Your Dumbest Theory

[JRE]

I would say it is an artifact of the Tarsh Civil War. Others will know better, but as some events were already sketched in Dragon Pass history beyond what was (is) present time in Runequest, those events make ripples in the past.

If the Fazzurites are a credible menace for the Tarsh Lunar monarchy (with the legitimacy in the Empire of being descended from Hon Eel, and later on Jar Eel), you need Fazzur to be smart, popular and with no big reverse that would justify the king sacking him. Ergo, Fazzur is untouchable because the civil war needs to happen. As it is upon us, it is no longer so important, and we can have him being less brilliant in Esrolia, as his position is secure for 1627. 

[metcalph]

6 hours ago, Leingod said:

EDIT: Note, though, that I'm talking about the impression of Fazzur and his deeds that I personally got throughout my readings; I'm not saying that at no point in the entire Gloranthan corpus is there any point in which Fazzur loses a fight "legit" or just makes the wrong call and pays for it with no face-saving or blame-shifting.

I did once have the theory that Fazzur as second in command of the invasion of Prax quarrelled with Sor-eel and was forced to retire.  When he came out of retirement and became Governor-General, he repaid Sor-eel by starving him of reinforcements and denying him lucrative promotions.  

But in the material published since then, they are best of friends, alas.

[Eff]

8 hours ago, Leingod said:

This is a pretty minor thing and probably something that's been elaborated on by someone somewhere here, but there was always something about the portrayal of Fazzur Wideread in most of the material I'd seen that always kind of bothered me. Namely, it felt like he had a bit of "Not Allowed To Lose" Syndrome, which is what I like to call it when a writer never lets a certain character actually fail or lose at anything without some extenuating circumstance to explain that it wasn't that character's fault.

It felt to me like Fazzur was never allowed to lose a battle outright, it always had to be someone else who screwed up. Whenever the Sartarites or anyone else win against him, it's not because they outsmarted or outfought Fazzur or outdid him at anything, it's because the Lunars replaced Fazzur with some idiot for political reasons, or because Fazzur's nephew is afraid of his power and Fazzur has to quit the field to go deal with that, and he'd probably have won and kept on winning otherwise.

Now, it's one thing for a character to just be Alexander the Great come again and they're just the best ever at fighting wars, but IMO, when every setback comes with a convenient excuse for how it had nothing to do with them? It tends to get on my nerves a little.

But, then I re-contextualized it as essentially in-universe propaganda (albeit happening backwards in time from when it would have been pushed for). Fazzur's descendants became valuable allies of Argrath, so in addition to downplaying the accomplishments of Sartarite leaders before Argrath (i.e. Kallyr) by making them seem totally helpless to beat Fazzur without the Lunars tying his hands behind his back for them, you also get to flatter those allies. And of course since Fazzur was also someone who was widely respected even by the Sartarites, they won't object to this kind of portrayal, either, and may even claim it as a sort of point of pride and claim he was the only reason the Lunars were ever so successful against them.

EDIT: Note, though, that I'm talking about the impression of Fazzur and his deeds that I personally got throughout my readings; I'm not saying that at no point in the entire Gloranthan corpus is there any point in which Fazzur loses a fight "legit" or just makes the wrong call and pays for it with no face-saving or blame-shifting.

Read this in concert with Fazzur being the architect of the Duck Hunt, and it seems rather interesting for him to end up so exalted, doesn't it? 

[PhilHibbs]

The Great Dragon Project failed because a Durulz joined the EWF. Therefore the dragon could not fly due to the Curse of Flightlessness. Too much duck in it.

[scott-martin]

2 hours ago, Eff said:

Read this in concert with Fazzur being the architect of the Duck Hunt, and it seems rather interesting for him to end up so exalted, doesn't it? 

A backroom bargain with the Necromancer would indeed explain his supernatural expertise and create a model for exotic diplomacy later in the hero wars.

[MOB]

15 hours ago, metcalph said:

But in the material published since then, they are best of friends, alas.

Are they the best of friends or "the best of friends" though?

