Nature of Metals

[Brootse]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Flint knapping is a form of gem cutting used on completely isotropic, non-crystalline mineral glasses. While there are some crystals (like quartz) which show similar fracturing patterns, material like jade, obsidian, opal or flint is conceptually different from crystalline material. You can polish glasses into any shape you desire. You cannot do that with crystals.

 

At least one True Mostali is known to have surrounded himself with gems - Martaler of the Blazing Forge, lord/overseer/most ancient one of Gemborg.

The Mostali are intrigued by diamond, which is how they title clay dwarves who have excelled in their tasks to a level that rivals that of True Mostali. Unlike True Mostali, these diamond dwarves tend to be extremely focussed on their specialized tasks, though, and lack the flexibility the first generations of servants of Mostal had.

 

Gloranthan diamonds and gems are an interesting subject too:

It seems that diamond cutting is only done by dwarves, but some regions or cults might also know it.

[soltakss]

On 8/23/2019 at 6:13 PM, Joerg said:

But then, we have the myths how Orlanth stole Lightning (Boy) from Sky.

For me, Shargash took Lightning and Thunderbolt from Umath when he killed him. One of those was Lightning Boy and Orlanth took it back.

It could be that Umath took Lightning and Thunderbolt from Aether Primolt when he took his place in the world, but thunder and lightning seem to be Storm weapons, as well as being very, very frightening to me, to me, to me!.

Edited August 24, 2019 by soltakss

[Joerg]

34 minutes ago, soltakss said:

For me, Shargash took Lightning and Thunderbolt from Umath when he killed him. One of those was Lightning Boy and Orlanth took it back.

Both are fire sticks, and as such hand-me-downs from Aether. Perhaps the Thunderbolt was given directly to Umath, but I don't think this goes for the lightning.

34 minutes ago, soltakss said:

It could be that Umath took Lightning and Thunderbolt from Aether Primolt when he took his place in the world, but thunder and lightning seem to be Storm weapons,

They are spears, which points to a sky origin. And you don't catch Vadrus, Valind or Storm Bull wielding any electric shock weaponry. The bull has his deafening roar, though.

 

34 minutes ago, soltakss said:

as well as being very, very frightening to me, to me, to me!.

Nothing really matters...

[Byll]

Thunderdolt? lightning? Easy come, easy go...

[Joerg]

My problem with these impulses to scream "Let me go!" is that I cannot decide whether I am following the text of the Bohemian or the Pelorian Rhapsody here...

http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/songbook/rhapsody.html

[Sir_Godspeed]

Are lightning and thunderbolts separate concepts in Glorantha? I always assume that "thunderbolt" was a poetic name for lightning by referring to it by the sound it makes.

[Joerg]

3 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Are lightning and thunderbolts separate concepts in Glorantha? I always assume that "thunderbolt" was a poetic name for lightning by referring to it by the sound it makes.

As far as I am concerned, yes. The Thunderbolt is indeed the damage done by the sound effect, or in old superstition "when the lightning strikes cold". Lightning is the plasma zap of the Tesla coil, mainly visible, and nerve numbing.

[soltakss]

13 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

Are lightning and thunderbolts separate concepts in Glorantha?

Well, they have different spells, so yes, they are different in Glorantha.

[Kloster]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:05 PM, Joerg said:

My problem with these impulses to scream "Let me go!" is that I cannot decide whether I am following the text of the Bohemian or the Pelorian Rhapsody here...

http://etyries.albionsoft.com/etyries.com/songbook/rhapsody.html

We should ask Al Yankovic to sing Pelorian Polka.

[Joerg]

19 minutes ago, Kloster said:

We should ask Al Yankovic to sing Pelorian Polka.

With the accordeon parts replaced by bagpipes?

[Byll]

@Kloster will you do the fandango?

[Kloster]

(Very very frightening me) Indeed!

[Kloster]

4 hours ago, Joerg said:

With the accordeon parts replaced by bagpipes?

Why note, ehm,  why not?

[Shiningbrow]

On 8/25/2019 at 2:29 AM, Joerg said:

They are spears, which points to a sky origin

Is this supposed to be punny?

[Austin]

On 8/23/2019 at 11:55 AM, Joerg said:

The inclusion of iron is already a concession away from the Bronze Age theme.

There was a little iron running around!

If I recall correctly, Tutankhamun's grave had an iron dagger, and the Hittites had access to some items of iron. My understanding is that Bronze Age humans couldn't really produce the metal, but they could work meteoric iron with some effort. Probably quite a bit less than what Glorantha's got running around, but IIRC there are some iron artifacts from Earth's equivalent cultures.

On 8/23/2019 at 12:13 PM, Joerg said:

On 8/23/2019 at 11:00 AM, soltakss said:

Tin was also a Storm Metal, associated with both Lightning and Thunderbolt. Presumably, when Shargash stole Lightning from Umath, he also stole Tin.

But then, we have the myths how Orlanth stole Lightning (Boy) from Sky.

So, to recap (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

• Tin is Lodril, associated with heat and the warm earth (or warming the earth?)
• Tin might be Aether's ejaculate, associated with Sky
• Tin is lightning, associated with Storm (now that I think back I think Plunder has tin armbands that shoot lightning or something.)

