Your Dumbest Theory

[AlHazred]

41 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

And it just had to be called “Theya”, didn’t it?

I mean, Theia is the Titan mother of Selene, the Titan of the Moon. What else should they have called it?

[AlHazred]

Also...

Quote

Theia is hypothesized to have orbited in the L₄ or L₅ configuration presented by the Earth–Sun system, where it would tend to remain. In that case, it would have grown, potentially to a size comparable to Mars, with a diameter of about 6,102 kilometres (3,792 miles). Gravitational perturbations by Venus could have eventually put it onto a collision course with the early Earth.

So, this was all caused by Aphrodite? Hmm... That tracks...

[mfbrandi]

I have been hanging out and shooting the breeze (that phrase makes them chuckle a little too much) with the scholars at the Malkioni medical colleges. It soon became clear that their doctors and biologists turn green at the very thought of Ulerian rites. Perhaps it is only coincidence, but they are skeptical of the traditional opposition of Death–Separation and well, what exactly, Life–Union? , they say, is just separation caught in the act, and their textbooks concur:

They are prepared to entertain rival “barbarian” (their word, not mine) theories about the origin of humans “and other beasts” (don’t shoot the messenger), but are firm in their view that returns us to our origins, that it results in a renewed union:

So there you have it. Odd coves. And like all those concerned with the eternal verities, they will probably change their minds tomorrow. I must go stroke my false beard and think this through.

[mfbrandi]

6 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

There are ecstatic — apocalyptic? — western sects who claim that the truth is more like this:

()=
()=

And I believe they generalize this to the origin and destruction of every individual of every form and to every element. The Invisible God, they say, is slowly transforming/absorbing the substance of the world back into Herself.

I am not sure that I prefer this to feeding Cosmos into the maw of Chaos. Some days, Krarsht whispers to me that there is no difference. My false beard itches all the time, now.

[mfbrandi]

He has some reason, else he could not beg.
In the last night's storm I such a fellow saw;
Which made me think a man a worm: my son
Came then into my mind; and yet my mind
Was then scarce friends with him: I have heard more since.
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
— Gloucester

 

Join the cult of Gorakiki. She is the only one on our side.

Edited February 6, 2023 by mfbrandi

[davecake]

On 1/21/2023 at 10:38 PM, mfbrandi said:

On my bad days, I think “imperial Kralorela” is a collective illusion, maintained in a Berkeleyan act of will by scholarly exertion.

I think the most important thing to understand about the Kralorelan Empire is that almost everything about is a carefully maintained lie. 

[scott-martin]

 is to  as  is to 

 

[mfbrandi]

3 hours ago, scott-martin said:

 is to  as  is to 

Hmm, OK … but does this mean that the dragonewts will eat Godunya, or that the broos will give up all their malarkey and get brollies, bowlers, and jobs in the City?

[Ali the Helering]

26 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

the broos will give up all their malarkey and get brollies, bowlers, and jobs in the City?

Does Storm Bull see the moral difference between rape of the individual and the rape of a society?

[John Biles]

1 hour ago, Ali the Helering said:

Does Storm Bull see the moral difference between rape of the individual and the rape of a society?

Storm Bull wouldn't understand systematic oppression if you told him for a thousand years.

If you can't fix it by direct, personal violence, he's not interested.

[Erol of Backford]

22 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Does Storm Bull see the moral difference between rape of the individual and the rape of a society?

If a broo is illuminated, well groomed, fur trimmed nicely, bathed, scented of lavender, living in say Beast Valley and contributing to the betterment of the greater good therein, would Storm Bull's still want to kill them if they didn't register as chaotic?

What if they and their illuminated friends somehow joined Storm Bull and then went to Prax and visited the Block?

I see some really interesting scenarios coming out of this... What was the name of the broo healer in the Wastes?

[Qizilbashwoman]

1 hour ago, Erol of Backford said:

If a broo is illuminated, well groomed, fur trimmed nicely, bathed, scented of lavender, living in say Beast Valley and contributing to the betterment of the greater good therein, would Storm Bull's still want to kill them if they didn't register as chaotic?

What if they and their illuminated friends somehow joined Storm Bull and then went to Prax and visited the Block?

I see some really interesting scenarios coming out of this... What was the name of the broo healer in the Wastes?

I mean the answer to this is "depends on your game", but enlightened or not, if you are chaotic they smoosh you. Also, Illumination doesn't make you automatically safe from Chaos detection.

There's only one canonical broo without a Chaos rune; they'd likely be really confused about what to do with him

[Eff]

1 hour ago, Erol of Backford said:

If a broo is illuminated, well groomed, fur trimmed nicely, bathed, scented of lavender, living in say Beast Valley and contributing to the betterment of the greater good therein, would Storm Bull's still want to kill them if they didn't register as chaotic?

What if they and their illuminated friends somehow joined Storm Bull and then went to Prax and visited the Block?