[scott-martin]

OPEN MOSTAL
10 GET $DWARF
11 $MOSTAL = "MORTAL"+1
12 IF $MOSTAL>65312 THEN 20
13 GOTO 11
20 IF $DWARF = "MORTAL" GOTO 60
30 PRINT "EGREGORIC ENTITY OBSERVED"
40 PRINT "MOSTALI (LITTLE MACHINE)
50 $MOSTAL=$DWARF
55 GOTO 10
60 PRINT "JUSTADWARF"
SAVE MOSTAL
RENAME MOSTAL, MOSTALI
BYE

Edited September 13, 2022 by scott-martin
"humor"

[scott-martin]

ISIDILIAN'S DREAM

 

[scott-martin]

"Arolanit" is less a fixed geographical locale than it is a technical term for a type of cosmic beachhead or metastatic infection. While the familiar one seen on the Guide historical maps has been relatively persistent, its hold on that region hasn't been uninterrupted. And it isn't the only Arolanit either.

[svensson]

"'Experience' is what you get, when you don't get what you want....'

-- Randolph Pausch

"'Adventure' is somebody else in deep shit far, far away from your comfy chair."

-- Raj Whitehall [Dave Drake and SM Stirling]

"If 'ignorance is bliss', why are there so many pissed off stupid people out there?"

-- George Carlin

And the one true 'words of wisdom' phrase that I can honestly say I came up with:

"Remember that on any given day YOU are the idiot ruining somebody else's day. Just because you're a genius doesn't mean you can't be stupid. Stay humble."

[svensson]

Another 'pride goeth before the fall' comment from your faithful correspondent:

"The problem with the moral high ground is that it lets everybody see the dog shit on your shoes. Acting like you're better than other people makes those other people work pretty hard to find the dirt on you."

Edited September 30, 2022 by svensson

[JRE]

4 hours ago, scott-martin said:

"Arolanit" is less a fixed geographical locale than it is a technical term for a type of cosmic beachhead or metastatic infection. While the familiar one seen on the Guide historical maps has been relatively persistent, its hold on that region hasn't been uninterrupted. And it isn't the only Arolanit either.

"Rational" could be the winner in the Fourth Age, after the Abiding Book effort got dispersed in all the God Learner experiments in the Second Age. You could say it is how Zzabur tries to remake Glorantha's mythic landscape without leaving the safety of Brithos. So each time Rationalism raises its head, Arolanit is setting its hooks.

Like a reversed Carcosa, it can strike anywhere you have people with the right mental state.

[svensson]

"If you're supposed to 'always look before you leap', how come 'he who hesitates is lost'? I'm just pointing out that grandma may have been as full of shit as your drinking buddies."

-- George Carlin

[jajagappa]

9 hours ago, JRE said:

"Rational"

13 hours ago, scott-martin said:

"Arolanit" is less a fixed geographical locale than it is a technical term for a type of cosmic beachhead or metastatic infection

It had not struck me before that "Arolanit" is simply a rearrangement of the sacred symbols of logic, i.e. "Rational".... But that must mean that Arolanit is particularly vulnerable to further rearrangement or removal of its sacred symbols (e.g. when the symbols are recast as "Notrail" or perhaps "Notrial") - and when that happens the whole kingdom falls asunder.

Edited September 30, 2022 by jajagappa

[Erol of Backford]

Lhankor Mhy, observed that the difference between sorcery and divinity is that divinity has its limits?

[Erol of Backford]

but even the nobles of the Holy Country prize the finest Imtherian cheeses with their fine marbled veins and many flavors, and leave the local offerings to the farmers

Belintar was poisoned by Imtherian cheese.

[AlHazred]

2 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

This is all good. The Sun see its own shadow? You wouldn’t think it could. It would take something very bright to make it cast one. But in a mystery cult, we can certainly have the cult secret of Light/the Sun casting its own Shadow. In a different context, I proposed this glyph:

… and that will do for the Sun floating above its own shadow, and for something to be chalked on walls by the weirder Invisible Orlanth cultists. Turn it on its side, and we get:

“I” for the Invisible Shadow (and Idovanus) and “O” for Orlanatus (who like Mithras is and is not the Sun) — Deus Sol Invictus Orlanatus! You cannot separate Caster and Shadow, because we are all us (and all One and all Zero). Be careful how you play with the elements of that glyph.

Which is similar to an older symbol for IO Interactive, who make the Hitman series of games, which are about the surgical use of Death, by a character who does not know his own history, i.e. has severed social ties. Invisible Orlanth is basically Humakt!

Edited October 31, 2022 by AlHazred

[mfbrandi]

40 minutes ago, AlHazred said:

Invisible Orlanth is basically Humakt!

