lists might be important, and maybe reciting ancestry might be a part of ceremonies, effectively actualizing the bonds to make the magic benefits (and social cohesion) possible. Tombs, sarcophagi, death masks, death murals, alleged likenesses as statuettes etc. might all be important and copies made to sit in alcoves in the various domiciles outside of the shrine/temple itself, unless of course the shrines are smaller affairs to begin with and just another room in the house. Just speculating, of course.
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