Your Dumbest Theory

[Eff]

9 minutes ago, scott-martin said:

This needs its own thread and ultimately extended development. 

In My Glorantha there was always a strand of primeval mostal influence within human Jrustelan history. It has simply been hidden in the fragmentary records that survive. (Urtiam, etc.)

Theories relating Blue Zz-b-r Magic (historically adroit at shattering or sinking lands) to the Purple Luatha Project especially welcome. Who is the natural enemy in this? The dwarf. And also the altinelan.

 

The interesting question is synchronizing Timinits with the Mostali conspiracy- were they coopted by one side or the other as an attempted means of infiltration? Are they, a regimented family of semi-intelligent Darkness creatures, somehow a product of efforts to rationalize the Dark by the Mostali or the Middle Sea Empire? Or did leakage from ZZBR magic open their ancestors up to the way to potential reunification with MLKN? (Obviously there's a long way to go.)

[scott-martin]

33 minutes ago, Eff said:

Timinits

My Dumbest Theory around them is that they're the draconic power of the true (magnetic!) West. In the tragicomic fullness of time they tried many things, made and broke many alliances (including a super weird "marriage" with the jelmre) and the Western Wars will determine the ultimate blah blah.

[metcalph]

The dwarves of Mostal's Graveyard (in the Tunnelled Hills) worship Krarsht whom they call "Our Lady of Spikey Bits". 

Their assassins have been seen in both the East and the West posing as ugly children. 

[Joerg]

The end of Jrustela may be connected with the first return of Waertagi from Hell after fleeing into Magasta's Pool. Releasing the collective destructive magic of their race did not free them from Zzabur's curse of the Closing, though, so either those first returnees perished in the destruction of Jrustela along with the human population of that place, or they took another descent into the Maelstrom to emerge a few decades after the Opening, or perhaps triggered by the return of the Boat Planet.

[Brootse]

Open Seas is Lie spell targeted at Magasta.

[coffeemancer]

Humakt is just Eurmal after he discovered death

[Akhôrahil]

"I fought, we won" is a mistranscription. The original was "I thought we won".

[Leingod]

The words "Bright" and "Blight" sound even more similar in the dialect spoken by the Sartarites than they do in English. Clever poets and singers (of which the Sartarites have many) make full use of this and other similar features of their language and pronunciation to call Tatius bad names in a way that goes over the heads of anyone who isn't actually fluent in it. Many of these - though the ones coming up with them don't know it - were also used in the days of Nysalor.

This idea comes from me misreading Tatius the Bright as Tatius the Blight the first time I came across him, and then deciding that it's exactly the kind of swap a rebellious Sartarite would make.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Leingod

[Tindalos]

The entire Windstop was actually accidental on the Lunar's part, and they just claimed credit for it. 

Turns out Broyan, in doing the whole Vingkotling kingship thing, had been drawn into the mythical role of Orlanth. When the Lunars opposed him, they increased the mythic resonance around him, increasing the certainty of that role. 

Then when Whitewall fell, and Broyan and his supporters escaped, they did so via the Underworld. 

At which point, the universe, seeing Broyan and Orlanth as the same, went "Orlanth is dead!" And assumed the Great Darkness was happening, creating the Windstop. 

[coffeemancer]

21 hours ago, Tindalos said:

The entire Windstop was actually accidental on the Lunar's part, and they just claimed credit for it. 

Turns out Broyan, in doing the whole Vingkotling kingship thing, had been drawn into the mythical role of Orlanth. When the Lunars opposed him, they increased the mythic resonance around him, increasing the certainty of that role. 

Then when Whitewall fell, and Broyan and his supporters escaped, they did so via the Underworld. 

At which point, the universe, seeing Broyan and Orlanth as the same, went "Orlanth is dead!" And assumed the Great Darkness was happening, creating the Windstop. 

I buy this

[MOB]

Jiminy Cricket! Are allied spirits a divine gift or a soul-crushing existential burden?

No wonder Rune Lords come across as living embodiments of their gods – "blessed" with a permanent mind link connection, their allied spirits are forever a palpable inside voice in their heads, always reminding, scolding, and tut-tutting. And ever-ready to rat on them to the Spirits of Reprisal if they don't toe the line.

It's also no wonder shadow cats are Wind Lords' preferred allied spirit host; after all, they sleep 18 hours a day...