Well, they are “brothers”, early users of Eurmal’s toy, and IMG shorn of the Air rune. Humakt is the ultimate extinction that comes to mortals and gods — a bit like Kajabor. IO and Humakt both seem to be illuminated. So far not such a dumb theory (not in my crazy world): you could see the “sons” of Umath as being like the “daughters” of Earth, who — sometimes at least — are their “mother”. IO’s picnic on the bull’s skin can be seen as like Humakt’s rejection of his Storm heritage. Of course, IO is poor dead Urox, too, for Creation is Utuma.

Some IO cultists might not be so down on the undead as Humakt’s crowd, seeing them a liminal figures and expressions of the balance. Of course, one imagines Urox is cool with that, seeing as his besty is a Fire/Shadow commander of zombies.

[Eff]

The Red Goddess disclaimed any connection with Dendara to Valare Addi because she got a glimpse of a certain document which equated Dendara with preservation and decided to get out ahead of anyone claiming that she was just the 9th avatar of Dendara, before the final, 10th Kalki/Chakravartin avatar who will arrive on a white horse to end the current Glorantha so that a new one can be created. 

Secondarily, Valare Addi misheard "Shakyamuni" terribly when Sedenya explained it all to her and started a brief dance craze on the Red Moon. 

[Nick Brooke]

(a white steed, certainly)

[mfbrandi]

Around Carmania there are posters bearing the likeness of Aleister Crowley: “Have you seen this magus? Cash reward for information leading to capture”.

IO cultists have been scrawling “Every person and every unperson is the Sun” across them.

When I saw Aleister, I asked him, and he assured me that he was indeed invisible, straightened his pointy hat, pulled his cloak about him, and swanned off.

[davecake]

Invisible Orlanth is a mad and arrogant Carmanian mystic deciding that he is going to take the power of the Storm away from that annoying hill barbarian god, just like Lokamayadon did with his TarUmath cult, but he’s going to trick them into it this time. Just got to sell the idea to the Empire. 

[scott-martin]

14 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

When I saw Aleister, I asked him, and he assured me that he was indeed invisible, straightened his pointy hat, pulled his cloak about him, and swanned off.

One of my favorite things about this character is that a very young Peter Brook remembered him pulling a very similar routine around Piccadilly in the early '40s and either he used the right LARP signals or it worked, endearing them both to me forever in the process. 

Dumb theory: increasingly captivated by Hrestol's father being something like what we would call a "tiger brother." This is how he fell and why relations with the other cat people of the region started well and turned sour. It's complicated but has sprawling implications for Rikard's millenarian cult as the hero wars erupt. Also the vithelan character "hsa" (夏) is "coincidentally" pronounced something like a native Welsh speaker would approach it.

[scott-martin]

Double Down Dumb:

This is where the lightbringer diaspora comes from, one way or another.

[mfbrandi]

1 hour ago, scott-martin said:

One of my favorite things about this character is that a very young Peter Brook remembered him pulling a very similar routine around Piccadilly in the early '40s

I cribbed it from my memory of a piece by Avram Davidson (“The Great Rough Beast”), but on checking, he in turn had nicked it from some unspecified and unspecific source, but Regent Street is certainly “around Piccadilly”:

Quote

When he finally returned to London, it was to give rise to stories like this: “… on some unspecified occasion, when the Cafe Royale in Regent Street was packed with diners, the figure of a man attired in long and ornamental robes and wearing the conical and starred hat of the traditional wizard, had entered the Cafe, gliding noiselessly among the tables and so departing. This figure … was Aleister Crowley, believing himself to be invisible … [to] the astonished spectators …” all of whom, being proper Britishers, must indeed certainly have looked right through him!

When my mother was very young, she knew a “very ugly old woman with the sweetest nature; we called her ‘Pearly Girl’” who had — she said — known AC and had nothing good to say about him. I wasn’t sure that my mother’s friend really had known Crowley — surely everyone of the right age had a Crowley story — so I was surprised many years later to learn of AC’s “scarlet woman” (Evelyn) Pearl Brooksmith. Seems it was true, after all, but the stories she could have told were presumably deemed unfit for my mother’s young ears.

AC seemed a good fit for IO: invisible and the author of rotten poetry. Does that mean we have to audition Yeats as Yelm? Yikes!