Does Tin ever get a day off?

This is probably too "God-Learner-ey" of me, but ought each metal be associated with one element, or is it coherent within Glorantha for it to have associations among multiple "species" of deity? I know internal contradictions is a thing in how the setting's presented, but there's this deep-down bit in me that says "well in the end it ultimately has to follow A or Not-A".

[Joerg]

2 minutes ago, Crel said:

If I recall correctly, Tutankhamun's grave had an iron dagger, and the Hittites had access to some items of iron. My understanding is that Bronze Age humans couldn't really produce the metal, but they could work meteoric iron with some effort.

Yes. The one equivalent of gods bones our history had, and the amounts were minuscule, fit for godkings only. (A bit like the aluminium in the crown of Napoleon III - hihly valued for the rarity and the skill working it required, at the time.)

2 minutes ago, Crel said:

So, to recap (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

• Tin is Lodril, associated with heat and the warm earth (or warming the earth?)
• Tin might be Aether's ejaculate, associated with Sky
• Tin is lightning, associated with Storm (now that I think back I think Plunder has tin armbands that shoot lightning or something.)

Does Tin ever get a day off?

Tin is the sky metal, not the metal of volcanon boy, or lightning. I have no idea what Lodril's metal would have been prior to his dive into the Earth, or whether he had one distinct from Aether's. The only bones we have are from after his dive. The early earth walkers or the men's tribe of the log didn't leave any bones behind until much later. All the variant Lodrils go asleep or explode as volcanoes.

I don't see tin in any way related to Lightning.

2 minutes ago, Crel said:

This is probably too "God-Learner-ey" of me, but ought each metal be associated with one element, or is it coherent within Glorantha for it to have associations among multiple "species" of deity? I know internal contradictions is a thing in how the setting's presented, but there's this deep-down bit in me that says "well in the end it ultimately has to follow A or Not-A".

Up to tin, each metal is associated with one element. After tin, we get three celestial metals, one of which is an alloy (brass).

Silver is a wide-spread celestial metal, and even Orlanth has a claim to it, as do the very numerous Star Captains, and the moons.

[Ali the Helering]

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10814-019-09129-6

Seemed moderately interesting🤓

[JonL]

I'm just going to leave this right here...

On 7/27/2018 at 2:05 PM, JonL said:

Find below the application of the Law Rune to empower the Movement Rune through the Fire & Air Runes pushing one another back and forth in  opposition:

 

A shaft in the center of the Fire Rune above connects to the center of the Air Rune, embodied thusly:

The Fire Rune wishes to steadily turn from East to West, but the more it does so, the more the Air Rune chafes and resists -  first slowing Fire's pace and eventually rising in outright rebellion as it violently spins the system from West to East.

Because the world is broken and out of balance,  Fire and Air eventually exhaust one another in their struggle, and Movement halts. The Mostali must then reassert the Truth of the proper order of things to re-energize the system:

 

Depending on the metals used in the mechanism and the connected hardware surrounding the system, various effects can be produced. One especially noteworthy implementation involved applying the Movement of the shaft to spin a Death metal rod within coils of meticulously wound Fire metal wire, causing lightning to leap forth from the coil when the Storm Rune rebels and spins Death against Fire.

Magic is often applied symbolism.

 

[Bill the barbarian]

On 8/26/2019 at 7:15 AM, Kloster said:

Why note, ehm,  why not?

I have no idea how I missed those, but it seems you were carrying on in a most PUNishing way without my assistance.

Carry on!

[soltakss]

On 8/27/2019 at 11:20 AM, Joerg said:

I don't see tin in any way related to Lightning.

The Lightning Bands from Plunder are made from tin. There is a Tin Feather in the extended Plunder that gives control of storms or maybe thunder/lightning, I can't remember. in RQ2, Tin was the metal of the Storm Gods and was the metal associated with Storm. 

It changed in RQ3, but I am an RQ2 boy at heart.

[Kloster]

37 minutes ago, soltakss said:

It changed in RQ3, but I am an RQ2 boy at heart.

In RQIII, Orlanth's metal was silver. In RQG, Air/Thunder god's metal is bronze (silver is for lunar gods).

[Joerg]

2 hours ago, soltakss said:

The Lightning Bands from Plunder are made from tin. There is a Tin Feather in the extended Plunder that gives control of storms or maybe thunder/lightning, I can't remember. in RQ2, Tin was the metal of the Storm Gods and was the metal associated with Storm. 

It changed in RQ3, but I am an RQ2 boy at heart.

The RQ2 rules were among the last RQ2 sources I managed to get my hands on. If you started with RQ3 in a non-English-speaking country, getting RQ2 material was quite the quest.

Off my head, the one tin plunder item I can recall was a compass. It pointing towards (or away from) Magasta's Pool made it a useful tool for navigation, as you could get a true east-west bearing from the Sunpath, and knowing the direction of the Pool gave you a radiant from the Pool. Not quite all you need for triangulation, but quite good when you had one of those extraordinary mountains, or objects like the Skyfall, to get a bearing of (unless that object happened to be on the same radiant you were).