I see some really interesting scenarios coming out of this... What was the name of the broo healer in the Wastes?

Based on Cults of Terror, yes, Storm Bulls are encouraged to be murderous unthinking fanatics and it's only enlightenment/illumination which grants them the capacity to not be that. Which is interestingly like how Chaotic entities and their subjective perspective are described. 

[John Biles]

3 hours ago, Eff said:

Based on Cults of Terror, yes, Storm Bulls are encouraged to be murderous unthinking fanatics and it's only enlightenment/illumination which grants them the capacity to not be that. Which is interestingly like how Chaotic entities and their subjective perspective are described. 

When you gaze into the Abyss...

 

[PhilHibbs]

On 2/8/2023 at 8:40 PM, Erol of Backford said:

If a broo is illuminated, well groomed, fur trimmed nicely, bathed, scented of lavender, living in say Beast Valley and contributing to the betterment of the greater good therein, would Storm Bull's still want to kill them if they didn't register as chaotic?

What if they and their illuminated friends somehow joined Storm Bull and then went to Prax and visited the Block?

"That's clearly not a broo. He's just one of the beast-folk."

[Qizilbashwoman]

40 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

"That's clearly not a broo. He's just one of the beast-folk."

broo are beastfolk! they're just corrupted entirely.

[mfbrandi]

On 2/9/2023 at 1:25 AM, John Biles said:

When you gaze into the Abyss...

A lightbulb goes on above your head and you’re three feet high and rising.

Storm Bullys may fight with monsters — becoming monsters if they weren’t already — but I wonder how much time they spend staring into the abyss and letting the abyss stare into them. That’s a hobby for the more reflective of the Humakti, no?

[mfbrandi]

3 hours ago, Qizilbashwoman said:

broo are … corrupted entirely.

I say, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Are they any worse than parasitoid wasps or fungi? Than humans who eat their herd beasts?

(I have always assumed that they gained their life cycle via retcon after the RQ authors (Sandy?) had seen Alien, but that is just an assumption — was it there in the really early, pre-Alien material?)

[Qizilbashwoman]

19 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

I say, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Are they any worse than parasitoid wasps or fungi? Than humans who eat their herd beasts?

(I have always assumed that they gained their life cycle via retcon after the RQ authors (Sandy?) had seen Alien, but that is just an assumption — was it there in the really early, pre-Alien material?)

they literally are chaos beasts was my point

[Joerg]

On 2/10/2023 at 6:46 PM, mfbrandi said:

(I have always assumed that they gained their life cycle via retcon after the RQ authors (Sandy?) had seen Alien, but that is just an assumption — was it there in the really early, pre-Alien material?)

The first movie was published in 1979, Borderlands (with the long Broo write-up bringing up the life cycle and differentiating between Wild and Feral Broos) debuted in 1982. 

Broo sodomy was already mentioned in Nomad Gods, the first appearance of these nasties, well before the movie.

[Qizilbashwoman]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Broo sodomy was already mentioned in Nomad Gods

I somehow started with this line and I salute your scholarship

[Erol of Backford]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:57 PM, Qizilbashwoman said:

Illumination doesn't make you automatically safe from Chaos detection.

So you'd still register as chaotic?

[mfbrandi]

On 2/11/2023 at 10:31 PM, Joerg said:

Broo sodomy was already mentioned in Nomad Gods, the first appearance of these nasties, well before the movie.

But in rehabilitate the cuddly goat people mode — remember the thread we are in — we can take this from Nomad Gods:

Quote

It is known that they … engage in sodomistic practices with Emissaries who fail to impress them.

… as indicating that if the diplomatic mission didn’t work out, they would consider themselves remiss in their duties as hosts not to at least offer sex so that the visit wasn’t a complete washout. Imagine them as characters out of Chip Delany’s The Mad Man. Arguably, any sexual contact between broo and human would count as sodomy.

Spoiler

sodomy, noncoital carnal copulation. The term is understood in history, literature, and law in several senses: (1) as denoting any homosexual practices between men, in allusion to the biblical story of Sodom (Genesis 18:19), (2) as denoting anal intercourse, (3) as synonymous with bestiality or zoophilia (i.e., sexual relations between human beings and animals), and (4) as comprehending a number of other sexual activities, ranging from sexual contacts with minors to oral-genital contacts and oral intercourse between adults.

Even taking an as intended look at the broos, this:

Quote

The contact [with the Three-bean Circus] … leads to a particular revelation for the Broos which leaves them in a pool of helpless self-loathing

… suggests that they may be a degree more morally sophisticated than Orlanth. 😉

[Qizilbashwoman]

honestly the Three Bean Circus is somehow the queerest part of Glorantha, even though I have no idea why

[Darius West]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:16 AM, Ali the Helering said:

Does Storm Bull see the moral difference between rape of the individual and the rape of a society?

I'm not sure how many Uroxi really even understand the niceties of consent half the time.