Edited December 31, 2020 by MOB

[Leingod]

It's well known that in Pavis, Lunar soldiers and administrators call a crappy posting no one wants that's used as a punishment is called a "Corflu job." What many don't know is that this is merely one end-point of a virtual road network of similar colloquialisms, spreading out from the Heartlands. In Sartar, such a posting is a "Pavis job," while in Tarsh it's a "Sartar job." Meanwhile, over in Sylila, the ending of a similar network is that the Lunars there call that kind of punishment an "Elkoi job." And with each new conquest the Lunars make, a new term for a crappy posting that no one in a different area wants is born, as the chain gets another link.

And thus, the true recipe for the Lunar Empire's success has nothing to do with its magics or its administration, but that, whether by sheer brilliance or happy accident, the Lunars have created happiness and contentment among their populace by making a situation where almost all of them can look over somewhere else and say, "Whew, glad I don't have to live there. I better be a good citizen to make sure it stays that way."

[Eff]

It is well-known and well-understood that many great magical events in Myth and Time are the result of many people working independently yet together in a kind of stand alone complex. It is also known and understood that there are crossover points where different myths collide and different pathways taken between the myths. 

What is not understood, except by the Arkati guardians, is that these I Fought We Won events are naturally massive crossroads. And so, we can understand why there was no ritual reenactment of the Kalikos Icebreaker quest as part of Sacred Time before the Lunars- because who else is known for breaking the Ice? Zzabur. Carrying out this quest means having a cavalier attitude towards the very likely possibility of temporarily inhabiting the shape of Zzabur, a possibility it boggles the mind to contemplate. In addition, of course, Zzabur was a somewhat interventionist presence in the Middle World until the disappearance of Brithos, so he, Zzabur, may well have reacted unkindly to such intrusions upon his definitely-not-a-godhead. 

[jajagappa]

53 minutes ago, Leingod said:

Meanwhile, over in Sylila, the ending of a similar network is that the Lunars there call that kind of punishment an "Elkoi job."

I think this is the Mirin's Cross punishment designation.  The Sylilan network, I'm sure points west - there's the "Talastar job", and for the really unlucky there's the "Dorastor job".  😉

[MOB]

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

and for the really unlucky there's the "Dorastor job".  😉

Ha! I was just coming here to say that...

There is one worse job though, even worse than being posted to Dorastor, and that being sent to serve wherever the Bat happens to be. 

 

[soltakss]

7 hours ago, MOB said:

15 hours ago, jajagappa said:

and for the really unlucky there's the "Dorastor job".  😉

Ha! I was just coming here to say that...

There is one worse job though, even worse than being posted to Dorastor, and that being sent to serve wherever the Bat happens to be. 

Meh, Dorastor isn't that bad ...

[Nick Brooke]

10 hours ago, MOB said:

There is one worse job though, even worse than being posted to Dorastor, and that being sent to serve wherever the Bat happens to be. 

Ahem. Diplomatic emissary to the Ivory Plinth.

[RobNic]

2 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Ahem. Diplomatic emissary to the Ivory Plinth.

I'll see you and raise you, escort to emissary to Delecti

[Joerg]

6 hours ago, RobNic said:

I'll see you and raise you, escort to emissary to Delecti

Liaison officer to Gagix Twobarb The one held in her arms...

[Nick Brooke]

Hmm. Slowly tortured to death (Bloody Tusk), vs. clinically killed w/ subsequent corpse antics (Delecti) / utterly annihilated by an irresistible force (Crimson Bat). Let me think about this one...

[Brootse]

23 hours ago, MOB said:

Ha! I was just coming here to say that...

There is one worse job though, even worse than being posted to Dorastor, and that being sent to serve wherever the Bat happens to be. 

 

You mean where the PCs are.

[Eff]

2 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Hmm. Slowly tortured to death (Bloody Tusk), vs. clinically killed w/ subsequent corpse antics (Delecti) / utterly annihilated by an irresistible force (Crimson Bat). Let me think about this one...

The secret fourth option: listening to interminable before-dinner speeches, dinner monologues, and after-dinner lectures with slides (Ethilrist). 

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Hmm. Slowly tortured to death (Bloody Tusk), vs. clinically killed w/ subsequent corpse antics (Delecti) / utterly annihilated by an irresistible force (Crimson Bat). Let me think about this one...

And ritually devoured and reborn as a scorpionman, while still remembering (perhaps) something of your prior life.

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, Eff said:

The secret fourth option: listening to interminable before-dinner speeches, dinner monologues, and after-dinner lectures with slides (Ethilrist).

Maybe you'll get to hear him read from Volume I, Sir Ethilrist’s genealogy, going back some fourteen generations and including over 40,000 named individuals.

[soltakss]

6 hours ago, jajagappa said:

And ritually devoured and reborn as a scorpionman, while still remembering (perhaps) something of your prior life.

Yay! An extra attack!